Kemp Families - Multiple Small Locations

File prepared by Deandra Norred Pardue.
This cemetery is taken from the book, St. Helena parish Cemeteries,1914-1987, Published by the St. Helena Historical Association, Inc., Rt. 1 Box 131; Amite, La. 70422 The LaGenWeb Archives would like to express their thanks to the Association for giving us permission to put these cemeteries online. The society retains the copyright to these works.

From the Louisiana Genealogical Register, September 1971. The Register is the quarterly publication of the Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society. The LaGenWeb thanks them for contributing this information. 
Originally submitted to the Register by: Mrs. James M. Sagely, Clinton, La.

Turn north on gravel road beside Chipola store, go to blacktop. Cemetery on southwest corner at crossing of blacktop and gravel road.
Near Catha old home place - First Ward, St. Helena Parish, La.

2nd Lieut. E.J. Connolly
Co A 13 La. Inf. C S A

W.B. Kemp
Co F 16 La. Inf. C S A

Today I talked with Willie Maude Kemp Sanders (Mrs. Jack Sanders) here in
Baton Rouge, to see if she can remember who is buried in the Kemp Cemetery,

1st Ward, St. Helena Parish. These are the only ones she can remember:
(Maude told me today she is 86 years old.)
Addie Kemp, UNM, Maude's sister
Victoria Carter Kemp, Maude's mother
Peter Hutchinson Kemp, Maude's father

Three or more premature babies - Maude's brothers and/or sisters
Adelaide Kemp, Maude's grandma
Merrit Kemp, and his wife (nee) Newsom, Maude's uncle
Maude said that Dr. Oliver Thompson who once lived near Gurley, La. is her uncle. His sisters are Adelaide, Aline and Theresa Anne.
Walthel Burton Kemp, Civil War veteran is buried here and has a marker.
Edward Connelly, Civil War veteran is buried here and has a marker.
Maude said that bridal wreath use to grow there and that Mr. Merrit Kemp put a picket fence around his wife's grave, but she knows there was never but a very few markers there. She does not know any others buried there, but did say that this was not a large cemetery.
Audrey Lea Covington Blades

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Directions to vault: Between Highway 43 and Highway 441, south of Highway 1045 is a brick vault in which Judge William Breed Kemp is buried.

There is no inscription on the vault - it is of red brick, with a dome shape and has been well maintained by the family. From family records I take the following information regarding this Mr. Kemp (who is not buried in the Jonathan Kemp Cemetery, but nearer to the "Old Home Place".)

William Breed Kemp, born in St. Helena Parish, La.
Jan 11, 1834
Died May 6, 1899
Married Elizabeth Nesom, April 13, 1861

He attended the University of Virginia in 1856 & 57 and took his degree in law from Louisiana University in 1859. He served in the War Between the States  serving as Captain. He was captured at Port Hudson and taken north to Forts Delaware and McHenry. He was paroled in 1865. Upon returning to St. Helena he resumed the practice of law and was elected Judge in 1872. He moved to Amite in 1879. Shortly before his death he formed a co-partnership with his son  Bolivar E. Kemp in the practice of law. He was a member of the Episcopal Church, Masonic Order, Knights of Honor and U.C.V.

The following is taken from his obituary: "Judge W.B. Kemp. The touching farewell at the grave in the woodland. The last paragraph: "This simple, yet imposing,  burial, in the field, surrounded by the peaceful woods, and with only the exquisite notes of the wood thrush falling upon the evening quiet, realized the wishes of the deceased, who a lover of nature, must have found an echo of his own sentiments in the tender lines of O.N. Ogden, his friend and fellow citizen:
What a wealth of silver sound
In thy music doth abound,
Matchless thrush!
How the sylvan arches thrill
When thy soft, mellifluent bill,
Breaks the hush!
I want no organ proud
With requiem pealing loud,
At my goal:
May such minstrelsy as thine,
Tuned by Nature's hand divine,
Waft my soul!" "
Inez B. Tate from records of Mrs. J.M. Tate, Jr.