June 29, 2026
Introduction: America 250 Celebration – Melissa Davenport Berry writes about James Lemmon, who served with George Washington as a boy and was later photographed. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Illustration credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
On 4 July 1858, James Lemmon, a patriot of the American Revolution, died at the age of 89.
Ninety years later, on 4 July 1948, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and Lemmon’s descendants gathered at his resting place to honor this Revolutionary War soldier who also served in the War of 1812 and the Texas War for Independence.
James is buried in Edgewood Cemetery in Lancaster, Texas.
The Dallas Morning News covered the event.
This article reports:
Independence Day held special significance Monday for a quiet group who met at Lancaster’s Edgewood Cemetery to honor James Lemmon, soldier of the American Revolution and Texas pioneer. He is one of the six Revolutionary soldiers buried in Texas and the only one buried in Dallas County.
Lemmon’s great-great-granddaughter, Miss Jaime Hess [Pippen] of 5825½ Victor, retold his life story [daughter of Judge Charles Andrew Pippen and Margaret Abigail (Smith) Pippen]. She said Lemmon, at the age of twelve, carried orders from Gen. George Washington’s camp to his father [Captain Robert Lemmon] and two uncles, all captains [John and James Lemmon]. Later he served as a private in the Virginia line of the Continental Army. He saw the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
In 1786 young James and his family immigrated to Kentucky where he later married [to Sarah Carr in 1799]. In 1815, after the death of his wife, he moved to Indiana with his children. He married again [to Amy Rawlins] and in 1834 the family moved to Green County, Ill. Eleven years later, at the age of eighty, James Lemmon moved to Peters Colony in the Republic of Texas.
Lemmon saw the Texas Republic become one of the United States. He died July 4, 1858, at his home three miles below Lancaster on the Dallas-Ellis County line.
A plaque was presented at Monday ceremonies by the Jane Douglas Chapter of the Dallas Daughters of the American Revolution. Miss Marie Garlington gave Lemmon’s Revolutionary War record. Mrs. Frederick Schenkenberg described life in the new Republic of Texas.
A wreath, shaped in the form of a United States flag, was presented by Miss Jeanne Wellborn for the DAR chapter.
Note: the plaque was replaced on 19 March 2023. Below is a photo.
Another newspaper clip tells more of his story.
This article reports:
James Lemmon grew up on resentment. When he was five people talked of five Bostonians killed by Red Coats who had been quartered among them [the Boston Massacre].
When he was eight, nearby Baltimore forced the captain of the “Peggy Stewart” to burn his ship and tea cargo.
[The Peggy Stewart was a Maryland cargo vessel burned on 19 October 1774 in Annapolis as a punishment for contravening the boycott on tea imports which had been imposed in retaliation for the British occupation of Boston following the Boston Tea Party. This event became known as the “Annapolis Tea Party.”]
A great deal [of the time] he heard mentioned George, George, George – George Washington. Then when he was ten war was declared and their George Washington was put in command.
Father Robert Lemmon was made a captain of Maryland militia, Uncle John Lemmon was made a captain in the Virginia militia, and young James fretted. When could he go to war? He was big for his age, like all Lemmons.
In 1777 when he was twelve, he went with “Uncle George” when George Washington needed friends. He [George Washington] had been driven back through New Jersey where colonists refused to sell to his hungry ragamuffins the beeves [cattle] they kept for [the] pursuing General Howe. At Brandywine, Capt. John Lemmon was killed. Howe then captured Philadelphia, where during the winter of 1777-78 the British were dined by the Tories while Washington’s tatterdemalion crew starved at Valley Forge.
James Lemmon, according to his great-great-granddaughter, Miss Jaime Hess [Pippen] of 5825½ Victor, lived and starved with “Uncle George” and was a messenger between the commander and other colonial forces. It was safer for a boy than a man and all loyal men were desperately needed.
But in a year a tall boy became tall enough to handle a rifle, and James Lemmon became a private in Capt. George Wall’s company [in the] 4th Virginia Regiment. Later he served under men who harried Cornwallis in the low countries, Col. William Harden and Gen. Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox.
When Cornwallis had been trimmed down to size, had been hemmed up on a narrow peninsula and the French fleet sailed up to his rear and Washington and Lafayette attacked in front, James Lemmon was there. And no one was happier when Cornwallis surrendered and his “Uncle George” was vindicated.
In December 1783, James Lemmon was paid 19 pounds, 11 shillings and 8 pence by one Mr. Hunter for his war services. Three years later his father took his family to another new land, one the Indians called Kentucke, meaning bloody ground. The Lemmons there carved another farm out of a wilderness.
Around 1800 James Lemmon married Sarah Carr and pushed on into new Indiana where he cleared another farm and helped bring civilization. Three boys of the seven children borne by Sarah Carr Lemmon were named: John for his uncle; Washington for his hero; Hardin for his colonel.
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Note on the header image: “The Spirit of ’76,” by Archibald Willard. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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