G.E. Lemmon

=G.E. Lemmon (1857-1945)=

George Edward Lemmon was among the elite cattlemen at the turn of the century. Lemmon, in the early part of his life, worked as a cowhand and foreman for many different ranches in the Great Plains area. Lemmon not only loved being a cowboy he was also looking to bigger and better things, he was a visionary. Lemmon is credited with starting the Western South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, helping the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad through South Dakota, and founding a town along that railroad named Lemmon, South Dakota.

Early Years

Lemmon was born at Bountiful, Utah, about 10 miles from Salt Lake City, on May 23, 1857. He was apart of a family of six having two older brothers and a younger sister. In the summer of 1859, the Lemmon family moved from Bountiful to Liberty Farm, Nebraska, about 14 miles from present day Hastings.

Cowboy Days

Ed Lemmon began his days of working as a cowhand when he was twelve or thirteen years old. When the railroad was finished, the Lemmon family needed to find work, so Ed’s older brother Hervey went to work for J.W. Iliff, a cattle rancher around Cheyenne, Wyo. Ed, being handy with horses and guns as well, was also hired right away. Even though Ed was crippled most of his life from bad horse wrecks, he still had an incredible career in the saddle. During Lemmon’s years as a cowboy, he worked for many ranches such as the Bear Creek Ranch, Rush Creek Ranch, and the Flying V. Lemmon has worked every job a cowboy could have worked and he was good at them too. At the young age of 23, Lemmon was hired as foreman for the Flying V in South Dakota. In all these jobs as a cowboy, Lemmon has trailed cattle from Texas through rough cow towns like Kansas City when Wyatt Earp was the sheriff. He knew many far and wide from famous to infamous.

Cattleman

Ed Lemmon began managing the Sheidley Cattle Company in 1891 and later in 1893 sold his shares of the company and went into business with Richard Lake and Thomas Tomb. Together they ran around 50,000 head of cattle while hiring up to 300 men. Due to the Dawes Act in 1887, the range began to be settled by hopeful homesteaders and therefore reducing the grazing land for cattle. In 1902, Lemmon got permission from President Theodore Roosevelt to lease almost 900,000 acres on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation which he called the L7 Ranch. It was the largest fenced pasture in the world, bigger than the state of Rhode Island.

Later Years

While selling cattle in Chicago every year, Ed Lemmon got to know many important members of the city including the director of CM&SP Railroad, R.M. Calkins. Calkins then asked Lemmon to help with a route for the railroad coming through South Dakota. Ed then picked a route from Mobridge, SD through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. He founded a town on the west side of the reservation. In honor of Ed, Mr. Calkins named the railroad town Lemmon. The original site that Ed Lemmon chose for the town was actually four miles east of its present location and into North Dakota. North Dakota having prohibition laws against saloons, Ed chose to locate the town just on the South Dakota-North Dakota border, thinking that this would help it in becoming a boom town. Also being on the border, Lemmon hoped to hold a duel county seat in Perkins County, South Dakota and Adams County, North Dakota, but neither of those hopes came true. Also in the later years, Ed Lemmon spent much of his time recording his life’s tales by publishing story articles in the "Belle Fourche Bee", in Belle Fourche, SD, every week. He started writing the stories in 1932 and kept writing until the 1940s. These weekly stories were compiled into a book, by Phyllis Schmidt, called "The West As I Lived It".

G.E. “Dad” Lemmon died on a Saturday, August 25, 1945, in the town he founded. He was born in Utah, raised in Nebraska, and worked and lived all over western South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota. He was tough as nails and could be counted among the best of cowboys. He spent many years in the saddle and accomplished many things. He had an incredible memory that helped him become a prolific writer that preserved a firsthand account of the history of the West. His accomplishments always grew to be bigger and better in every aspect of life, he was a true visionary and contributed much to South Dakota cattle industry.

Bibliography

1. Schmidt, Phyllis, The West As I Lived It. Published by State Publishing Co., copyright 2007 by Phyllis Schmidt

2. Yost, Nellie Snyder, Boss Cowman: The Recollections of Ed Lemmon, (1857- 1946). Copyright 1969 by the University of Nebraksa Press. Edited by Nellie Snyder Yost

3. Holtzmann, Roger, “Boss Cowman’s Own Words”, South Dakota Magazine, vol. 23, no. 6 March/April 2008, pgs 51-56.