Some Family History

Well, I feel like blogging, and I've been wanting to post some of this family history stuff for awhile, so now seems as good of a time as any.

I don't know if I ever mentioned my new calling or not. I recently got called to teach the Family History Sunday School class. It's exciting, but a little intimidating. Although I have done a little bit of work with the new family search site, I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert, so I feel like my class is having to learn right along with me.

In preparation for a lesson that's coming up in a few weeks called, "Gathering Information From Family" I decided I'd better buck up and start asking some questions. I have decided to primarily focus on the Lemmon side of the family for the time being, because there aren't many of them left, and my dad's family situation is kind of a crazy one anyway. I told my class that my dad's side of the family has to many graftings in and burnings out and all that, that it reminds me of reading Jacob 5. :) Anyways, so I finally emailed my Uncle Tex and my Uncle Scott and asked them about 35 questions about my Grandpa Lemmon (who we always called Papa, growing up) and his family.

Uncle Scott has been answering 3 or 4 of my questions a week, and I have enjoyed every minute of it! It's really cool to hear about my grandpa and his family and the things that they did growing up, and I wanted to put some of it down here so it will be included in the book I make for 2010, and so my children will always have it. Eventually, when I feel like I have enough information, I will write the history of the Lemmon family in it's own book. But for now, it's here.

I should probably start with a little basic geneology, too bad when you are talking about my family it is anything but basic. But let's see what I can do. :) If you click on the pedigree chart above it will get big enough to read. And here's a little more info, since the pedigree looks simple enough. My dad's biological parents are Maxine Harrison and Grover Thompson. Some day I'll have a more detailed explination, but for now we'll just say Maxine and Grover had a falling out, and divorced, when my dad was about 2. When my dad was 12 years old, Maxine married Earl Lemmon, who adopted my father as his own. Earl had two children from a previous marriage, Scott and Tex. So, all though not blood related, because of the adoption and because I grew up with Earl as my Grandpa, I consider the Lemmon side to be my own. Earl's parents are William Lemmon and Sarah Adelia Scott Lemmon. (I LOVE the name Adelia, btw, it's currently on the "very much considering" list, for our little girl.)

William Lemmon, Scott Lemmon, Sarah Adelia Scott Lemmon

So, like I said before, my Uncle Scott is answering my questions a few at a time, and I am learning a lot about the Lemmon side. What I copy from Uncle Scott's emails, I'll put in italics, just so there's no confusion about whether it's me talking or him.

Earl's father's name was William. It was said that at one time he owned all the property from Highland Drive to the east to State Street and between 33rd South to 45th South. Earl was the baby of 8 children, 5 sisters and 2 brothers. Earl was born January 8, 1908.The old homestead is at 3287 South 13th Street. Right across the street from that Cottonwood Complex where you used to play softball in Salt Lake, that's where Tex and I grew up. Everyone graduated from Granite High school.
Earl's mother's name was Sarah Adelia Scott Lemmon. I haven't been able to find out much about her yet, but this is what Uncle Scott remembers:

I remember she was a very hard working woman. But my most vivid memory was when she passed away. I must only have been 5/6 years old. She'd had a heart attack while taking a bath with the bathroom door locked. I guess she'd been in there for a long time and Earl and mom suspected something was wrong when they couldn't get a response out of her. I was playing in the neighborhood with some of my friends when Earl whistled for me. When I got there, Earl had forced the bathroom window open but they were all too large to get through it, so it was my mission to get through the window and over the bathtub and unlock the door. I remember carfully being lowered through the window standing on the edge of the tub seeing her body laying in the water, she looked like she was taking a nap. I jumped accross the tub landed on the floor and unlocked the door thinking everything would be okay when they woke her up, and went back to playing. I later found out the reality of it all. It was a sad day.

His father was William Lemmon, don't know if he had a middle name or not? He was the greatest man I ever met even to this day, I really admired him. When Earl got back from the Army and WWII he lived at home with grandma and grandpa, two of his sisters had gotten married while he was gone and built houses right next door and had some kids by that time. When Earl got married he lived in the basement, it wasn't a lot one bedroom, bath, front room and a kitchen with a walk out basement, so it pretty much had all a family would need at the time. The earliest memories of William was his warmth, I loved to be around the guy. I remember from the time I was old enough to crawl/walk and knew North from South sleeping in my crib I knew when I could smell brewing aroma of coffee that William was up reading the paper at the kitchen table. It was usually around 5:00 AM and our time together. I would quietly sneak out of bed so as not to wake anyone go upstairs in my pj's with the feet in them to be with him. He always had my high chair ready waiting for me, it became a ritual. He'd fix me a cup of coffee so we could enjoy the morning together before everyone else started stirring. My cup was mostly milk with sugar. After the rest of the house was awake he would play the harmonica for me and I'd dance around like a complete fool, it was like being in never never land for me. To this day I really enjoy a good harmonica.



As I became more mobil I would go out with him to do the chores, feeding and watering the rabbits, chickens, cows and horses, I really enjoyed that. Later he started taking me with him to irrigate the crops in the buckboard. He was a good provider, he always grew enough, both vegetables and meat for the whole family, we even had mushrooms they just grew wild but they were edible. I never remember him driving a car, it was always the horses and the buckboard. There used to be pictures of him with other guys at the brick yard with their buckboards hauling bricks mostly made of mud out of the pit at the Chuck Wagon restaurant on Hyland Drive in SLC.

William Lemmon and his team

All good things come to an end however, he eventually was overcome with dementia as has every true blooded Lemmon that I can remember if they live long enough. William and I were best buds though and I would still go see him every morning I could and we would talk and he still played the harmonica for me. I could tell he always enjoyed my visit, and I he never acted strange around me. Before long though I was the only one he recognized. One morning he just wasn't there anymore and I was crushed! I lost my first best friend. Time doesn't stand still though after grandma died we moved upstairs it felt good to live in the house that William built even though he wasn't there anymore. It took me a while to get over our early morning ritual and his harmonica.

 

The Lemmon's were never real big on religion but were still good people. Dementia is the family's plague however. I remember seeing one of Earl's sister for the last time in the fence and she was telling me a story about how the bishop had came to see her the other day and wanted her to be the President of the Relief Society, and I said what did you say? She just shook her head and said the SOB wanted me to do it for free, I told him to take a hike! Earl use to call me late at night from his pasture because he'd lost his ride home and needed me to come get him! I could tell by caller ID that he was in his pasture but he always claimed he was somewhere else. He called me one night and said he was at the Jazz game and his ride left him, I told him I was getting awful tired of coming to pick him up and he should hang out with more reliable friends, but said I'd be there in about 45 minutes and asked him what door to pick him up at, so with that we hung up I thought that would be that. About 45 minutes later he calls me back and says where were you? I said I was there where were you I looked all over, without missing a beat he said there was some construction at the door where we were suppose to meet and I couldn't get out, but I whistled and whistled trying to find you. I finally said look it's 1:00 AM and I have to go to work in the morning your going to have to fend for yourself till I can get back there tomorrow, and without missing a beat he said never mind I'll call Scott he'll come get me! It's a very sad story but it's very funny.

I'm starting to ramble now, this will have to be enough about William. Grandma and grandpa and most of the Lemmon clan were burried at Elutian Gardens in SLC it's between 4500 South and 4800 South just West of 1300 East.

 

There's a lot more, but this is a pretty long post, so I'll continue some other day. But I have really enjoyed getting to know the Lemmon side of the family from my Uncle Scott's perspective. It's helped me to get to know him a little better too. He sent me all the pictures too. They are awesome.