Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 424-428 [Marshall]

     JAMES R. LEMON was born on the 10th of April, 1848, in Guilford
county, North Carolina, near where the battle of Guilford Courthouse was
fought during the Revolutionary war, and seven miles from Greensboro, the
county seat of Guilford county.  He was the first child born to Joseph G.
and Demarias A. Lemon, the former of whom was born in 1818 and the latter
in 1833, both natives of North Carolina.  It was in the year 1855 that
these parents left their home in their native state in search of a new
home in what they called the "west".  This journey of over eight hundred
miles in a two-horse wagon, with three small children, was accomplished
in seven weeks, and they landed at Birmingham, Marshall county, Kentucky,
about Christmas time in the year 1855.  Marshall county was then almost a
wilderness with but few settlements scattered about, and this
consequently afforded their children but poor opportunities for receiving
an education.   For several years after arriving in this state the
parents were renters, and thus drifted from one neighborhood to another.
     It will thus be seen that the son, James R. Lemon, received few
opportunities to prepare himself for future usefulness.  He was reared to
farm life, and attended the public schools of his neighborhood, which
were very poor at that time, until 1870, but during that period he
devoted every hour possible to the study of such books as his parents
were able to furnish him, and when he had reached his twenty-second year
he was regarded as the best scholar in the community.  It was in the same
year that he visited Henry county, Tennessee, and during his sojourn
there among relatives taught a three months' school, for which he
received fifty-six dollars.  Returning thence to his humble home in
Kentucky, he there remained until March 27, 1870, when he entered the
Marshall County Seminary, located at Benton, Kentucky, and under the
preceptorship of Professor A. Pomroy, an able educator.  Attending the
spring and summer session, he then went into the country and taught a
fall school in his home district, after which he again entered the
seminary, there remaining until April, 1871, when the institution was
disbanded and the students drifted into various portions of the country. 
From that time until the following September Mr. Lemon was employed as a
clerk in a general store at Briensburg, after which he taught another
school, and at the expiration of that period returned home.  In August,
1872, he again entered the schoolroom, at Briensburg, where he taught
until the spring of 1873, and on the 13th of March of that year he was
married to Miss Cora A. Wilson, of Benton, by whom he had three children,
Clay G., Luna E. and Maud S., all yet living.
     In 1874 Mr. Lemon embarked in the drug business in Benton, in
partnership with his father in law, Dr. J. K. Wilson, but shortly
afterward the latter died, and he then continued the business in his own
name until
1880, when he formed a partnership with W. A. Holland.  By this time
young Lemon was becoming quite prominent for his business ability and the
success which attended all his efforts, and in 1880 he was appointed by
Colonel Sam Gaines, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, as census supervisor of
Marshall county.   In the following year, 1881, he was employed by
Patrick & Wilson, wholesale stationers at Evansville, Indiana, as
traveling salesman in western Kentucky, southern Illinois, western
Tennessee, southeastern Missouri and Arkansas, which position he held for
five years, and was considered one of the most successful salesman on the
road.  On the 17th of November, 1884, he enlarged his drug interest in
Benton by buying out all competitors and becoming the junior partner in
the well known firm of Starks & Lemon, thus continuing until October 13,
1890, when he purchased the interest of his partner and conducted a
successful business in his own name.  On the 20th of March, 1885, his
wife died, leaving him with three small children, and on October 6
following he was married to Miss Lucretia C. Thompson, the
youngest daughter of Mrs. Martha Thompson and the two children of this
union are still living, Scott T. and Bryan T. Lemon.
     At this time Mr. Lemon was taking a prominent part in politics and
the management of the finances of several enterprises.  In March, 1886, he
was appointed by Governor J. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, a member of the
state board of equalization, with headquarters at Frankfort, to fill out
the unexpired term of C. C. Coulter, deceased.  To this position he was
elected at the November election of 1886, over several competitors, and
received a three thousand majority.  He was one of the most prominent
members of the board and did much for his constituents in reducing
taxation.  In 1892 he was appointed master commissioner of Marshall
county by D. G. Clark, a judge of the common pleas court of that
district, which position he held until his resignation in 1893.  From
1873 for two years he held the position of postmaster at Old Briensburg,
for seven years served in the same position at Benton under the
administrations of Grant and Arthur, and was again appointed at Benton,
May 9. 1893, under Cleveland's administration, which position he held for
nine years, and was considered one of the best of postmasters.  In 1894
Mr. Lemon formed a stock company at Paducah, Kentucky, under the name of
the Lemon-Gregory Hat Company, being the prime mover in establishing a
wholesale hat house in that city, and was president and general manager
of the company until it discontinued business in 1899.  He was also
always fond of the newspaper business, being considered a natural
journalist, and on the 1st of May, 1890, became editor and proprietor of
the Benton Tribune, soon making it one of the leading county papers in
western Kentucky.  He was a strong Democrat, and as a matter of course
his paper was Democratic.  In 1895 he became part owner of the Paducah
Register, serving as vice president of the company until 1896,
when he disposed of his interest.
      In 1898 politics in Kentucky became very warm, when the lamented
Senator Goebel was a candidate for governor.  At this time both papers in
Paducah bolted the Democratic ticket, and he, together with W. W. Martin,
of Eddyville, threw themselves into the breach and established the
Kentucky Leader, which was the only paper that supported the Democratic
ticket that year.  He disposed of his interest in that paper in 1899.  On
the 17th of April, 1901, he went to Mayfield, Kentucky, and formed a
copartnership in the newspaper business with W. K. Wall, a prominent
young lawyer and city attorney, and established the Mayfield Daily and
Weekly Messenger, which was not long in becoming Graves county's greatest
newspaper.  Mr. Lemon has always taken a lively interest in both state
and local politics, and believes it a political crime to depart from his
party's ticket.  He is a member of the Christian church, is an Odd
Fellow, a Mason, a Knight of Honor, and also a member of the Golden Cross
and the Maccabees.  His life has ever been an active one in business.  He
has been strictly temperate, having never drunk, used tobacco or gambled,
always honest in his dealings and punctual to comply with his contracts. 
He has never been an office- seeker or been politically ambitious,
although he has held several positions, and twice in his life has been a
candidate.   He is one of the best known men in the western part of the
state, and has perhaps traveled more than any other man in the section.

Lemon Pomroy Wilson Holland Gaines Thompson Knott Coulter Clark Grant
Arthur Cleveland Goebel Martin Wall
=
Guilford-NC Henry-TN Graves-KY

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