Thomas Lemmon
THOMAS LEMMON, great-grandfather of Barclay Nulton, was a native of eastern Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. He as a soldier in the Revolution, and the following story has been handed down in the family. One day while on his way to join the Continental forces, tired and thirsty, he asked a handsome young lady for a drink of water. Observing how worn-out he was she brought him a glass of milk, and he was so touched by her sympathy and thoughtfulness that he told her he would come back someday and marry her. He kept his word, after the war was over. In 1797 he settled on a tract of land in East Franklin township, Armstrong county, 211 acres, but soon afterward removed to Lexington, Kentucky.Col. Daniel Lemmon, his son, moved in early life to Franklin township, Armstrong county, where he farmed and kept hotel for many years, owning a large farm near Tarrtown, and died in 1857, in his seventy-fifth year. He served as colonel in the Black Hawk war. He was twice married, and by his first marriage, to Charlotte Hannegan, had four children: Thomas McConnell, William R., Margaret Rebecca and John H. By his second wife, Elizabeth Croyle, he had a family of seven: Alexandria, Rebecca J., David, Lobain, Daniel, James and Joseph. On April 12, 1838, the tract in East Franklin mentioned above was vested in him by patent, and before his death he conveyed the principal part of it to his son Thomas. Purpart "D," 72 acres and 48 perches, was not taken by any of his heirs in the proceedings in partition, but they joined in releasing their respective interests to Joseph Lemmon, Jan. 30, 1865, for $400 (that is $50 to each), who afterward conveyed it to his brother Thomas, to whom it was assessed for a number of years. Daniel Lemmon agreed to sell 89 acres to Nathaniel Richey, July 11, 1834, who transferred his interests to William Richey, to whom Lemmon conveyed the same, May 27, 1846, for $150. Joseph Audibert byLobeau, his attorney in fact, conveyed twenty-eight and a half acres of tract No. 304, call "Audibert" after its patentee, Peter Benignus Audibert, to Daniel Lemmon, Jan. 21, 1828, for $156, and Marie Touissant Audibert byLobeau, attorney in fact, conveyed 127 acres, 155 perches of "Audibert" to Daniel Lemmon Aug. 24, 1848, for $446, probably in pursuance of an agreement made prior to her death. Daniel Lemmon probably settled on the smaller of these parcels ten or twelve years before it was conveyed to him. In 1817 he was assessed with two tracts, each of 200 acres, in what was then Buffalo township, one of them (and two horses and three cattle) at $248, and the other at $200. He kept a hotel in the eastern part of "Audibert," the sign of which with two crosskeys was painted by James McCulloch at his shop in Kittanning April 7, 1828, and he was first assessed with his ferry at this point in 1827. He retained these two parcels, the westernmost one containing the small parcel which had been part of No. 303, until his death, after which, in proceedings in partition, they, without regard to their original quantities, were divided into two purparts. The western one, marked A, containing 114 acres, 111 perches, was valued by inquest Sept. 20, 1825, at $16.08 an acre, and the other one, marked B, forty acres, ninety-four perches, at $13.41 an acre, as surveyed to Daniel Lemmon'S heirs by J. E. Meredith Oct. 19, 1820. His surveys on these days included those of several other tracts on both sides of the Allegheny river. The court decreed purpart "A" to J. H. Lemmon, and purpart "B" to Mrs. Margaret (Lemmon) NULTON. Daniel Lemmon was appointed a viewer with Michael Mechling, Matthias Bowser, Allan ELLIOTT, John and Robert PATRICK, viewers, in 1810, to locate a road. We find the following in a history of Armstrong county published in 1883: "In July or August, 1812, a lively sensation was caused by a report brought here by a Mr. Snyder, who was then employed to distribute the pamphlet laws throughout this and the northwestern part of the State (which he then conveyed to the various counties in a wagon), that a large force of British troops and Indians were moving toward this place, whereupon a public meeting was called. Thomas Hamilton was appointed its chairman, who addressed the excited assemblage from a stump in Market, a short distance below Jefferson street. Grave fears were entertained that this town was in danger of being taken by the enemy. That meeting resolved, after an interchange of opinions, to employ Daniel Lemmon to proceed to Meadville and elsewhere in that direction for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts and proximity of the supposed invaders. He soon started on his mission, from which he returned in a few days with the welcome intelligence that a false alarm had been raised by the rumor which Snyder had heard in his travels, and which probably sprang from the general alarm that Governor Snyder alluded to in his message of Dec. 3, 1812, to the Legislature, as having prevailed in the town and vicinity of Erie, caused by the appearance of a British and Indian force on the opposite side of the lake, in consequence of which he had ordered, July 15, a portion of the Sixteenth division of the Pennsylvania militia to be organized under General Kelso for the protection of the frontier, which, he said, he was happy to add, ' prevented the British or their savage allies from polluting our soil with hostile feet.' "
Source: Pages 547-548, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 2001 by Nancy Cain Knepper for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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