Santa
Clara County
Biographies
MRS.
C. E. (FRAZEE) KEMP
In
Mrs. C. E. Frazee Kemp is found one of the women of whom the great west is
justly proud, and to whom, by all the laws of chivalry
and right, belongs a large share of the upbuilding of
the coast country. Gracious, unostentatious, sincere, and high minded, she
should be credited also with unsurpassed courage, such as the women of today
are rarely called upon to show, either in the sanctity of their homes, in clubs
or in social life. To those surrounded by the comforts of latter day
civilization, it is almost impossible to conceive of the fortitude required
during an overland journey in the early mining days, of the strain upon
physical strength, upon nervous force while daily and hourly expecting attacks
from Indians, and racked with forebodings of illness and want while traveling
for six months toward the setting sun. Yet the memories of Mrs. Kemp are tinged
with the pleasant rather than disagreeable phases of the pioneer days, and her
ability to see the bright side of things, and to expectantly wait for improved
conditions, has rendered her an inspiration to her husband in his western
struggle, and to the children who have attained maturity under her wise and
motherly rule.
Born in Herkimer county,
N. Y., in 1839, Mrs. Kemp is a daughter of Aaron Frazee, a native of New York
state, and a builder and contractor by trade. When ten years old she removed
with her parents to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where her father put up many of the
private and public buildings in the town, and where his daughter received a
practical education in the public schools. October 28, 1862, Miss Frazee,
having developed into a charming and capable young woman, was married to Jesse
Brown, a native of Kentucky, who had gone to California in 1857. Mr. Brown was
a blacksmith by trade in Los Angeles, and returned to Iowa to marry in 1862,
taking his wife back with him in May, 1863. As they traveled overland, Mr.
Brown was stricken with cholera, and died ere reaching his old home in Los
Angeles. He was buried in a lonely wayside grave, and his widow pursued her way
to the west, accompanied by her brother-in-law, settling in Placerville, where
she made friends, and took kindly to the crude conditions in the mining town.
In Placerville, February 14, 1865, she was united in marriage with William
Kemp, who was born in Watertown, N. Y., and who came to California in 1858. Mr.
Kemp was a mining man of extended experience, and lived in Placerville for the
greater part of his western life, accumulating a fair competence, and
establishing a reputation for worth and integrity. Mr. Kemp enlisted as a
musician in Sacramento and was stationed in San Diego. He was in the army about
two years and then resumed his mining operations a short time after which he
became a pattern maker and a foundryman. He was a skillful
workman and made many friends everywhere. Politically he was a Republican and a
member of the I. O. O. F. His death, which occurred November 25, 1884, left his
wife a widow for the second time, with the care of two children, Emma F. and
William Webb.
Mr. Kemp came to Palo Alto in 1892 to
educate her son, and at the time found a very small community, with few signs
of business or other activity. Its rise to prominence has been a source of
great satisfaction to her, and she had studied its growing prestige with the
keen interest and practical insight which has characterized her entire life.
Purchasing a lot in a pleasant part of the town, she erected her present
beautiful and comfortable home, and has since lived over her youth in the
upward career of her son, William Webb, to whom she has given every educational
advantage within her power and who was principal of the Longfellow School of
Alameda in 1903. Professor Kemp is a graduate of the Stanford University, class
of 1898, and next year (1905) will be an instructor in the Stanford University.
He is a young man of fine mind and excellent principle, an active worker in the
Presbyterian Church, which he joined at the age of thirteen and a popular
addition to the cultured and exacting society of the town.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 279. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.