George E. Lemmon Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1169-1170 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				GEORGE E. LEMMON

	The history of the west is a familiar story to George E. Lemmon. 
A native of Utah, he has spent much of his life on the frontier and was 
the founder of the town of Lemmon, in which he now makes his home. He 
was born at Bountiful, forty miles from Salt Lake City, May 23, 1857, a 
son of James H. and Lucy E. (Whittemore) Lemmon, who were natives of 
Ohio and Illinois respectively. They were married in Marengo, in the 
latter state, and soon afterward went to California. The father had 
made the trip to the Pacific coast in 1847, before gold was discovered, 
in the second emigrant train to cross the plains, and was engaged in 
merchandising, in freighting and in various other enterprises. He also 
participated in the Oregon Indian war from the start to the finish. 
Returning to Illinois in 1852, he was married and with his bride again 
made the trip to the far west. Their first child, Hervey, was born in 
an emigrant wagon when they were crossing the plains. Mr. Lemmon took 
with him a herd of thoroughbred Durham cattle, and being held up by the 
winter weather in Utah, he bought a farm at what was then Grantsville 
but is now Bountiful. There the family lived for six years and it was 
during that period that the birth of George E. Lemmon occurred. The 
following spring the father continued the trip to California with his 
freighting outfit of fifteen or twenty wagons and after spending that 
summer and the following winter in California returned to Utah, where 
he lived until 1859, when he removed to the vicinity of the present 
site of Hastings, Nebraska, and established a stage station at that 
point. In 1866-1867-1868 he was one of the sub-contractors engaged in 
building the Union Pacific Railroad through Ogden, Utah, to the 
vicinity of Salt Lake City. He died at his home in Nebraska in 1903, 
having long survived his wife, who passed away in 1875. He was always 
prominently identified with live-stock interests, raising, buying and 
selling cattle and horses on an extensive scale. He was also a well 
read man and one of considerable influence in the community in which he 
lived. 

	George E. Lemmon was reared on the plains and was educated in the 
public schools of the different localities in which the family home was 
maintained. In 1870 he was in the employ of J. W. Iliff, the cattle 
king of Wyoming, and in 1877, before reaching his twentieth birthday, 
he purchased his first bunch of cattle and his connection with the 
cattle business has been continuous, while the growth of his business 
has made him one of the prominent cattle men of the western country. 
For three years he resided at Ogallala, Nebraska, and in 1880 removed 
to Buffalo Gap, in the Black Hills district of South Dakota, within 
twenty five miles of the Bad Lands. He transferred the base of his 
operations to the Moreau river in South Dakota in 1888 and thence went 
to the Grand river in 1892, there operating prominently as a stockman 
until 1907, when the town of Lemmon was established. At that time he 
held extensive government land script and assisted the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul engineers in laying out the route for the building 
of the transcontinental road. Knowing that the route was the only 
available one through that part of the country, he bought extensive 
land scripts with the view of establishing town sites and the town of 
Lemmon was located on his holdings. Thirty days after the establishment 
of the first bank in the town he bought an interest in the institution 
and acted as president thereof until he disposed of his stock in the 
early part of 1914. 

	Mr. Lemmon was married in 1886 to Miss Bertha Reno, of Buffalo 
Gap, South Dakota, by whom he had three sons, namely: James H., who is 
engaged in the banking and cattle business; Roy E., a ranchman residing 
in Meeker, Colorado; and George R., who is a ranchman of Red Lodge, 
Montana. For his second wife Mr. Lemmon chose Miss Rosella Boe, of 
Deadwood, South Dakota. 

	Fraternally Mr. Lemmon is a Mason, belonging to the lodge in his 
home town. In politics he is an earnest republican and for many years 
served as county commissioner of Fall River county, South Dakota, of 
Adams county, North Dakota, and of Perkins county. He continued in that 
position in Perkins county from its organization until January 1, 1915, 
when he refused to continue longer as an incumbent in that office. He 
now concentrates his attention upon his land holdings and he still 
operates in the purchase and sale of cattle. At one time he had the 
largest cattle pasture in the United States, having under fence eight 
hundred and sixty-five thousand four hundred and twenty-eight and one-
half acres which he held under lease. He was at one time the largest 
cattle operator in the country and in this connection he is widely 
known. Every phase of western life is familiar to him and in his chosen 
line of business he has taken advantage of the conditions offered by 
the west, finding excellent range for his cattle on the open prairies. 
He has keen business insight and sagacity, is ready in resource and at 
all times is capable of wisely meeting a situation. His operations have 
been carried on most extensively and his success is the merited result 
of his ability.