From Memorial History of Dallas County
Lewis Publishing, 1892

CAPTAIN WILLIAM HUGHES LEMMON, of the real estate firm of Bowser & Lemmon, Dallas, Texas, was born February 25, 1840, in Polk County, Missouri, near the present town of Morrisville. His parents, William H. Sr., and Nancy Amanda (Hughes) Lemmon, natives respectively of Green County, Kentucky, and Williamson County, Tennessee were married near Paris, in the latter State, August 17, 1837. In the autumn of 1839 they emigrated to Missouri, the eldest child, A. C. Lemmon, being then about 18 months of age, and settled on Sac River in Polk County, where he improved a valuable farm, which was occupied as the family homestead until 1872.

The father was a practical farmer and stock grower, and somewhat prominent in local politics, and served as County Judge of his county from 1856-1860, elected by the Democracy, of which party he was always a strong adherent. He died at Springfield, Missouri, August 31, 1862, the result of exposure while confined as a citizen prisoner for sympathy with the South. The mother still survives and resides with her son, Captain Lemmon; she is now in her 75th year. The subject of this sketch was reared to farm life, and educated in the schools of Polk County and Carleton's College of Springfield, Missouri, of which the Rev. Charles Carleton, now president of Carleton's College at Bonham, Texas, was president.

Captain Lemmon commenced life as a teacher in the public schools of southwest Missouri in 1858. In the spring of 1861 he assisted in organizing the first company organized in his county for the Southern army, and was elected its First Lieutenant, Captain Frank Mitchell being in command. The late Colonel Charles H. Nichols, of Dallas, was subsequently Captain of said company. It was known as Company C, of Colonel J. J. Clarkson's Fifth Regiment Missouri State Guards, of which the Captain's brother, A. C. Lemmon, was Major; Colonel M. W. Buster, of Weatherford, Texas, was Adjutant; the late Colonel John M. Stemmons, of Dallas Commissary of Subsistence; and their fellow townsman, Colonel W. L. Williams, was a Lieutenant.

In the winter of 1861-62 he was elected First Lieutenant of Captain A. C. Lemmon's company, D, Fifth Missouri Confederates Infantry. He was with General Price at the battles of Wilson's Creek, Dry Wood, Lexington, Elkhorn and Farmington, and the evacuation of Corinth, Mississippi; and later on he organized and was elected Captain of Company A, Jackman's cavalry regiment, and was with it in all of its many engagements till the close of the war, when he located in Dallas county, Texas, and again engaged in teaching, chiefly in Dallas and Tarrant counties.

He traveled for the agricultural implement house of D. M. Osborne & Co., for several years, until in 1876, when he formed a co-partnership with O. P. Bowser in the hardware and agricultural implement business in the city of Dallas, which business they continued until 1887. In that year, they invested largely in Dallas city and farm property, giving special attention to Bowser & Lemmon's North Dallas and Oak Lawn addition to the city of Dallas, which at present constitutes a large portion of the present limits of the Eighth Ward of the city.

Captain Lemmon's beautiful suburban home, "Elmwood," located on the line of the North Dallas Electric Railway, at the corner of Cole and Lemmon avenues, on which he has devoted much labor and expense to add to its comfort and attraction, is one of the finest in the city. He is largely interested in the North Dallas Improvement Company and the Dallas Guarantee and Investment Company property, of 1,500 acres, adjoining the city.

Captain Lemmon has for years been one of the leading, enterprising men of Dallas, and has always been promptly at the front to assist every laudable improvement or enterprise for the advancement of Dallas. He has an abiding faith in her future, and believes that she will yet be a great commercial center, and eventually the chief city of the great Southwest; hence, he has always contributed liberally of his time and money to advance her interests.

Captain Lemmon was married on the 27th day of February, 1867, in Dallas County, to Miss Mattie A. Knight, second daughter of O. W. and Serena (Hughes) Knight, both natives of Tennessee, where the parents were married, removing to Texas in 1844, and settled on what has ever since been known as the Knight farm, near Cedar Springs, and but a few miles from Dallas. The father resided there until his death, which occurred in 1868. He was an honorable Christian gentleman, and highly respected and beloved for his many noble and generous traits of character.

Hon. G. M. Epps G., Robert E. L. and A. J. Knight of Dallas, William H. Knight of Hillsboro, Texas, are brothers of Mrs. Lemmon; while Judge Burford, Dr. A. M. Cochran, John Field, of Dallas, Ben Cannon, of Arlington, Texas, and Captain J. J. Mallard, of Rusk, each married sisters of hers. Her mother, Mrs. Knight, lives with the family of Captain Lemmon. In 1882, the subject of this notice was called upon to mourn the death of his beloved wife after a short illness. Six children, the fruit of this union, are living. They are: Nannie Laura (Mrs. Williamson), Rena Amanda, Mary Kate, William C. Jr., Mittie Lee and Eppie Knight, and grandchild, Mattie Lemmon, with his mother and mother-in-law, Williamson, constitute his family.