William Maxwell Kemp
. . . By Jimmie D. McSween

William Maxwell Kemp was born March 22, 1822 in Wilson County, Tennessee. He was the first child of William Murphy (Murph) and Ann Baird (Beard) Kemp. The Kemps were known as mountain people in Wilson County. They were farmers and Primitive Baptists. Ann died in 1827, leaving three small sons, William M., James Foster and Burrell. In 1828 their father married Mary Emma (Polly) Howell. Their first child, Anderson, was born in Shelby County, Tennessee. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Morgan County, Illinois, and settled near Winchester. Part of Morgan later became Scott County. Murph and Polly had seven children. She died and .Murph married Mrs. Mariah Jane Lieb Funk in 1848. They had four children. Before his father's third marriage, William decided it was time for him to establish his own home.

William and Elizabeth Ann Moore married April 23, 1843. She was born December 5, 1825, (probably in Greene County, Illinois). Her parents were William and Huldah Ann Hunnicutt Moore. After the birth of Elizabeth's fourth child, they decided to move to Texas. It is not known just when they arrived in Dallas County. One family member wrote an article many years ago in which he stated they came in 1853. Their fifth child was born in Texas in 1854 or 1855. The first land transaction was February 5, 1855. William purchased 160 acres in the J. D. Snyder Survey from Samuel Beeman. The following day, he purchased 160 acres in the Isaac Beeman Survey from Isaac Beeman. In 1860, he bought more land in the Leeper, Brown and Noah Henderson Surveys. The land was in the vicinity of Buckner and Scyene, near the location of Buckner Orphans Home. The Kemp land later became part of the Buckner Home tract.

It is not known who made the trip to Texas from Illinois with the Kemp Family. Some of Elizabeth Ann's brothers may have been part of the wagon train. The long trip in wagons must have been slow and difficult, but they could follow the tracks made by others -including many of Elizabeth Ann's relatives, who had settled in the county ten or more years earlier. Emily Hunnicutt Beeman, wife of John and mother of Margaret Beeman Bryan, was her mother's sister and had been in the county since the early 1840's; another sister, Ann Hunnicutt Moore, came about 1844; and a brother, William C. Hunnicutt, was here by 1848. Samuel Ford and his wife, Patience Hunnicutt Ford, with their children, came in the 1850's. She was also a sister of Huldah Ann's. The Ford family may have come with the Kemps.

When the Kemp family came to Texas, they had four children and were to have seven more born in Dallas County. The eleven children were: 1) William Murphy (1844-1925) married Margaret Cox (1846-1931), daughter of Cornelius Cox, November 11, 1865. They had nine children. Murph served in the Civil War. He gave the land for the Pecan Wells Cemetery in Hamilton and they are buried there. 2) Huldah Ann (1847-1947) and Cornelius Jackson Cox (1844-1916) married June 21, 1866. Jack was a brother of Murph's wife.

Huldah, in talking with her family of her early life, said she made three trips back to Illinois by covered wagon. She lacked less than three months reaching her one-hundredth birthday. 3) Mary Jane (1849-1869) and John M. Glover
(1847-1924) married April 2, 1868. 4) Melissa Margaret (1852-1936) and James H. Glover (1848-1902) married March 16, 1871. They had ten children. John M. and James H. Glover were brothers. 5) Sarah Elizabeth (1854/5-1938) and Cornelius Havens (1842-1925) married February 1, 1877. They had eight children. 6) Steve Conrad (1857-1942) and Mary Susan Kirk (1859-1939) married December 16, 1877. They had six children. Steve's second wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Beckner (1860-1939). 7) Martha Ernaline (1859-1947) and John Daniel Jones (1856-1935) married November 5, 1876. They had seven children. 8) Nancy Patience (1862¬1947) and William Isaac Madison Griffis (1853-1925) married March 17, 1881. They had eight children. 9) George Foster (1864-1955) and Annie Belle Smith (1862-1902) married November 28, 1883. They had fourteen children. 10) John Hunnicutt (1867¬1880). 11) Francis Marion (1869-1946) and Mattie Ann Holman (1872-1964) married about 1888. They had five children.

The marriage licenses of nine of the Kemp children are recorded at the Dallas County Records Building. Francis Marion, the youngest child, married after the family moved to Hamilton County, Texas. With nine new families, the county was getting a little crowded as they began to look for more space. The first family moved about 1873. The others followed - on through the 1880's. They all settled first in Hamilton County. Some later moved to Comanche County.

Elizabeth Ann's mother had come to Texas in the 1870's, since most of her family were in Dallas County by that time. She died in 1884 and is buried at the W. W. Glover Cemetery on Military Parkway. Her sister, Ann Moore, and brother, William C. Hunnicutt, are also buried there. William Kemp was still on the Dallas County Tax Roll in 1886 but he had also been on the Hamilton County Tax Roll since the early 1880's. It is not known just when they changed their residence, but they probably moved soon after the death of Elizabeth Ann's mother.

William must have been a very successful farmer. He had a large family but saw that they all attended school and as each came of age or married he deeded from thirty-six to forty acres of land in Dallas County to them. When they moved to Hamilton County, he deeded them additional land. One researcher stated he believed each child was given about two hundred acres in all. Mother and Father Kemp started making their home with their children around 1891. He died December 6, 1911. Elizabeth Ann died February 9, 1917. They are buried in the Pottsville Cemetery in Hamilton County, Texas. Most of their children are also buried there.

Submitted by Sherry