- CHARLES KEMP, a prosperous and highly respected farmer of
the town of Bradford, Rock
- County, has made his way to his present comfortable position
in life through hindrances that would have proved insurmountable,
save to the most daring and persevering natures.
- William KEMP, grandfather of Charles, was a citizen of West
Kent, England, and followed the
- occupation of lime burner. He was the father of ten children,
and died in 1830, when about seventy-five years old. William
KEMP, his eldest son, was born in Bethersden, England, Nov. 30,
1785. About 1814 he married and moved to Biddenden, in the same
county. He served in the militia five years, and in 1830 entered
the employ of Capt. Cook Tilden PATTERSON, a wealthy land owner,
continuing in his service until 1872. He died in July 1874, held
in the very deepest respect and esteem by all who knew him. Rev.
W. T. PATTERSON, the eldest son of the family to whom his services
had been so long rendered, asked and obtained permission to mingle
with the family and follow to the grave the remains of the family's
faithful friend. Mr. KEMP became a member of the Church of England
in 1831, and for many yeas was an active worker in the cause
of Christianity. He married Mrs. Lydia MILES, widow of John MILES,
a British soldier. Her family name was WALKER. She bore William
KEMP four sons and five daughters, only three of whom are now
living: Stephen, at Fort Atkinson, Wis., who was born Aug. 29,
1821; Charles, our subject; and Jesse, who was born April 11,
1831, and is now living at Cranbrook, County Kent, England.
- Charles KEMP was born at Biddenden, England, Aug. 20, 1826.
He left school when he was
- only nine years of age, to work on the farm at six cents
per day. He continued as a farm laborer in England until 1851,
and started for the United States on the day of the opening of
the World's Fair at London. He landed in the city of New York,
June third, and made his way to Utica in that State, reaching
there with less than two dollars in his pocket. He spent some
five years in that part of New York, and was married there Feb.
26, 1856. Shortly after this the young couple moved to Wisconsin,
and settled in the town of Oakland, Jefferson County, where they
lived four years. Mr. KEMP worked as a farm hand, and his wife
also went out to do housework for the neighboring farmers' wives.
In 1860 they moved into Harmony township, where Mr. KEMP rented
a farm and was engaged in its cultivation two years. He was on
a rented farm three years in Jefferson County, and again located
in Harmony township, Rock County, and then spent four years each
in La Prairie and Janesville. Harmony became his home once more,
thence he moved to Johnstown, after which he bought land and
settled down on his present handsome place in Bradford township.
Here he has secured himself a fine farm of 220 acres, furnished
with ample improvements, and thoroughly up to date in every respect.
As the story of early privation is recalled, and the difficulties
through which this man and his noble wife have passed, the reflection
cannot be avoided that they heave shown the mark of nature's
nobility in the struggle they have made, and the victory they
have won.
- Mrs. Charles KEMP, born Mary GOODSON, is a daughter of William
and Esther (COOK)
- GOODSON, who came from England in 1828. They landed in New
York where her father narrowly escaped drowning in the harbor.
The husband, wife and three children - the oldest four years
and the youngest six months of age - went to Utica, N.Y. Here
the father left his family with one English shilling to support
them for four days while he sought and found work as a farm hand,
walking to Marshall, twelve miles away. He continued this work
until he had sufficient means to remove his family and set up
housekeeping in that town, where for seven years he was employed
by a Mr. BARTON. He then began work for himself by cultivating
land on shares. He did well, and his employer loaned him the
money with which to purchase fifty acres of land in Oneida County,
N.Y. In 1856 he came west to Wisconsin, and settled in the town
of Harmony, Rock County, where he had his home many years. He
lived subsequently in the town of Footville, in the same county,
making his home for twenty years with his two daughters, and
died in Janesville at the age of eighty-eight. His wife died
Sept. 22, 1873, when seventy-two years old. They were honest
and industrious people, and are highly spoken of by those who
knew them in pioneer times.
- Mr. and Mrs. Charles KEMP are the parents of eight children,
Josephine, Henry, Thomas,
- Henrietta, Esther, Emory William, Philo H., Zada and Charles
I. Henrietta died when a young child. Emory is married and is
engaged in farming in the town of Harmony; he has two children.
Josephine married William LAMB, a farmer in the town of Johnstown,
and has one daughter, Marietta. Philo H. married Miss Susan JONES,
and lives in the town of Bradford, where he follows blacksmithing.
Zada married C. H. HACKWELL, a farmer in the town of Bradford.
Charles KEMP belongs to the Methodist Church, of which he and
his family are old-time supporters.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 837-838.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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