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JACK E. LEMON
Vol. 3, p. 1235-1236

As the author of two important constitutional amendments that were
submitted to and adopted by the people of Oklahoma as a result of his
effective labors during one term of service in the State Legislature,
Mr. Lemon has gained a prominent place among the representative
legislators and law-makers of this commonwealth. His other efforts of
constructive and leveling order in connection with the providing
consistent and effective formulation and interpretation of the
constitution and statutes of the new commonwealth constituted an
important part in the history of the state, and he has stood exponent
of the highest type of civic loyalty, as well as sponsor for
progressive policies in governmental, educational and industrial
affairs. Mr. Lemon is a pioneer who settled in the historic Cherokee
Strip of Oklahoma at the time when it was thrown open to settlement,
and he has since continued his residence in what is now Grant County,
his home being at Nash, in which village he is engaged in the real-
estate business.

Jack E. Lemon was born in Crittenden County, Kentucky, in the year
1870, and is a son of William Blunt Lemon and Fannie (WORD) Lemon,
his paternal grandfather, who was a native of North Carolina and a
Scotch descent, having been numbered among the pioneers of Crittenden
County, Kentucky, and the maternal ancestors having settled in
Virginia in the colonial era, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Lemon
having been a prosperous planter and slave-holder in the Old Dominion
State prior to the Civil war and having thereafter removed to
Kentucky. Mr. Lemon has four brothers and one sister: Robert F. is a
merchant at Shady Grove, Kentucky; Edward L. is engaged in farming
near Phillipsburg, Kansas, and Gustavus E. is a prosperous farmer of
Grant County, Oklahoma; Robert A. is associated with his brother,
Jack E., of this review, in the real-estate business at Nash; and
Mrs. Daisy COLDIRON resides at Red Rock, Oklahoma, where her husband
is a representative physician and surgeon.

The rudimentary education of Jack E. Lemon was obtained in primitive
mountain schools in Kentucky, and his entire period of attendance did
not cover more than twelve months. With alert mentality and early
developed ambition, he did not permit this handicap to dismay him,
but pursued his studies at home, where often he lay at night before
an open fireplace blazing with pine knots and, like Abraham Lincoln,
made, through sheer force of will, a definite advancement in
scholastic lore. The result of this earnest application under
unfavorable conditions was that he eventually proved himself eligible
for pedagogic honors. He was granted a teacher's certificate, and for
ten years thereafter was a successful and popular teacher in the
schools of his adopted state. A natural student, he has widened
constantly his scope of knowledge, and is today a man of excellent
intellectual attainments. While teaching he read extensively and with
marked discrimination, becoming specially interested in the works of
Henry George and Adam Smith.

In 1893 Mr. Lemon came to what is now the State of Oklahoma and
became a member of that remarkably large band of men and women who
"made the run" into the Cherokee Strip for the purpose of obtaining
homesteads. He entered claim to a tract of 160 acres in Grant County,
and on this homestead he remained fifteen years, applying himself
vigorously and effectively to its reclamation and improvement and in
the meanwhile having taught in the pioneer schools of that section of
the territory during a period of ten years, his pedagogic labors
having been performed principally during the winter months, when he
was relieved of the responsibilities of his farm management to a
large extent. He still owns a valuable landed state in Grant County
and upon leaving his homestead he removed to the Village of Nash,
where he has since been associated with his brother, Robert A., in
the real-estate business, under the firm name of Lemon Brothers. The
firm controls a large an important business and its operations have
contributed in large measure to the civic and industrial development
and prosperity of Grant and adjoining counties.

Undeviating from the course of close allegiance to the cause of the
democratic party, Mr. Lemon has been one of its prominent and
influential representatives in Grant County. In 1912 he was elected a
member of the Fourth Legislature of the state, and in the same he
distinguished himself as a author of several measures which resulted
in important legislative reforms. He was a member of the committee on
education and of the sub-committee that had charge of the preparation
and adoption of the general code. He was associated with
Representative Woodward as joint author of a resolution setting aside
for the benefit of rural consolidated schools the money obtained from
the sale of section 33 of the state school lands. This measure, ably
championed by him, came to enactment and constitutes one of the most
important pieces of legislation that the state has adopted in
connection with the rural schools.

Representative Lemon was the author of a resolution that provided
for submission to the people a constitutional amendment decreasing
the number of members of the State Board of Agriculture from eleven
to five and authorizing the governor to appoint the members of the
board. This measure was carried as a constitutional amendment in the
popular election of 1913, and has had important bearing in the
furtherance of the industries of agriculture and stock growing in the
state. The high estimate placed upon the services of Mr. Lemon in the
Fourth Legislature was indicated by his re-election, in the fall of
1914, to the Fifth Legislature, in which he continued his loyal and
well directed efforts for wise legislation for the benefit of the
people in general. He was made chairman of the Fifth Legislature of
the committee on roads and highways, and during the session devoted
much of his time and attention on measures pertaining to the very
important work of this committee. He was the author of a bill,
patterned after the Kansas "Blue Sky Law," regulating the issuance
and sale of stocks, especially those of corporations outside the
borders of the state. He introduced also a bill prohibiting for five
years the killing of quail and prairie chickens in the state. Another
bill presented by him provided that railroad companies be required to
establish crossings on streets and highways in the cities and
villages and also on the public highway crossings in the country
throughout Oklahoma. Another important measure introduced and
effectively championed by Mr. Lemon vitalized a constitutional
amendment distributing corporation tax among public schools. At the
present time Mr. Lemon is zealously advocating constructive
legislation pertaining to rural schools and public highways. Subjects
that are correlated as a part of a general system of reform that will
make farm conditions and rural education more inviting and more
consistent with the ideals of modern progress, besides tending to
decrease the movement of farmers from their homestead places into
villages or cities. In a fraternal way Mr. Lemon is an appreciative
and popular member of the Nash Lodge, No. 373, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, of which he served on term as noble grand. He still
permits his name to remain enrolled on the list of eligible bachelors.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, November 03, 1998.