Family:Jesse Kemsley and Eliza King (1)

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Facts and Events
Marriage? 31 May 1877 Baldwinsville, Onondaga, New York, USA
Children
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1918
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1972
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1947
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1954
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Nellie Kemsley is preferred.


Jesse Kemsley & Eliza King, by John Kemsley

Source: Ancestral Legends & Lore

This is the story of my parents' lives. I have included it here in order to connect my life with those in my past and to let you know what kind of people my parents were. This chapter describes many events during my father's life with his first and second wives, Eliza King and Rebecca Jane Jewkes (my mother). It also contains a brief description of my siblings. Again, some of this information comes from the paper my sister Amy and I wrote.

My father, Jesse Reuben Kemsley, was born on 20 August 1857 in Boxley, Kent, England while his parents lived in that house at the North Gate of Vinter's Park. He was 3 years old (in England) when the American Civil War started in 1860, and was 7 when it ended and the slaves were set free. He was also still in England when the great pioneer wagon trains and land give always started where many settlers traveled from the eastern American coast to settle the Great Plains.

While still a young man, he helped on the farm that his father, Jesse, was the overseer of. At one time he wanted to go to Australia with his cousin (possibly ancestors of Tim Kemsley, Australia), but his father refused to sign the necessary papers for him to leave. A year or so later when he got a chance to go to America with Charles Gilbert of Green Grove, his father consented if he would promise to come back in two years because he thought it would help his health. My dad had TB and would have lived only a short time if he stayed in the cold damp climate of England. Most of his family had already died from it. Just think, we could have been Australians rather than Americans.

Coming To America: New York (1875)

My father, Jesse, came from England by boat at the age of eighteen, in 1875, one year after the great grasshopper plague came to Kansas and Nebraska. On the long voyage over to America he became very seasick. Because he had been a pipe smoker since a very early age, someone brought him his pipe and tobacco thinking that it might make him feel better if he smoked. The thought of smoking sickened him even more, so he threw his pipe and tobacco overboard. He never smoked again.

Upon arriving in New York, he learned that many people from Kent County lived up in Baldwinsville, near Syracuse, Lake Ontario and the finger lakes. So he went there and found the King and Dapson families. The Dapsons had two boys and a daughter who had married one of the eight King boys. The only King girl, Eliza, eventually became my father's first wife (Amy's mother).

The Kings had boys of all sizes. He and his eight sons formed a band and played for President Harrison, for which he gave them a letter of appreciation. Mr King also loved to play jokes on my father. One was to scare him about skunks, as he had never heard of them before.

One time while in Baldwinsville, my father was to get rid of an old cat. He put it in a sack along with a big rock and threw it in a canal. But when he went outside the next morning he found it sitting on the door step. It was permitted to live.

Life In Utah (1877-1882)

Getting Married, Going West, and Assassinating Brigham Young (1877)

After Jesse and Eliza were married on 31 March 1877 in the Grace Church in Baldwinsville, New York, they announced their intention to honeymoon on California and hunt gold. They met with strong objections from the Kings who feared for Eliza's safety while passing through "Mormon Territory" on the trip west. They feared that she would be locked up in the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake until she agreed to marry the Mormon leader, Brigham Young. With the bravado of youth, my father assured him that he would be able to take care of the Mormons and their famous leader Brigham Young.

They made the trip by train as far as Utah [about 8 years after the infamous Golden Spike was driven on May 10, 1869 finishing the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah just a few miles northwest of Ogden on the east side of the Great Salt Lake]. When they pulled into the Uinta station, they and all the other passengers were very anxious to see what a real Mormon looked like. Most of them believed the story that Mormons had horns on their heads. An old man came into the cars selling pies which his wife had made. Upon learning of their curiosity, he promised to show them a Mormon as soon as he sold all the pies. After they had bought the last one he stepped off the train, straightened his tie, combed his hair, stood as tall as could be expected of a little Englishman, and announced the he was a Mormon and was proud of it.

My father went to visit his uncle, John Tree, who lived in Centerville (between Ogden and Salt Lake City). They lived in a log house with a few large apple trees at the back of the house where a bridge crossed over a little stream. Jesse and Eliza were given a warm welcome and stayed several weeks.

At that time caravans began arriving from California with the news that the gold rush was over. The people were trading what goods they had for food to tide them over for the long trip back east. So Jesse and Eliza decided to stay in Utah for a while.

About this time Brigham Young died, and father jokingly wrote to his in-laws, "I told you I would take care of Brigham Young, didn't I?" When the letter arrived Eliza's parents had already heard of Brigham Young's death, but did not know the circumstances. Jesse's letter was sent to the local newspaper which then published an account of how my father had assassinated Brigham Young.

After a good visit with his uncle, Jesse wrote his old boss in New York who had told him if he ever wanted to come back he would send him the money and they would work repayment out later. When he requested the money, his boss wrote back saying that he did not think that money could be trusted in Utah mail. He suggested that Jesse and Eliza might be able to sneak across the state line at night. He would then send him the money. This made my father angry, as he found the people in Utah were more honest than those back East. So they decided to make Utah their home. They bought some land in Centerville and lived there for several years.

Joining the Mormon Church (1879)

Occasionally my father and some of the other shepherds would go into Salt Lake City together to buy supplies and have a good time. One of these visits was during the General Conference of the Mormon church. They decided to have some fun by going into the tabernacle and break up the meeting, but my father became so interested in the talks that he stayed for the whole meeting.

Soon afterwards, Jesse and Eliza joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1879). Jesse had been corresponding regularly with his parents in England, but when he joined the church they disowned him. He never heard from them again.

Life In Sublett, Idaho (1882 - approx. 1898)

In 1882 Eliza got homesick, so my father sold their place in Centerville to finance her trip to see her parents. She was very down because their baby boy, George, had died the previous year. She took Nellie and Lewis to New York with her, but she returned with only Lewis. Nellie, the oldest, had died there from membranous croup and had been buried back in New York.

In the meantime, my father had taken up homestead in Idaho, west of Sublett, where he build a two room log house. While he was building it he lived in a cave dug into the side of a hill. Charles, Carrie and Grace were born in this house.

After Grace's birth they bought a farm from a very old man a little way up the Sublett Creek, agreeing to pay him $30 every month for the rest of his life. But he lived so long that they paid him twice what the place was worth. The old man moved into the granary which mother had fixed up, making it very homelike. He made his own breakfast, but Eliza cooked and carried the other meals to him. In his last days, they moved him into the Albin where he was more comfortable even though it was more trouble for Eliza to take care of him there. About this time dad sent to England to have his cousin, Edward Tree, come to America. He came and settled in Idaho, but later removed to Syracuse, Utah, where some of his descendants still live today.

Jesse, Shepherd & Mountain Man (1887?)

This was the time of the Wild West frontier and the American cowboy that drove their cattle herds from Texas to Kansas where they loaded them onto trains and shipped them to the east coast. After about 20 years of the adventures of this legendary cattle hand, rich men founded large corporate owned cattle ranches because of the profit involved. These ranches threatened to put small cattle ranches out of business, which caused many people to turn to cattle rustling and caused innumerable clashes between ranches.

At this time, Jesse owned about six thousand head of sheep and was therefore considered a rich man. Every winter he spent a great deal of time in the mountains with his heard. In 1887, a severe winter caused many people to lose their livestock. One cattleman told my father that if he came out in the spring with any sheep left, he would sell his cattle and buy sheep for dad to take care of. By the time spring came around all of his sheep as well as some he was caring for had died. All but six. The only reason they survived was because dad scraped away the snow so the sheep could eat. Dad was back in business the following winter because the cattleman kept his word. This severe winter nearly bankrupt the huge cattle ranches because they had recently taken out large loans from foreign investors to finance large livestock purchases.

Once, when he was in the mountains tending his sheep, he came upon some springs of water where he washed his overalls. It turned out to be a soda spring, so his clothes came out snow white. Now a city called Soda Spring stands there. See Soda Springs for further insight into Jesse's shepherd business and its relationship to Soda Springs and why he spent so much time in the mountains.

During the summer months, Eliza took the children and went with him into the mountains with the sheep. She had dad put the waste from killing a sheep on the end of the wagon tongue. She would then lie in the sheep wagon and watch the bears fight over it. Once, she made a fire that got out of control. It burned for over three months in the forest! Of course, they had to move the sheep out of the path.

One time while in the hills with his sheep near Sublett, he saw some people camped nearby and he went to get acquainted. They made him welcome and they all had a very enjoyable evening. When he was ready to leave they told him they were sure glad that he had come as they were afraid of those Mormons, but had felt safe around him. He then told them that he was the leader of the Mormons around here, which changed their opinions of the Mormons.

Once while he was asleep, a bear came into his tent. He was aroused by the bear's hot breath on his face. He had a gun under his pillow, but he didn't dare move to get it as he realized that it would be useless to shoot at such short range anyway. He played possum as the bear sniffed around his face, robbed him of his bacon, and left.

On another occasion he shot a bear that was molesting his sheep, but only wounded it. He ran back toward camp with the angry bear in close pursuit. When he arrived at the camp he sat with the gun over his knee waiting for it to come out of the clearing. The next morning he went out looking for it and found it dead near a log which it had been unable to climb over.

On one of his visits home from the mountains, he brought some fresh meat and Eliza invited the neighbors over for dinner. After she cooked a nice roast with all the trimmings they sat down to enjoy the meal. They assumed it was mutton. As the meal progressed, my father casually slipped an old bear's claw from his pocket and laid it on the table in the sight of them all so they would know what they were eating. I am told it is a very good, sweet meat.

Another time he found a rolled up paper in a crack in a rock. It stated that a certain man was there on a certain date. Dad put added his name and the date to the list.

Jesse, Government Agent to an Indian Reservation

My dad was a government agent to the Indian Reservation in the area. His children went to school with their children. One night dad got lost and rode into an Indian camp cold and hungry, but not hungry enough to eat their food. The squaws fed and put away his horse and put him to sleep with his horse blanket rolled around him with his feet next to the fire along with the buck Indians. The next morning he was hungry enough to eat their food and be thankful for it. He then taught the squaws how to make gravy with either milk or water. One winter he found a little Indian boy lost in the hills. The Indians had moved south for the winter so dad and Eliza took him in and took care of him. When spring rolled around, dad took him into the hills until he found his tribe which was very happy to get him back. They were dad's friends from then on. When they brought him beaded gloves and moccasins as gifts, dad told them that they could have Amy in return. She promptly ran under moms bed. The old Indian just spat on his knee and laughed.

Eliza learned many herbal treatments from the Indians. One was a cure for a caked breast when a child is weaned. It was to milk the mild on the inside of the stove lid, holding the breast in the steam to soften it as well as dry the mild. Another was to gather the little red leaves of the strawberry plant and making a brew good for diarrhea. She also learned to gather the fire weed for drying and then brew it to stop the bleeding of wounds.

Eliza Died During Childbirth (1897)

My dad was the Bishop of the local ward, nurse, carpenter and undertaker. He was also the civic leader in charge of children's education including keeping the school supplied. He once built a long desk for the older boys across the back of the room. The school teacher took turns staying with each family that had children in the school. Dad started the local cemetery by gathering all the bodies of the immigrants that were in the the hills. He also persuaded everyone to move their dead from their private burial plots to the cemetery.

Eliza died on 27 July 1897 leaving seven children. The eighth was buried with her -- they died during childbirth. My father was a casket maker at the time, but he stopped making caskets when she died refusing to make one for her. She was buried in the cemetery he founded.


Further Reading

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