This is a biographical sketch I received from another descendant.
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Biographical sketch written December 22, 1919. Leon, Iowa
Lewis Larue Gammon, the subject of this sketch, was born near Blakesburg,
Wapello County, Iowa, October 18, 1853.  At that time the state of Iowa was
but sparsely populated, and contained only one short railroad of forty five
miles in length.  Millard Fillmore was president of the United States, and
Stephen Hempstead was governor of Iowa.  The state had been admitted into the
Union less than seven years and possessed a population of a little over
200,000.  The Iowa pioneers came mostly from New England, and the states of
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, and were a hardy, intelligent and
industrious people in every way fitted to lay the foundations of a
commonwealth.

James Wilkinson Gammon, father of Lewis L. Gammon, was born in Knoxville,
Tennessee, June 16, 1825, and his ancestors came from Wales in old colonial
days.  The mother, Armilda Eliza Miers, was born October 29, 1829, and her
ancestors came from Germany.  This couple were united in marriage November
19, 1852, near Blakesburg, Iowa, and to this union eleven children were born,
as follows: Lewis Larue Gammon; Newton Franklin Gammon, who died in Ringgold
County, Iowa, in 1888; Mrs. Lydia J. Cooper, now deceased; TheophilusGammon,
Bird LaFayette Gammon, Martha Jane McDaniel of Los Angeles, California; Mrs.
Kitty Arbogast, who died in Los Angeles; Willis Wilkinson Gammon; Gaines
Dozier Gammon; Charles Thomas Gammon, of Los Angeles, Cal., and Lucius W. L.
Gammon, of Omaha, Nebraska.  On the 6th day of April 1856, James W. Gammon
and family arrived in Decatur County and at once located on a farm in Eden
township.

The ancestors of the Gammon family migrated to America during colonial times,
and the great grandfather of the subject of this sketch served in the War of
the Revolution.  His grandfather, Dozier B. Gammon, was a soldier in the
Indian wars that prevailed during the year 1812.

Lewis L. Gammon came with his parents to Eden township, and during his
boyhood days endured the hardships and disadvantages incident to a pioneer
life.  In those days school facilities were exceedingly meager, and he had no
opportunity to attend school until he had attained the age of thirteen years.
 The settlers of his vicinity in Eden township constructed a log school
house, always afterwards known as Brush College, and there Mr. Gammon began
his rather brief educational career.  P.H. Binckley, of Washington, D.C., a
man of ability and good attainments, later on a lawyer and editor, became the
first instructor of said school.  Before the term was entirely concluded the
school house was destroyed by fire, probably the work of an incendiary.
However, another house was soon rebuilt, and Miss Mary Chastain, who
afterwards became Mrs. Joseph Walton, taught the school very successfully for
several years.  Other teachers were Lawrence D. Brooke, David McCutchan,
Phillip Kemp and Emmett Gardner.  A term at the Leon public school, under
Prof. Frasier, concluded his school attendance, but he was always an
inveterate reader of newspapers and books, the latter consisting chiefly of
history and natural laws.  Having been an industrious student of
informational literature, his range of knowledge became greatly extended.