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Title: John and Sara (Plummer) Lemmon papers, 1863-1911
Primary Creator: Lemmon, J. G. (John Gill) (1832-1908)
Other Creators: Lemmon, Sara Plummer (1836-1923)
Extent: 10.0 Linear Feet
Arrangement: Arranged in six series: Series 1, Correspondence; Series 2, Diaries and field books; Series 3, Writings; Series 4, Personal papers; Series 5, Photographs.
Subjects: Andersonville Prison, Botanists - California, Botany - Arizona, Botany - California, Northern, Conifers, Diaries, Lemmon, J. G. (John Gill), United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Imprisonment, Women botanists
Forms of Material: Botanists - California - Archives, Correspondence, Photographs, United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Personal narratives
Languages: English
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 4th 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.
Andersonville Prison
Botanists - California
Botany - Arizona
Botany - California, Northern
Conifers
Diaries
Lemmon, J. G. (John Gill)
United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Imprisonment
Women botanists
Repository: University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley
Access Restrictions: Collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions: Copyright has not been assigned to the University and Jepson Herbaria Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University and Jepson Herbaria Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained by the publisher.
Preferred Citation: John and Sara (Plummer) Lemmon Papers, University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Transcription by Dr. Richard G. Beidleman:
Lemmon, John Gill, botanist, entomologist and microscopist, was born June 2nd, 1832, in Lima, Washtenaw Co., Mich [about 12 miles due west of Ann Arbor], son of William and Amila (Hudson) Lemmon, the daughter of Henry and Cynthia (Gambey) Hudson. His paternal grandparents were Benjamin and Rebecca (Cockey) Lemmon of Seneca Co N.Y.: grandmother Cockey Lemmon was the daughter of John and Chloe Cockey, of Maryland; grandfather Lemmon was the son of Thomas Lemmon of Maryland, a descendant of an English family of rank whose crest was a pelican feeding her young. There is a tradition that the family traced their origins from Cromwell. It is known that “Chloe Cockey, born 16th Sept. 1723, was the daughter of Joseph Cromwell and Comfort his wife.” No self-respecting Lemmon of late thinks of establishing a family without a Cromwell in it. Among the 14 uncles and aunts of J. G. Lemmon appears a Benjamin Cromwell, and his oldest brother is William Cromwell. He was educated principally in the public schools of Washtenaw Co., Mich., supplemented by attendance upon teacher’s Institutes for five years in the State Normal school of Ypsilanti. Commencing to teach at 19 years, first in the common schools, then in the village schools of Dexter and Milan - eight years in all, he then began attending lectures in the Univ. of Mich. at Ann Arbor expecting to take the fall college course, but the civil war breaking out, he left college and joined a body of volunteers that soon became the 4th Mich. Cav. with which he participated in 36 engagements in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, including the circuit of Atlanta by Kilpatrick’s force in Aug. 1864. He was captured below Atlanta Aug. 29, 1864 and imprisoned, first in Andersonville, Ga., thence carried to Florence S.C. where he passed the cold winter in an open stockade with little clothing or food until the close of the war. When rescued by Sherman’s dashing Yankee boys March 1, 1865, he was an emaciated skeleton weighing but 85 pounds. The next year after releasement, and as soon as able to travel, he removed Oct. 1866 to California where, at Sierraville, Sierra Co. lived his mother and two brothers, joined soon after by his oldest sister Rebecca Cynthia Lemmon who had served three years in the army of the Tennessee as nurse and hospital matron. After three year’s recuperation he began teaching the village school of Sierraville, 1870-74, and gradually became engaged in the pursuit of Natural history particularly botany and entomology, in which departments he subsequently made large collections, sending specimens to eastern & European institutions. He was engaged by the Ag. Dept. at Washington as expert on the depredations of the migratory locusts, and for three years 1874-77 wrote up the Locust scourge in California. In 1876 he was engaged to collect for the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia specimens of the trees of Cal. Beginning a thorough exploration of the Pacific Slope from the Mexican boundary to Alaska, he gradually devoted most attention to the trees, and was engaged 1887, as Botanist for the Cal. State Board Forestry, and wrote the major part of their large biennial reports, 1888-1890.
He has contributed serial botanical articles, mostly upon trees, for many years to various journals - Pacific Rural Press, Mining & Scientific Press, Overland Monthly, Sierrra Club Bulletin, and Wood & Iron, all of San Francisco; Garden & Forest, and Torrey Bulletin of N.Y.; Pittonia and Erythea of Berkeley - adding by his publications many species to accepted classifications including several cone-bearing trees - viz, Pinus attenuata, Pinus Apacheca, Picea Columbiana, Tsuga Pattoniana Hookeriana, Pseudotsuga macrocarpa, Abies concolor Lowiana, Abies Shastensis, Abies magnifica xanthocarpa, Cupressus macroscapa angulata and Juniperus Utahensis. - also his discoveries include nine new genera and over 200 species of smaller plants, mostly in California and Arizona.
Visiting Santa Barbara in 1876 he met Miss Sara Allen Plummer, an ardent lover of natural history and four years later (1880), they were married in Oakland, to which city he had removed in 1867. A “Botanical Wedding Trip to Arizona”, published in Overland Monthly 1881 was the beginning of their united explorations at length embracing the vast Pacific Slope. Aided by the officials of the Southern Pacific Co. and other transportation agents, 5,000-10,000 miles annually, have been covered in the arduous, often perilous exploration of nearly every forestal region of the West, their collections forming the nucleus of the “Lemmon Herbarium” in Oakland, containing one of the most extensive collections of conifera specimens in America.
Early making use of Camara [sic: Camera] and microscope, while Mrs. Lemmon was equally busy with water-colors and brushes, his scientific articles have been amply illustrated, while materials have been accumulated and MS. prepared for a large five dollar work upon Western Trees, designed to fill the gap between his small one dollar Hand-book of West American Cone-bearers 1895 and Sargent’s monumental Sylva of North America with its 12 folio volumes costing thirty dollars each.
Mr. Lemmon was appointed Commissioner of Botany to represent California at the New Orleans World’s fair 1884-85 and with his wife (who was appointed Vice President of the Exposition) made a large botanical Exhibit, taking five first grade, gold medal diplomas. He is the California member of the lately recognized “body corporate and politic of The American National Red Cross” with head-quarters at Washington, D.C. Locally he is Councilman at Large for the City of Oakland, and Chairman of the Park and Boulevard Committee, President of the Telegraph Ave. Improvement Association, a life-long Republican, Chaplain (7 years) of his G. A. R. post, an Ancient Odd Fellow and an ardent Unitarian.”
