BATTLE OF CORYDON
The Battle of Corydon Memorial Park is the July 9, 1863 site of the Union left flank where Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s advance element made the initial attack against the position held by companies of the 6th Regiment Indiana Legion. Image courtesy of Dave McBeth.
For several years I have provided five-part presentations at the Battle of Corydon Memorial Park, one mile south of the Corydon, Indiana Town Square, based on research I had engaged in for that purpose but had never committed to narrative. Recently I had received a request for information regarding the 1840s era cabin that replaced a similar structure that had been on the property since 1940.
The existing cabin had originally been built on a site just over three miles east of the park and had a history that is now the third part of the presentation that I created. This blog is intended to document that portion of the presentation for future use for anyone who shares an interest in our local history.
On entering the cabin, I revert to the history of the structure by explaining that historically, no building existed on the site at the time of the battle and that the ground likely remained fairly opened without the benefit of the tree canopy we enjoy throughout the area. This was farm land that probably resembled the open properties west of the park that can be seen today and wood, being the primary fuel further reduced tree coverage that close to town.
This poor image of the present cabin area illustrating the land around 1929 clearly shows the cultivated field to the left of the fence line up to the trees and pasture out to the roadbed of Old State Road 135 out of view. The copse of trees gives the impression that most were not there 66 years previously.
In early 2010, it became obvious that the old cabin that had been on the site since 1940 had experienced advanced deterioration to the point of becoming a public hazard. The popular story assigned to the old cabin tells of the landowner who lived on the west side of Old State Road 135 who moved the cabin to the battle park in order to marry off one of his daughters and simply gifted the building to the county after the event. The Battle of Corydon Park Committee began researching options to repair or replace the building, and through the efforts of Dan Bays, a cabin located on property along the Corydon-New Middletown Road was donated to the committee and County as a replacement for the existing cabin.
Harrison County native Jean Benner, who passed away in Tampa, Florida in 2015, provided us with the oral history behind the cabin that was originally built by her Uncle Amos Lemmon’s father, John Lemmon. Jean was the niece of Medora “Dora” Sonner, the second wife of Amos Lemmon. Her mother Sarah Sonner lived with Amos and Dora to attend high school in Corydon and “…she was sorta a household helper, to defray her room and board…but was one of the family forevermore.”
Kentuckian John Lemmon settled in Harrison County in 1824 to raise a family of ten children and serve his community. U.S. Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 shows location of John Lemmon’s property in the bottom left corner of Franklin Township in 1882.
John Lemmon, born in Shelby County, Kentucky February 1, 1804, originally built his two-story log home in Franklin Township, Harrison County, Indiana it is believed, sometime in the 1840s. Lemmon purchased a farm soon after arriving on land a little south of Turley Road, SE and East of New Middletown Road, SE. John and Elizabeth (Johnson) Lemmon were married in Harrison County, Indiana at the end of June 1826, and their first son Henson was born 1833.
By 1850, John and Elizabeth had eight children including two sons. Amos Lemmon was born in the cabin the third son to John and Elizabeth on August 3, 1850, and during the course of two decades, the status for the family improved as John Lemmon served in the Indiana Legislature in 1852, 1854, 1862, and 1864. Amos was 9 years old when his mother died in November 1859. As the sons reached adulthood they left in pursuit of their lives and John remained owner of the property until his death.
In June 1884, Amos married Medora Sonner, born in New Amsterdam, Harrison County, Indiana December 31, 1863. The couple’s first child, Walter Wesley Lemmon, was born in 1886, but died the following year. Daughter Georgia H. Lemmon, born in 1888, died in 1973, and son John Hardin Lemmon, born 1889, died in 1975.
The oral history indicates that it was John who possibly dismantled the cabin and moved it to Corydon-New Middletown Road, but accounts and land records show that John Lemmon lived on the land he purchased up to the time of his death. Amos Lemmon purchased a large lot that extended from that road, west to what is now Smith Hill Road after his return from Rockport, Spencer County, Indiana following his father’s death in September 1882. Amos was working as Spencer County Assistant Court Clerk and living with his first wife of nearly five years, Caroline “Caddie” Sharp, until she died from accidental drowning after falling into the cistern of their home in April 1882.
U.S. Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 from 1906 shows location of Amos Lemmon’s property just above the top left corner of the map’s blank space in the bottom right corner.
Before Amos remarried to 21-year old Medora Sonner in 1884, the old-growth tulip poplar logs of John Lemmon’s 18 x 22 foot cabin were marked with Roman numerals, deconstructed and removed to a prepared site over a well-constructed limestone block root cellar along Corydon-New Middletown Road. Two substantial additions, one to the rear of the structure and the other at the northwest end of the house, extended the living space about twelve feet in each direction.
This image of the cabin sometime in the 1960s shows the front of the house outfitted with aluminum storm doors and windows. Jean Benner indicated that all the clapboard siding had been removed prior to a sunporch being installed across the front of the house and a screened porch that was built spanning most of the rear of the structure.
Clap-board siding had been installed to hide the log nature of the home and additional framed porch structures were later added to the front and rear of the home. Sometime in the late 60s, when it became cool to live in a log home again, the clap-board siding was removed to expose the poplar logs.
During that decade, an 8-foot wide concrete slab was installed the length of the front face and an aluminum window sunroom with substantial roof was built. A screened in framed rear porch constructed of plywood was built along three quarters of the rear of the home on a cinderblock foundation. Members of the family lived in the house until approximately 1975 when it remained vacant until donated to Harrison County in the early fall of 2010.
Image of the southeast side of the Lemmon home in September 2010 before any work began. Several mature trees had grown right next to the front of the building and a virtual jungle had grown over the Northwest end of the house. A young sycamore sapling had a couple of season’s growth next to the root cellar entrance just below the center window with a nice crop of poison ivy adding to the hazards.
In the nearly 35 years that the house had been empty, nature had encroached on all sides requiring removal before entry could even be made through some doorways. Between early September and mid-November 2010, volunteers from the Battle of Corydon Memorial Park Advisory Committee set about clearing the trees and bushes to begin the task of dismantling all structures attached to the original 18 x 22 foot cabin. In less than 3 months, the volunteers reduced the structure to the roofed skeleton of the cabin, including the exposure of interior log walls both upstairs and downstairs.
All wiring, electrical outlets and light fixtures were removed along with ductwork for the HVAC system. The chinking used between logs that was original to the reassembly of the structure in the 1880s revealed horsehair used in the mud. Wider gaps between the logs were filled in with hand-cut oak slats before the mud was applied, all of which was removed. The two room additions that were added to the northwest end and rear of the cabin at time of reassembly were obviously accomplished by a master carpenter.
Once the volunteers had accomplished the removal of all editions and cleared debris and outbuildings from the site, the project went up for open bid to have the roofed cabin deconstructed and moved to the battle park to be assembled into the cabin on site today. Shireman’s Construction Company of Corydon, Indiana won the bid and completed the construction by late summer 2011. With the exception of the roof, fireplace/chimney and foundation, all material is intrinsic to the Lemmon house that existed for over 160 years.
Perhaps it is proper that the Lemmon house ended up being a part of the battle of Corydon history. On July 9, 1863, Daniel F. Lemmon, the older brother of Amos Lemmon, stood to arms with his comrades of the Jordan Guards Militia of the 6th Regiment Indiana Legion, within sight of the present day cabin as they awaited the arrival of General John Hunt Morgan.













