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Rock County, Wisconsin

Biographies

"Charles Kemp"

CHARLES KEMP, for more than half a century a resident of Wisconsin and one of her
substantial farmers and representative men, was born in West Kent county, England, August 20, 1826, and is one of a family of nine children born to William and Lydia (WACKER) KEMP, the former born in West Kent county and the latter in Lincolnshire, England, where they passed their lives. The father was a farmer.
On May 1, 1851, Charles embarked for the United States and on the 2d of June following landed
in New York, thence going up the Hudson river, spending five years in Oneida county, New York, and from there in 1856 he removed to Jefferson county, Wisconsin, where he continued farming till 1863. From that time till 1869 he rented and cultivated a farm in La Prairie township, Rock county, then farmed four years in Janesville township, thence going to the township of Johnstown, and thence in 1878 to Bradford township, and there continued his occupation of farming. In 1885 he bought eighty acres of land in section 3, to which he afterwards added 140 acres in section 4, and there made his permanent home. Under his careful management this farm has been finely improved with good farm buildings and modern equipments and is justly regarded one of the model farms of Rock county.
Mr. KEMP is a Republican in politics, though he takes no active part in political affairs more than
to perform his duties as a citizen, and in religious faith he is affiliated with the Methodist church at Fairfield.
On February 26, 1856, Mr. KEMP married Miss Mary, daughter of William and Esther (COOK)
GOODSON, who was born at Marshall, Oneida county, N.Y., June 1, 1835, and received her education there. Her parents, natives of England, came to the United States in 1829 after the birth of their third child and settled in 1856 to Harmony township, Rock county, Wisconsin. After the death of the mother, which occurred in 1873 when seventy years of age, the father made his home with his daughter, Mrs. ______ WILCOX, at Janesville, till his decease June 2, 1894.
Of eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. KEMP, the eldest, Henrietta, born September 4, 1857,
died when two years old; Emery W. lives on his farm of ninety-five acres in Harmony township with his wife, Mattie, nee COATS, and their two children, Edith and Earl; Josephine is married to Mr. William LAMB, a farmer of Johnstown township, and they have two children, Mary and Charles; Philo is a blacksmith and married Miss Susan JONES, of Emerald Grove, where he has his home; Henry T., born March 30, 1867, has always lived on the family homestead. He was educated in the district schools of Johnstown and Bradford and is a wide-awake farmer, of the younger generation. He is a Republican in politics and a worthy member of the Methodist church. Zeda is married to Mr. Charles HACKWELL, who lives on his fine farm of eighty acres in Bradford township; Esther lives at home; Charles married Miss Agnes RICE and lives on the eighty-acres farm owned by his father.
 
Taken from "Rock County, Wis." by William Fiske Brown, (c)1908, pp. 956-958.
 
Courtesy of Carol

This page last updated July 5, 2002
 
©2002 WIBiographies-Rock County
 
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