nown, it will give
to both Mr. Lemen and Jefferson their proper shares of credit and
fame; and, while it will add a new star to Jefferson's splendid fame,
it will carry James Lemen along with him as his worthy co-worker and
companion. The {p.56} subject of our sketch died at his home near
Waterloo, Monroe county, on January 8th, 1823, and was buried in the
family cemetery near by.

XVI. OLD LEMEN FAMILY NOTES, JAMES LEMEN HISTORY, AND SOME RELATED
FACTS

(MS. Document in I.B.H.C.,--C102. By Jos. B. Lemen)

In 1857, to save the old "Lemen Family Notes" from loss by careless
but persistent borrowers, Dr. B. F. Edwards, of St. Louis, and Rev. J.
M. Peck, advised Rev. James Lemen, Jr., to make copies of all and then
give the original stock to a friend whom they named to keep as his own
in a safe vault in St. Louis, if he would pay all storage charges. But
at that time he only gave the most important ones to Rev. J. M. Peck
to place temporarily in a safe in St. Louis where he sometimes kept
his own papers; though some years later he acted on their advice and
making copies of all papers and letters of any value, gave the whole
original stock to the party mentioned (we do not recall his name, but
it is among our papers) [possibly the J. M. Smith mentioned in Dr.
Peck's communication to James Lemen, Jr., July 17, 1857] and he placed
them in the safe. Shortly after this their holder died, and they
passed into the hands of others who removed them to another safe
somewhere in St. Louis; but having no further title in the papers, and
having copies of all for use, the family finally lost all traces of
the papers and the parties holding them, and have only heard from them
two or three times in more than 40 years.

A few years ago, when a history of Rev. James Lemen, Jr., and his
father, Rev. James Lemen, Sr., was in contemplation, a reputed agent
of the parties whom he then claimed held the old family notes,
informed us that the family could have them at any time they wished;
and we promised some of our friends who wished to see them that after
we had used them in connection with the proposed history, the old
stock of papers would be placed where they could see and copy them, if
they wished. It was intended to have a few of the more important
letters photographed for the James Lemen history; though it was said
that some years before some one had a few of them photographed and
they were so indistinct as to be worthle