Mark Lemon, Alamo Historian
By: Mark Lemon 04/01/2009
Don't get me started on respected Alamo artists who pompously sit on their laurels, let their research stagnate and then come unglued after viewing my work. My message: Grow up, stop crying, get current with your data and then maybe we can all get along ... but I’m not holding my breath.
With the possible exception of Alamo researcher Rick Range, there is no one alive more driven to get the actual architectural details correct regarding the Alamo compound than I am.
For my obsessions you can blame me. Then again, one person’s “obsession” is another person’s “getting things done.”
Most people don't know I am a closet Journey/Steve Perry fan. Eighties music rules.
For my money the best Alamo movie is ALAMO: The Price of Freedom (long version). It has the best Travis, the best Santa Anna, a pretty good Crockett, passable Bowie, excellent sound, great combat scenes, excellent depiction of the lighting conditions and a heart-rending scene with Travis and Angelina Dickinson (who was an infant at the time of the Alamo battle). Too bad it’s only seen at the IMAX theater in San Antonio.
The worst large-budget Alamo film is John Wayne’s 1960 The Alamo. Oddly enough, it’s pretty entertaining, but I still cannot watch it without my finger on the fast forward button.
If I could go back in time I’d like to think I’d have the courage to march beside my great-great grandfather into the Wheat Field at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. A company commander in the 18th Georgia Infantry, he was the only soldier from Georgia who has been awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor (by the Sons of Confederate Veterans).
My wife Alla lost the garage to a scale model of the Alamo. Luckily, my Alamo buddy, the singer Phil Collins, rode in to the rescue, bought the model and had it shipped to San Antonio where people may view it—and it’s safe from the ravages of my cat.
What history has taught me is that every man has within himself the power to make himself either visible, or invisible, to the world. If you choose to make yourself visible, make sure it’s for a good, and not an evil, purpose.
Comments (4)
Hi Laura,
Your comment is intriguing. I must have known you in college, but the last name "Turner" doesn't ring a bell.....You'll have to give me a clue.
I loved that old 55 Studebaker, but it gave me fits sometimes...How did I know you?
Mark L.
Hi Mark,
Do you still have a penchant for Studebakers?
Laura
UGA
Currently in Houston, TX
My name is MA Lemon and a very distant cousin to the Historian Mark Lemon who is a good one, and I recommend all of his works....
My 3rd grandfather Lemon owned a Bank, was the first merchant in Cobb county, and cotton dealer... At the time of his death he paid more taxes than anyone in Cobb County.
I hold many of the family records and the complete descendancy along with the photo lines from Baron Lemont castle forward....
Here is a Alamo story based in fact, I hold the photos of uncle Ben Fuqua from tin types, as well as his land maps and marriage bond to my cousin Nancy Gladden King, and photos of his daddy for example....
Some say more documentation is required to know what really happen at the Alamo.
Well here you go....
I was 50 before I realized I am actually 1/32 Cherokee Indian. Grandmother Louia was the daughter of a Indian Chief from Mississippi. I have always had this thing about tracking, but never knew why.
I did find Louia's husband, Grandfather James Parchman. James's 1st cousin, Millie Parchman had married Colonel John Gladden King and had moved to Gonzales Texas.
Millie's boy, cousin William Phillip King, died 6 Mar 1836, San Antonio de Béxar, and is buried next to the Alamo mission in Texas. He and his cousin Galba Fuqua were Riflemen in the Gonzales Rangers, and did in fact ride 22 miles forward to face down Santa Anna and 3000 Mexican regulars there in 1836.
At just under 15-1/2 years old, William King was the youngest man killed at the Alamo. They named King County Texas after him.
Cousin Polly King married Robert Hall. If you want to know what a real Indian fighter was about, there is a Robert Hall Museum in Texas. If you want Robert Hall's photo, it is in his book.
Uncle Thomas W Stokely, marched with Sam Houston, and was KIA at the Battle of San Jacinto, Texas, 21 Apr 1836.
In 18 minutes they about wiped the Mexican army out, and Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón never returned to the Republic of Texas.
Nice thoughts, however, the true Alamo researcher is the one who uncovers and translates Mexican army documents, field reports, etc. so that we of today can know what really happened at the Alamo and the Texas Revolt of 1836. Alamo research is not research if it depends upon speculation after speculation, and the Alamo saga today is based upon such speculation today. We don't need any mo' Davy Crockett/Alamo paintings of glory, we need more historical documentation to manifest what really happened in 1836.
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