John and Sara (Plummer) Lemmon papers, 1863-1911 | University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley

John Gill Lemmon, pioneer western botanist and Civil War veteran, was born in Lima, Michigan on January 2, 1832. He attended public schools and taught for eight years before enrolling at the University of Michigan which he briefly attending before enlisting in the 4^th Michigan Cavalry on June 8, 1862.  His unit was involved in 36 engagements in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, including the circuit of Atlanta in August 1865. He was captured near Atlanta in August 1864 and held at Andersonville and Florence prisons.  He was freed on March 1, 1865.  In October 1866 he moved to Sierraville, California to live with his mother and brothers and recuperate from his incarceration.  He taught school from 1870 to 1874 and developed an avid interest in botany while collecting and identifying local plants in Sierraville and the surrounding areas. Plants he could not identify were sent to Henry Bolander at the California Academy of Sciences, who then put Lemmon in contact with Asa Gray at Harvard University as many of the plants found by Lemmon were previously unknown.  He became well known as botanist of western North America and with his wife, Sara Plummer Lemmon, developed the Lemmon Herbarium, now part of the University and Jepson Herbaria at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sara Plummer, botanist and artist, was born in New Gloucester, Maine, on September 3, 1836. She attended college in Worcester, Massachusetts and at Cooper Union in New York City. She served as a hospital nurse during the Civil War.  In 1869, she moved to Santa Barbara for health reasons and opened a book and stationery shop that became the public library for the town. She was active in the community and the development of the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum and gave lectures on natural history.

John and Sara met when John was visiting Santa Barbara in 1876 on a botanical collecting expedition. He moved to Oakland in 1877 and they corresponded frequently, leading to their marriage in 1880. They established the Lemmon Herbarium on Telegraph Avenue and continued to botanize together, exploring California and Arizona in the 1880s. Their "botanical wedding trip" to Tucson in 1881 led to the discovery of many new Arizonan plants.  John Lemmon served as the state botanist for the California State Board of Forestry from 1888 to 1892 and Sara assisted with his work by painting illustrations of conifers. Sara led the movement to have the California Poppy established as the state flower, which became official in a bill signed by Governor George Pardee in 1903.

John Gill Lemmon passed away on Oakland on November 24, 1908 in Oakland.  Sara Plummer Lemmon passed away on January 15, 1923 in Stockton. Their herbarium was donated to the University of California at Berkeley.