John Gill ("J.G.") Lemmon (January 2, 1832,

Lima Township, Michigan Lima Township is a civil township of Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,307 at the 2010 census. Communities * Fourmile Lake is an unincorporated community located within the township near the lake of the same n ...

– November 24, 1908,

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

) was an American

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

veteran and former prisoner of Andersonville. He was married to fellow botanist,

Sara Plummer Lemmon Sara Allen Plummer (September 3, 1836 – January 15, 1923) was an American botanist. Mount Lemmon in Arizona is named for her, as she was the first white woman to ascend it. She was responsible for the designation of the golden poppy (''Eschsch ...

, and the two jointly cataloged numerous western and desert plants.

Biography

Lemmon was born in

, on January 2, 1832"Biographical Information", John and Sara (Plummer) Lemmon Papers
University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley (last visited August 24, 2012).James Miller Guinn, ''History of the State of California and Biographical Record of Oakland and Environs'' (1907), Historic Record Company, pp. 834-835. Available a

(last visited August 24, 2012). to William Lemmon and Amila (Hudson) Lemmon, a descendant of explorer

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and 160 ...

. He was a schoolteacher for eight years, before attending the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He enlisted in the Union Army in June 1862, and was involved in numerous engagements in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. In August 1864, Lemmon was captured by the Confederates, and subsequently held as a prisoner of war in the

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

prison camp and at the notorious Andersonville Prison. After being freed on March 1, 1865, he moved to

Sierraville, California Sierraville (''Sierra'', Spanish for "mountain range" and ''Ville'', French for "town") is a census-designated place in Sierra County, California, United States. It is at the southern end of the huge Sierra Valley which is used primarily as past ...

, to stay with family while he recuperated. He returned to teaching, and acquired an interest in botany. Lemmon began corresponding with Henry Bolander at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

and

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, as he identified more hitherto uncatalogued plants. It was only botanical work that gave him solace from the horrors of Andersonville Prison. Gray named the new genus ''Plummera'', now called ''

Hymenoxys ''Hymenoxys'' (rubberweed or bitterweed) is a genus of plants in the sunflower family, native to North and South America. It was named by Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini in 1828. Plants of this genus are toxic to sheep due to the presence of ...

'', in his wife's honor. Eventually, he became known as "the botanist of the West". While visiting Santa Barbara on a collecting and lecture expedition, Lemmon met Sara Plummer, a transplanted East Coast artist and intellectual who had developed an interest in botany. The two corresponded for several years, marrying in 1880. They took a "botanical wedding trip" to Arizona in 1881, cataloging many desert and mountain plants, and climbed to the peak of the mountain they christened

Mount Lemmon Mount Lemmon, with a summit elevation of , is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon, who ...

, after Sara, the first European-descended woman to make that ascent. On their return, they continued their botanical activities, ultimately establishing the

Lemmon Herbarium The University and Jepson Herbaria are two herbaria that share a joint facility at the University of California, Berkeley holding over 2,200,000 botanical specimens, the largest such collection on the US West Coast. These botanical natural histo ...

, now part of

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

University and Jepson Herbaria The University and Jepson Herbaria are two herbaria that share a joint facility at the University of California, Berkeley holding over 2,200,000 botanical specimens, the largest such collection on the US West Coast. These botanical natural histo ...

. J.G. and Sara lived and established their

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

at No. 5985

Telegraph Avenue Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California, Berkeley campu ...

. From 1888 to 1892, Lemmon served as the state botanist for the California State Board of Forestry. J.G. Lemmon died November 24, 1908, aged 76, in

Selected papers

* John Gill Lemmon, ''Recollections of Rebel Prisons'' * --. ''Ferns of the Pacific Including Arizona'' (1882) * --. ''Handbook of West American Cone-Bearers'' (1900) * --. ''Conebearers'' * --. ''Oaks of the Pacific Slope'' (1902) * --. ''Discovery of the Potato in Arizona'' (1883) * --. ''Pacific Coast Flowers and Ferns'' (1880) * -- and

Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon Sara Allen Plummer (September 3, 1836 – January 15, 1923) was an American botanist. Mount Lemmon in Arizona is named for her, as she was the first white woman to ascend it. She was responsible for the designation of the golden poppy (''Eschsch ...

, ''How to Tell the Trees and Forest Endowment of Pacific Slope'' (1902)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemmon, J.G. 1832 births 1908 deaths People of Michigan in the American Civil War University of Michigan alumni American botanists Union Army soldiers American Civil War prisoners of war held by the Confederate States of America Writers from California Writers from Michigan