Individual Details
(November 23, 1753 - August 20, 1834)
"James Kemper, after his marriage in 1772, settled on a farm near his father's "Cedar Grove," place, where he lived until 1783. His health had been impaired by over work and he taught school for about a year. Partly through the persuasion of a friend, Rev. Hezekiah Balch, and also of his cousin, Jacob Fishback, and partly with the expectation of bettering his fortunes, Mr. Kemper and his family, then consisting of his wife and six children, moved in 1783 to Western North Carolina, south of the Cumberland Mountains, on Richland Creek. The locality was known as Nolachucky. He had procured a commission as Deputy Surveyor of a large and valuable tract of country, which made it easy for him to secure lands of the best quality. His friend and his cousin had previously located there, but soon after James Kemper arrived the latter removed to Mercer County, Kentucky. Mr. Kemper had, for a long time been deeply interested in religious matters and had a desire to fit himself for the ministry. His cousin arranged to have him come to Kentucky, to study with Rev. David Rice, D. D., and accordingly he made the removal in April 1785. Here he had a hard struggle to support himself and family, but managed to accoumplish his purpose of preparing himself for the ministry, through the kind assistance of Dr. Rice, and of this cousin. In addition to his farm work and his studies, he taught school and acted as public chatechist, the first one west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Transylvania, on 7 October 1790. In December of that year, through the friendly offices of Dr. Rice, he first vistied Cincinnati, where there was no Presbyterian minister. As a result of this visit and of a second one made in the following spring, he removed his family to Cincinnati, reaching there October 25, 1791, just nine days before the defeat of General St. Clair by the Indians. During the first year his congregation raised a good frame house of worship 30 x 40 feet, two stories high, which became in due course of time the First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati. The congregation used to bring their fire arms to the services on account of the Indians. The Indian war was raging and the church was reduced to one member. In 1792 he was regularly called as pastor for a term of three years; Presbytery attended at Cincinnati, in October 1792, under a guard, and ordained Rev. James Kemper, pastor. Soon after this he purchased 130 acres of land about two miles from his church, on Walnut Hills, and in 1793 removed there, to a high block house, which he occupied until 1804, when a more commodious house was built, which is still standing and in good preservation. Almost simultaneously with the close of his three years pastorate the Indian war came to an end and a large part of his congregation scattered to their farms. From 1795 to 1810 he preached regularly, but in widely scattered settlements between the Little Miami and the Great Miami Rivers, and made many missionary tours, through Kentucky and Virginia, by the appointment of the General Assembly. In 1810 he received a call to the church at Flemingsburg, Kentucky, which he accepted, and moved there in May 1810. He remained there four years and left because the congregation would not build what he considered a suitable house of worship - but he says of this later: "In this I erred capitally." He returned to his former home on Walnut Hills and resumed occasional preaching services in the country around there, until the formation of a church on Walnut Hills. He and his sons and neighbors built a stone church on the hill in 1818, and there Mr. Kemper performed his ministerial duties uninterruptedly until his death. In a historical paper prepared for the Cincinnati Presbytery, by Rev. Joseph G. Monfort, D. D., he says: "Perhaps no man in the valley of the Mississippi has been a first pioneer in so many places and departments as James Kemper. He was the first Catechist ever appointed west of the Alleghenies and south of Virginia; the first student of theology; the first licentiate of the First Presbytery, the first supply north of the Ohio, in answer to the first request for preaching. He preached the first sermon in Ohio that was preached by a representative of the Presbyterian Church. He was the first minister ordained on the north side of the Ohio. He preached the first sermon at the first meeting of the first Presbytery that met in Ohio, it being his own ordination sermon. He received the first call and was installed the first pastor on the north side of the Ohio. Moreover, he preached the first sermon at the first meeting of the Presbytery of Cincinnati, and of the Synod of Cincinnati in 1829, and was elected the first moderator of that Presbytery and Synod. He died of cholera." (GENEALOGY OF THE KEMPER FAMILY by Willis Miller Kemper, 1899, page 66-68.)
Events
| Birth | November 23, 1753 | Cedar Grove, near Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia | | | |
| Marriage | July 16, 1772 | Fauquier County, Virginia - Judith Hathaway | | | |
| Death | August 20, 1834 | Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio | | | |
| Burial | May 29, 1867 | Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio |  | | |
Families
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