Smith Lemon & Sarah Amanda Anderson

Photo: Smith Lemon monument
[Source: FindAGrave]

Photo: Sarah Amanda [Anderson] Lemon headstone
Born May 16, 1830   Died Sept. 15, 1854
[Source: FindAGrave]

United States Census (1850); Cobb Co., GA; November 9, 1850

Smith Lemon - 30 years old - male - white - farmer - born in South Carolina
Sarah A ----- - 21 years old - female - white - born in Georgia
William ----- - 2 years old - male - white
[Source: FamilySearch.org]

United States Census (Slave Schedule, 1850); Cobb Co., GA
Smith Lemon owned three slaves as of 1850: a female, age 35; a female, age 4; and a male, age 10. This is a difficult subject for us to face, but it is a part of our history. I think of those individuals and wonder if they were family.
[Source: FamilySearch.org]

United States Census (1860); Cobb Co., GA
Smith Lemon - 39 years old - male - merchant - value of real estate: $3500 - value of personal estate: $32,150 - born in South Carolina
A. E. ----- - 26 years old - female - born in Georgia
Wm ----- - 11 years old - male - attended school within the past year
J. L. ----- - 5 months old - male
John McConnell - 11 years old - male - attended school within the past year

At this point, Smith's first wife, Sarah, had passed away. William is Smith and Sarah's child. The couple had two other children, Elizabeth (who died before her second birthday; source needed) and James Smith (I believe Sarah died a week after giving birth to him, and he passed away a few days later; source needed). A few years later, the widowed Smith married Annie Elizabeth Smith. Jesse Lemon is listed as a baby in this census. He was Smith and Annie's first child together.

John McConnell is a mystery to me! There are McConnells in Cobb County at this time. I don't know if the Lemons took him in for a while, or what his situation was.

Note: Because of the smudged ink on the census, fold3.com has indexed Lemon as "Levston." It subsequently appears as such on familysearch.org and ancestry.com.
[Source: Archive.org]

Photo: The Lemon House
[Source: City-data.com]

The Lemon family left its mark in Cobb County, Georgia. Downtown Acoworth boasts a small Lemon Street. The oldest bank in the county was established by Smith Lemon and his brother, James. The bank vault is presently located in one of the historic commercial buildings in town. General Sherman famously and thoroughly burned this part of Georgia, including most of the town of Acworth, but spared the Lemon House (built by James Lemon in the 1850s) since the Union used it as headquarters.
[Source: City of Acworth]

Based on the research of a living descendant James Lyle Lemon, the S. Lemon Banking Company (which was also a mercantile store in its early years) held gold for local customers, as well as for his contacts in the North. After the Civil War broke, Smith Lemon fought hard to protect the money of his northern customers, but ultimately the Confederate government seized all money owed to northerners.

By the time General Sherman arrived in Georgia, Smith was called to defend the coastlines of Savannah. He never saw battle. His wife maintained the bank and store while the Lemon brothers served in the military. (Sarah had already died at this point.) The Confederacy was unable to replace the moneys seized during the war, so Smith did what he could to gather money and reimburse his customers in the North, personally traveling to New York to do so. The Lemon brothers provided financial and temporal assistance to Confederate veterans after the war, helping greatly to rebuild the area after the devastation of the war.
[Source with Image: personal flickr.com account]

Photo: Check from The S. Lemon Banking Co.
[Source: famous-celebrity-autographs.com]

It appears that the precursor to Acworth High School (in Acworth, GA) was previously named the Smith Lemon Institute. I'm still looking into the relationship between this school and our ancestor, Smith Lemon, who was a prominent member of Cobb County, GA at the same time.

A history of the Smith Lemon Institute
The 1901 graduating class of the Smith Lemon Institute

2 comments: