Submitted by Kathy Ericson

Prior to 1860
LEMMON FAMILY HISTORY
by Miss Era Lemmon, Marshall Texas
(written about 1953)

"When Isaac Lemmon was 19 years old his father sent him to Missouri to learn all he could about the settlement of Texas under the terms granted to Moses and StephenF. austin. At that time Mexico had decided to discontinue the Empresrio system of settlement in Texas so he returned to his home in Tennessee."

"In the latter part of 1835 or early in 1836, when trouble began between the Texas colonists and Mexico, Isaac and Grundy Lemmon (and perhaps Thomas) came to Texas to help Sam Houston who had collected a band of adventure and freedom minded men from Tennessee and adjoining states who wanted to free Texas from Mexico."

"At the time of the fall of the Alamo, Gen. Houston had sent Isaac on a mule to try to get recruits from all settlements North and East around Nacogdoches. Aunt Ruth supposed that he and the men who volunteered
joined Houston and fought until Independence was won April 21, 1836. She knew that he knew Gen. Houston, James Bowie and David Crockett personally -- likely before they ever came to Texas."

"During the early days of the Republic Isaac and Grundy helped fight Indians in and around Nacogdoches. I know the two brothers were still here when Pres. Lamar's administration ended in 1841 and Pres. Houston
began his second term. He was a friend to the Indians and had the warfare against them discontinued."

"Isaac and Grundy returned to Tennessee or Missouri some time around this date and both married in or near Springfield. Isaac and Miss Sarah Josephine Leeper married July 9, 1845, and Grundy married Miss Adeline Asher about that time. Then in the latter part of 1846 or early 1847 both brothers accompanied by the parents of Adeline, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Asher, returned to Texas and settled near Nacogdoches where they lived only a year or two then moved to Cass County where they bought adjoining tracts of land, 9 acres of which they deeded for church, cemetery, and school purposes in 1851, and the church celebrated its centennial Aug., 26, 1951."

"Both brothers were farmers and slave owners and horse raisers and traders. The farms today belong to their grandchildren and great grandchildren."

"During the Civil War Grundy served as Captain in the Confederacy. Isaac was asked to stay home and see that the slaves behaved properly and to keep the soldiers informed of any bushwhacker fighting and so forth."

"Isaac and Sarah had eleven children, 3 boys and 8 girls, one girl dying in infancy. One son and one daughter never married. The other two sons and six daughters married and had 43 children, 32 living to date. Three
of that number are not married, and of that number only four have no children. There are only two male great grandchildren of Isaac. They are the sons of Joe Bailey Lemmon, Sr. who was the only son of Willis Leeper
Lemmon."

"Grundy and Adeline had 6 sons and 2 daughters, one of them dying very young. The other married and had 5 daughters. The five sons married, only two had one child each, the others had six or seven each, more boys than girls."