"Early History of Thurston County, Washington; Together with Biographies and
Reminiscences of those Identified with Pioneer Days." Compiled and Edited by
Mrs. George E. (Georgiana) Blankenship.  Published in Olympia, Washington, 1914.
p. 182.
 
WILLIAM LEMON

     William Lemon and his wife were among the pioneers of the Cowlitz River
settlement, and later of Cowlitz Prairie, and their experiences in this section
were such as to try mens' souls, until land was cleared and cultivated and
neighbors began to arrive.
     The subject of this sketch, William Lemon, was born in Orange County, New
York, his parents later going to Michigan then to Illinois, and still later out
to Iowa, where they lived for several years. Here William became a man and was
finally married to a blithe Irish lass.
     The young couple, with their, one. child, caught the emigration fever and
decided to cast their fortunes with other emigrants and go to Oregon, so in 1852
the trip was made with ox.   When The Dalles was reached, late in the fall, Mr.
Lemon decided to leave his considerable number of cattle there to winter, and go
on down to Portland. Here he expected to find work at his trade of carpenter.
     However before the little family reached this point, an important event
happened. Their second child was born.  His birth place was beside the Snake
River in what is now Idaho, but was then comprised within the Oregon boundary.
His cradle was a box in the wagon bed, his lullaby the rustle of  the wind
through the sage brush and grease wood. His mother told, to the time of her last
illness, how the little fellow cried day and night, after he was taken into the
house, for the rocking of the wagon. That child is now Millard Lemon of Olympia.
     When. spring came, Mr. Lemon went back to The Dalles to round up his
cattle. The winter had been a hard one and in common with many other emigrants,
who had hoped their cattle would winter without other feed than what the animals
could pick up on the ranges, Mr. Lemon lost every one of his cattle except one
ox. Owing to the hardness of the winter and unexpected rush of emigration during
the year of 1852-3, the crop of potatoes produced by the few farmers around
Portland was soon used up and the prices for this vegetable soared to the sky.
The elder Lemon thought there must be a fortune in potatoes, judging from the
price he was obliged to pay. So when spring came, he took his family and went on
up to the Cowlitz country, took up a piece of land, and put it all in potatoes.
As everyone else in the country had been
possessed with the same inspiration, there was almost no giving this humble
vegetable away, and prices scarcely paid for the digging.
    It was while living on this homestead on the Cowlitz River that the baby who
had come to the Lemon family on the plains nearly lost his life in a tragic
manner. The little fellow had just begun to toddle and was playing around the
door step of his father's cabin, when an immense eagle circled above his head,
and was just swooping down to seize the child, when his father caught sight of
the bird and shot it. The eagle's body fell into the river, but it was a narrow
escape, and one of the mother's favorite tales to her children when they
gathered around her knee in the gloaming.
    Becoming dissatisfied with the place on the river, Mr. Lemon went to Cowlitz
Prairie and took up a donation claim of a half a section of land. Here the
family was living during the time of the Indian war, seeking refuge with the
other families on this prairie, in the block house on the Parsons' place. The
women and children would stay in the block house and the men fare forth during
the day to till the soil and gather in the crops, returning to spend the night
with their families within the safety of the block house enclosure.
     Mr. Millard Lemon has in his possession to this day the gun which his
father used to put over his shoulder when it was his turn to stand guard, and to
protect himself with. while tilling the land. This was the same gun that ended
the life of the eagle I have told about.
     Mr. Lemon, senior, in after years, received the pension awarded Indian war
veterans. At this time the Cowlitz Prairie was principally settled with French
Canadians, servants of the Hudson Bay Company, and a class of people who cared
but little for educational advantages, so the mother insisted that the family
must go somewhere that the children could go to school.
    Claquato, the county seat of Lewis County, was selected.  Here, for four
years, the Lemon children were taught by Miss Peebles, one of the Mercer girls,
and who afterwards became Mrs. A. Mclntosh, of Seattle. Millard Lemon gives this
lady a just due of praise, by affirming that she was the best teacher he ever
had, and as he is a college graduate, he must have had many and good ones, too.
    While residing on Cowlitz Prairie and Claquato, Mrs. Lemon made many visits
to friends in Olympia, and Millard Lemon's early recollections include chasing
the cows over what is now Capitol Park, but was then only a wilderness of fallen
logs, brush and stumps. His companion in his boyhood days, and favorite chum,
was Fred Guyot, then a lad of about nine years, and in Mr. Lemon's own words,
"as fine a lad as ever lived."
     In 1874, the Lemon family went to live in Los Angeles, California. But
after spending several years in that place, decided to return to Washington.
Olympia was selected as the place of residence this time, and here Mr. and Mrs.
Lemon built the house on Eighth Street that was the family home for years, and
where life ended for Mr. Lemon, in 1890. Mrs. Lemon lived on in the old home for
another seven years, and then she joined her husband.
     To Mr. and Mrs. Lemon were born seven children: Thomas, Millard, Frances,
Marion, Alice, Edwin and Ida. Millard and Ida are the only ones of the family
still living. Ida is now Mrs. Mann, and lives in the family home. A
granddaughter, child of Alice, Mrs. C. Goldstein, who is now Mrs. Garrett, has
lived in Olympia the past few years, formerly making her home in Seattle.
     The lad, Millard, studied out of the same reader with Fred Guyot, and sat
on the same bench in the little old log school house with the little girl who
afterwards became Mrs. Charles Talcott, the first wife of one of Olympia's
pioneer jewelers.  While a student at the State University of Oregon at Salem,
Millard Lemon had as classmates, Stephen J. Chadwick, now Judge of the Supreme
Court of Washington; C. S. (    )wick, Judge of the Supreme Court, and G. S.
Rienhart, who has been clerk of the same court since Washington became a State,
and the late Frank M. McCully, who was Deputy Superintendent of Public
Instruction of Washington at the time of his death, in Olympia, in 1907.
     In 1876, Millard entered De Pauw University at Green Castle, Indiana, from
which institution he graduated in 1880, taking the degree of A. B. Afterwards he
took a classical course and secured his degree of A. M. from the California
State University. Following his graduation, Mr. Lemon had a varied career.
     Through the suggestion of Bishop Taylor, he went to Santiago, Chile, and
was one of the founders of Santiago College, where he was head of the boys
department. Mr. Lemon's stay with this college lasted two years.
    At the expiration of this period, Mr. Lemon engaged in railroad engineering
in the State of Chile, continuing in this work for the following six years.
    Returning to the United States in 1888, Mr. Lemon sojourned long enough at
Long Beach, California, to become united in marriage to his boyhood's
sweetheart, Marabelle Cook. The young couple then came to Olympia to visit
Millard's father and mother. The business prospects of the Capitol City were
bright, so they decided to make this city their home.
    Mr. Lemon has been successful in financial affairs and is today rated as one
of the most solidly successful business men, not only in Olympia, but the entire
State of Washington; a man who takes pride in the description, "His word is as
good as his bond."
    Three children brighten the Lemon home, Edith, Mildred and Gerry.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios. Project in May 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.