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Company A Twelfth Iowa Infantry Civil War
Humeston New Era May 19, 1920
Sumner Kemp, pioneer saw mill man of Alden and one of the first white men to settle there in the early 1850s is dead at his home. He was 87.
1883 History of Hardin County, Iowa
Sumner Kemp is a son of Lawrence Kemp and Mary Steward Kemp and was born in Shelbourne, Franklin County, Massachusetts February 6, 1833. He was reared on a farm and received a good common school education at the district schools of that day. In June 1854 he came west, meeting Henry Alden at Naperville, Illinois,...
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Company A Twelfth Iowa Infantry Civil War
Humeston New Era May 19, 1920
Sumner Kemp, pioneer saw mill man of Alden and one of the first white men to settle there in the early 1850s is dead at his home. He was 87.
1883 History of Hardin County, Iowa
Sumner Kemp is a son of Lawrence Kemp and Mary Steward Kemp and was born in Shelbourne, Franklin County, Massachusetts February 6, 1833. He was reared on a farm and received a good common school education at the district schools of that day. In June 1854 he came west, meeting Henry Alden at Naperville, Illinois, where they bought an ox team and wagon and started westward crossing the Mississippi river at Dubuque and coming thence west to the Cedar River, which they struck at Jonesville, their intention being to locate a mill site. After wandering about for some time they finally found Thomas Bailey and others on a hunting expedition up the Iowa River; from them they learned of a location on the Iowa; descending that stream they came to the present location of the village of Alden and pitched their tents. Soon after Mr. Kemp started for Fort Des Moines to enter land for himself and Mr. Alden, which he did. He in company with Ira Plummer made the entire journey on foot, wading swamps and rivers, which at that season of the year were overflowing. The trip lasted seven days. While there he entered 80 acres for himself and 120 for Alden. They soon after began to build a mill, but he soon after sold his interest to Alden and in 1856 began to improve his farm, and succeeded in planting eighteen acres to sod corn the first year. During this summer he had built his house. December 25, 1856, he was married in Henry County, Iowa, to Miss Hannah E. Button, daughter of Albert Button and Mary Collins Button. Mr. Kemp has held the office of township trustee several times.
He enlisted in September 1861 in Company A, Twelfth Iowa Infantry under Captain S.R. Edgington. During the Battle of Shiloh he was Orderly for General Tuttle. His own regiment being taken prisoners at that battle he was put on detached service and afterward served as Clerk in the Provost Marshal's office at Cairo, Illinois and afterward at Vicksburg. He was on the expedition up the Red River with General Banks.
Five children have been born to them. Four are now living: Eva now the wife of Charles Rummel living at Ellsworth; Cora now the wife of Frank Joslin of Alden; Mary and Charles Sumner.
From contributor, Robert Fahey:
Past and Present of Hardin County Iowa, published 1911, pages 664-667:
Sumner Kemp
The Kemp family has long been regarded as leaders in the affairs of Hardin County and it is one of the old names in the annals of American citizenship, its representatives having been more or less conspicuous in various walks of life wherever they have dispersed for some four hundred years. We first hear of four members of this family settling in Massachusetts, one, William Kemp, arriving there in the ship James on April 5, 1635, settling at Duxbury; he was a juryman and adopted freeman on March 5, 1638 or 1639. He got a land grant on January 7, 1638 or 1639. Robert Kemp settled in Dedham , Massachusetts and was adopted to the church on April 24, 1639. Edward Kemp also emigrated to that state and settled in Dedham and was probably a brother of Robert; he was admitted a freeman on March 13, 1638 or 1639; he removed to Wareham, that state, in 1651, thence to Chelmsford, the same state, in 1655; his family consisted of two children, Esther and Samuel. Samuel Kemp married Sarah Foster, a daughter of Sergt. Thomas Foster, of Braintree, Massachusetts, May 23, 1662 and their children were Samuel, Abigail, Zerubbabel, Jonathan, Mahitable and Bithes. Zerubbabel, son of Samuel Kemp, settled in Groton, Massachusetts, about 1666; he and his wife Mary became the parents of seven children: Zebenezer, Zerubbabel, John, Mary, Doralba, Hezekiah and Sarah. John Kemp, son of Zerubbabel, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, January 18, 1707 and lived there until his death; his family consisted of the following children: John, Lawrence, Oliver, Jabez, Stephen, Henry, Amora and Sarah. Captain Lawrence Kemp was born September 24, 1733 and died in Groton, Massachusetts, October 2, 1805; he was a soldier in the French and Indian war in Captain Cleve's company, of Deerfield, Massachusetts; he was captain of the Thirteenth Company, of Colonel David Field's regiment, was commissioned May 3, 1776 and fought in the Revolution at Ticonderoga in 1777 and was Captain in Colonel David Willis's regiment; he removed from Groton to Deerfield; in 1767 he moved to Shelburne; on July 4, 1756, he married Dorothy Steffin and their children were Oliver, Solomon, John, Hannah, Dorotha, Able, Lawrence and Mahitable. Lawrence Kemp, the son of Captain Lawrence Kemp and grandfather of Sumner Kemp, of this review, was born at Shelburne, Massachusetts , March 3, 1776 and died August 3, 1821; he married, on October 9, 1799, Mahitable Ellis, of Buckland, Massachusetts. Sumner Kemp was born on September 12, 1800 and he died at sea; Lawrence, born September 21, 1802; Abner, born February 12, 1804; John, born February 6, 1806 and died at Heath; Lucinda, born January 25, 1808, married, October 18, 1827, Orin Dole; Benjamin E., born December 9, 1810, married Sarah Eddy, November 12, 1834; Joseph, born August 30, 1813, lived at Ann Arbor, Michigan and was in the employ of the United States government; Noah, born February 16, 1817, died while single.
Lawrence Kemp, father of the subject, married Mary Stewart, daughter of Enos and Lucretia (Clark) Stewart; her death occurred on December 13, 1885. To this union the following children were born: Mary Ann, born January 4, 1831, married Ashael G. Mathews; they live at Brookline, Massachusetts and are the parents of three children, Ella, Anna (deceased) and Florence; Sumner, of this review, was born in Shelburne, Massachusetts, February 6, 1833; Horace, a farmer, was born August 17, 1835, lived at Colerain, Massachusetts and died in February 1910; Lucretia, born March 24, 1838, died December 7, 1891; Charles S., born August 4, 1840, died November 12, 1862; Ann Jennette, born February 10, 1845, died July 31, 1845; Elsie Cordelia, born July 20, 1847, died September 14, 1865.
The father of these children received only a common school education. He followed the sea on a whaling vessel for four years and later he owned a farm near Shelburne, Massachusetts, which he operated successfully. He was a Democrat and a man of positive ideas and sterling honesty.
Sumner Kemp, of this review, was educated in the home schools and he remained under his parental roof until the spring of 1854, when he went to Naperville, Illinois; then he met Henry Alden, of Conway, Massachusetts and he and the subject fitted out a covered wagon, purchased a yoke of oxen and started west for the purpose of locating a site for a saw mill. They crossed the Mississippi river on a ferryboat to Dubuque, Iowa and went on to Independence, Iowa, thence to Jonesville and Waverly, crossed the Cedar River and on to Worth County, this state. For several days at a time they did not see a white man or a cabin, the major part of the state then being very sparsely settled and the home of various tribes of Indians. From Worth county they traveled toward Sioux City; finding the streams dangerously swollen, they followed the river to the site of the present city of Beloit, Iowa, where they turned and came back east and on July 1, 1854, located where the town of Alden, Hardin County, is now built. Here they erected a log shanty and bought a mill site and began getting timber ready for the building of the mill, which they finished in May 1855. Being sick with ague, the subject made a trip to Des Moines. He first entered eighty acres of land and operated the mill about a year, then sold his interest and from then on devoted his attention to farming, clearing land and similar work. He built a comfortable home in section 18, just in the west edge of Alden, for which he sawed out all the timber. Selling this home in 1908, he built another. He built the home where he now lives about 1891 and made all the improvements on the place and has devoted all his time to farming and stock raising, being successful in each above the average man and has long been regarded as one of the leading citizens of this part of the county and is one of the honored pioneers of the same, having played well his part in its development all along. He has served as trustee, also as councilman of Alden. He votes independently for the man whom he regards as best qualified for the office sought.
Mr. Kemp is one of the honored veterans of the Civil War, who went to forth to defend his nation's integrity by enlisting on September 27, 1861, in Company A, Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. This company was sent to Dubuque, this state and drilled, thence to the barracks at St. Louis, Missouri, then to Smithland, Kentucky, later by boat to Paducah, Kentucky, to Fort Henry, that state, later to Fort Donelson, Tennessee, which they captured then ascended the Tennessee River and was in the battle of Shiloh, the subject being an orderly for General Tuttle. He was later given duty on a hospital boat and went to Cincinnati, Ohio, in charge of a number of sick and wounded. After returning he took another load to Keokuk, Iowa, on the boat City of Memphis. Mr. Kemp was in the office of provost marshal of Cairo, Illinois , about a year, as clerk, then joined his regiment at Vicksburg. He was then sent with the Thirty-fifth Regiment on the Red River expedition, under General A.J. Smith and joined General Banks at Alexandra, and was in the rear of Banks up Sabine Pass when Banks was attacked and they all retreated, but fought a hard battle with the Confederates at Pleasant Hill, both sides losing many men. They later retreated to the Mississippi River. They had fought for eighteen days and nights. They finally reached Vicksburg, then took a boat to Memphis and went to the mouth of White River, where they had a hard skirmish. Being ill with malaria fever, Mr. Kemp was confined in a hospital at Memphis three months and when able he worked about that city for a while. He was honorably discharged on November 23, 1864. According to his comrades he had made an excellent soldier. He was never wounded but had a number of close calls. Mr. Kemp is a member of Fairbanks Post No. 436, Grand Army of the Republic, at Alden, Iowa, of which he was commander in 1910.
Mr. Kemp was first married on December 25, 1855, to Hannah Button, of New York state and to this union five children were born, namely: Eva is the wife of Charles Rummel, of Alden, Iowa; Cora, who married Frank Joslyn, is deceased; Jessie died in infancy; Mary is the widow of William Patterson and lives at Iowa Falls; Charles died when sixteen years of age.
Mr. Kemp was married in 1904 to Eva D. Howe, of Ashland, New Hampshire and to this union two children were born, John Sumner and Ruth.
Mr. Kemp is a well preserved man for his years, has a host of friends wherever he is known and is a man of integrity and generosity. |
