Leonidas H Kemp (1837 - 1918)

Born 25 Nov 1837 in Tennessee

Descendants

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Biography

Buried in Philadelphia Cemetery, Prattsville, Grant county, Arkansas.

From Goodspeed Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas, Grant County. Pg. 773 Published 1890.

Honorable L. H. Kemp, representative for Grant County, also postmaster at Turin, Davis Township, was born October 25, 1837, in Smith County, Tennessee, and is the son of Alfred M. and Mary A. (Cardwell) Kemp.

Alfred M. Kemp was born in Smith County, Tennessee, where he resided until his death, in 1842. After that event his widow, who is a native of Tennessee, married W. R. Gregory, and in 1848 moved to Arkansas, locating in what is now Davis Township, in Grant County, where they at present make their home.

L. H. Kemp resided with his mother until the war, enlisting in July, 1861, in the Eleventh Arkansas Infantry (Confederate) under Colonial Smith, and serving as third lieutenant for twelve months. Upon the reorganization of his company after the expiration of his term of service he was elected captain, in which capacity he served until the close of the war, having participated in the fight at New Madrid and at Island No. 10, where he was taken prisoner and held five months at Johnson's Island. After his release he was sent on a recruiting expedition for General Bragg, and returned to Arkansas, but being taken sick he did not return to his regiment, receiving an honorable discharge.

After the war Mr. Kemp settled on a farm in this (Grant) County.

In 1863 he married Mary E. Lockhart, daughter of Stacy Lockhart, one of Grant County's pioneers, who settled here in 1840. Mrs. Kemp was born and reared on the place where she and her husband now reside.

After his marriage he chose a home first in Merry Green Township, where he resided seven years, after which he bought out the interest of the heirs of Mr. Lockhart's (his wife's father) estate to the homestead to which he then removed, and on which he is still located.

Mr. Kemp has a good farm of 100 acres, eighty acres being cleared land under cultivation. A good, double log-house and outbuildings, and large and well-kept apple and peach orchard are among the improvements.

Mr. Kemp was nominated and elected representative of Grant county in the fall of 1879, and served through one term of the legislature. Again, in 1888, he was re-elected by a large majority over two prominent opponents (both independent candidates) to the legislature and served through the last meeting of that body with distinction and prominence.

He has a family of nine children: Elizabeth (wife of A. R. Hawley), Fannie (unmarried), Anie, Mary, L. H. Jr., Wade H., William M., Lucy and John.

Mr. and Mrs. Kemp are members of the Missionary Baptist Church of this place.

Sources

• Goodspeed Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas, Grant County. Pg. 773 Published 1890.
• US Federal census-1900 Grant county, Arkansas
• Tombstone