Charles Kemp
Surnames: Barton, Coats, Cook, Goodson, Hackwell, Jones, Lamb,
Miles, Patterson, Rice, Wacker, Walker, Wilcox
Regions: Bradford, Rock Co., WI; Oakland, Jefferson Co., NY; Utica, Oneida Co., NY
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 837-838
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.
From Rock County, Wisconsin, publ. 1908 - pages 956-958:
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.