The Pelham family relocated several times during Lumon’s childhood. They lived in West Fairlee, Vermont in 1820, Brunswick in 1830, and Guildhall in 1840. It is unclear how long Lumon remained with the family during this time.

Sometime between 1830 and 1840, Lumon moved to Hartford. He appears in early city directories as a hairdresser.

Lumon operated his business and lived at a property he rented from Christopher Comstock at 9 Ferry Street. When Pellom fell behind on his rent, he agreed to the forfeiture of his household  and shop furniture and personal property within ninety days for a sum of fifty dollars. This transaction, signed on June 8, 1840 provides a glimpse of an African American barbershop furnishings:

One screen, two looking glasses, three barber chairs, one hat stand, one stove and pipe, three stands & shop tables, four chairs, two tables, twenty pictures & frames, one sign, one can & water barrel, and all of the personal property and all other personal property wherever it may be situated . . . .

A few weeks before Pellom attempted to settle his debts with Comstock, he attended a gathering at  the “Colored Congregational Church,” Hartford’s first Black Church.  Famed abolitionist and Connecticut native David Ruggles (b 1810, Norwich) addressed a crowd that had gathered at the church to advocate for a “Convention of the Colored Americans of the Free States.” Pellom was appointed to a committee of five to promote the abolitionist mouthpiece, Mirror of Liberty which Ruggles edited and promoted from his perch in New York. The Talcott Street Congregational Church continued to play a key role in the abolitionist movement and was a frequent gathering place for the city’s Black residents to engage in conversations about the national struggle for freedom and equality. As a committee member, Pellom interacted with prominent members and leaders of the church such as Deacons James Mars and Isaac Cross and Reverend James Pennington.

On 20 January 1849, Lumon married Lucretia Caples in East Haddam. It is unclear which of his networks brought these two into contact.

Pellom appeared in the 1850 census in Fishkill, New York with his wife and children.

Pellom is attested in Newburgh, NY by 1855.

By the 1880s, Pellom, his four sons and one his daughters remained in Newburgh. His daughter Mary Anne Ray had married a Civil War veteran, Theodore Ray, and the couple moved to Washington, D.C. so that Theodore could take up the position of clerk with the United States Treasury Department. Lumon’s namesake and two other sons Thornton and Frederick had joined him in the barber trade. Thornton and Lumon Jr. appear in the 1901 edition of The Barbers Journal. The Pellom men maintained a profession that has featured prominently in African American economic and social autonomy in the United States.