Person:Jesse Kemsley (1)

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Jesse Reuben Kemsley
b.20 Aug 1857 Boxley, Kent, England
  1. George Kemsley1840 - 1870
  2. William Kemsley1842 - 1900
  3. Ellen Kemsley1844 - 1876
  4. Emily Kemsley1845 - 1913
  5. Ephraim Kemsley1847 - 1848
  6. Phinehas Kemsley1849 - 1871
  7. Lewis Kemsley1851 -
  8. Albert Kemsley1853 -
  9. Mark Edward Kemsley1855 -
  10. Jesse Reuben Kemsley1857 - 1932
  11. Walter Kemsley1859 - 1888
  12. Alfred Weller Kemsley1861 -
  13. Mary Ann Kemsley1863 -
  • HJesse Reuben Kemsley1857 - 1932
  • WEliza King1855 - 1897
m. 31 May 1877
  1. Mary Ellen Kemsley1877 - 1882
  2. George Kemsley1879 - 1879
  3. Lewis Kemsley1880 - 1956
  4. Charles Kemsley1883 -
  5. Carrie Kemsley1885 - 1968
  6. Corra Kemsley1887 - 1918
  7. Grace Kemsley1889 - 1972
  8. Jesse Kemsley1891 - 1947
  9. Amy Kemsley1894 - 1954
  10. Baby Kemsley1897 -
m. 10 Sep 1898
  1. Eliza Kemsley1901 - 1918
  2. Beatrice Kemsley1903 - Abt 1906
  3. Pearl Kemsley1906 - 1924
  4. John Kemsley1909 - 1993
  5. La Mar Kemsley1917 - 1997
  6. Darrel Kemsley1918 - 1958
Facts and Events
Name Jesse Reuben Kemsley
Gender Male
Birth? 20 Aug 1857 Boxley, Kent, England
Census[1] 8 Apr 1861 Boxley, Kent, EnglandKent
Marriage 31 May 1877 Baldwinsville, Onondaga, New York, USAto Eliza King
Marriage 10 Sep 1898 to Rebecca Jane Jewkes
Death? 3 Sep 1932 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
Burial? 6 Sep 1932 Inglewood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Biography by Amy Kemsley Deem

Source: Ancestral Legends & Lore

My Father, Jesse Rueben Kemsley, was born 20 August 1857 in Maidstone, Kent County, England. His parents were Jesse Kemsley and Martha Ann Tree. They lived in a rock house or lodge on the north side of an 1800 acre farm. When I was there the last of two old maid sisters had just died and the Crown was going to sell the farm in parts.

I went to the house and met an old man and woman who were living there. They let me in and took me upstairs to the room where father slept. It was easy to tell as he had described it to me. It had a ladder with one leg shorter than the other so as to fit on the steps of the stairs. I took pictures of the place and had a drink out of the old well. The water was as cool as ice and very good tasting. In back of the house were rolling hills with old rambling oak trees, and sheep were lying in the shade of them. Several kinds of wild flowers were blooming around. In front of the house was a large holly tree with red berries on it to remind me of Christmas time. The little old man gave me a trepents which is a rare coin in England.

Kent County is considered the garden spot of England. The day I was there it really looked like it as many trees were in bloom. Fruit of many kinds. I went into the old church where father was christened and where his folks are buried. The church was old, cold and damp.

Father helped on the farm as his father was overseer of it. At one time he wanted to go to Australia with a cousin but as his boss had to sign the papers to go he refused. Then in a year or so he got a chance to go to America, so his father gave his consent if he would come back In two years as he thought it would help his health. He had T.B. and most of the family died of it. Father got cured of it. So he stayed to always have good health and lived longer than any of his family. He came to America in 1873 with Chas, Gilbert of Grove Green. I have a picture of him.

On arriving in New York he learned many people from Kent County lived up near Syracuse so he went up there and found the King and Dapson families. There were two Dapson brothers and their sister who had married a King. The King Family had eight boys and one girl. She became my mother.

At one time a man came to hire a boy so grandfather asked which size he needed as he had all sizes. They played many jokes on father. One was to scare him about skunks as he had never heard of them.

He married Eliza King the 31 March 1877 in the Grace church in Baldwinville, New York. It is a small white frame structure, looks very peaceful. They left Baldwinville on their Honeymoon for California to hunt for gold. Carrie says that Mother’s parents were opposed to them coming west through Utah as they were afraid Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon Church, would take her for one of his wives. Father and Mother both must have been very venturesome to do the things they did.

When they arrived at Uintah, a small place at the mouth of Weber Canyon, a little old man came on the train to sell his wife’s home-made pies. So father asked him to show him a Mormon as he had heard that they grew horns. He said to wait until he had sold all his pies and he would. He went through the train selling his pies and swapping jokes with everyone and was very nice. Then he combed his hair and stood very straight and said, “I am a Mormon.” They all looked him over and decided he was no different than anyone else.

They left the train at Salt Lake City and Father’s Uncle John R. Tree, who lived at Centerville, Utah took them to his home. This uncle lived in a log house with a few large apple trees at the back of the house where a mountain stream ran along with a little bridge over it. Later as I stood on the bridge a cat, which was call Tiddleum, rubbed my legs and a rooster near by was called Jocky.

At that time an Apostle predicted that goods and such would be cheaper there than back East where it was made. After he sat down he wondered what made him say that, but it wasn’t long before the wagon trains came back saying all the gold was gone in California and wanted to trade their goods for food to take them back home. So my parents decided not to go any farther west.

When father left New York his boss told him if he ever wanted to come back he would send him the money and he would work it out later. So father wrote him to send him the money, but he wrote back saying he would not trust the mail in Utah as Brigham Young would take it. It made father so mad as he had found out the people in Utah were more honest than back east so they decided to stay and make their home in Utah.

They joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1879. In 1882 they sold their place in Centerville, Utah and Mother went back to see her people taking Nellie and Lewis with her as George had died leaving her very down hearted. Nellie got the membrainus crupe and died so Mother came back with only Lewis and went to Idaho where father had taken up a homestead west of Sublett. He built a two room log house which Charlie, Carrie and Grace were born in.

After Grace was born they bought a farm up on the Sublett creek from a very old man, called Old Shapp, agreeing to keep him the rest of his life. But he lived so long it cost them much more than the place was worth. The old man moved into the grainery which mother fixed up making it very homelike. He made his own breakfast but mother made and carried his other meals into him. In his last days they moved him into Albion where he was more comfortable but was more trouble for mother to care for him.

Father spent a good deal of his time in the mountains with sheep. At one time he owned six thousand head. He was considered a rich man but a severe winter of cold snow came along and all of the sheep father had died as well as many which he was caring for. A cattleman told him if he came out in the spring with any sheep he would sell his cattle and buy sheep, for father to take of. Father came out with six sheep, so the man did as he said. The only reason father saved any was he would scrape away the snow so the sheep could feed on the feed underneath the snow.

One time he came into some springs of water and he proceeded to wash his overalls, and it proved to be a soda spring and his clothes came out snow white. Now a city called Soda Springs stands on the spot. One day he found a paper rolled up and put in a crack in a rock. It stated a certain man was there on a certain date. So father added his name and date. That summer he never saw a woman for over three months.

While he was asleep a bear came into his tent and father had a gun underneath his pillow. But he didn’t dare move to get it and was at too close a range to shoot. So he played dead while the bear sniffed around his face, then went over and got his bacon and left. Another time one was bothering his sheep so he shot but only wounded it and it started chasing him. He ran towards camp with the bear good and angry in close pursuit. Upon reaching camp, he sat with the gun over his knees waiting for it to come out into the clearing. At daylight he went looking for it and found it dead as it proceeded to climb over a log.

Mother used to have his put the waste from killings of sheep on the end of the wagon tongue so she could lie in the sheep wagon in bed and watch the bears fight over the waste. One time mother made a fire which got out of control and it burned for over three months in the forest before it burned itself out.

Father was agent for the Indian Reservation for the Government with his children going to school with the Indians. He got lost and rode into an Indian Camp cold and hungry, but not hungry enough to eat their food. But the next morning he was and glad to get it. He taught the squaws how to make gravy. When he arrived the squaws put away his horse with food then put him to sleep with his horse blanket rolled around him, with his feet next to the fire along with the other buck Indians.

Once he found a little Indian boy lost in the hills. As it was winter he was left behind as the Indians moved south so father took the boy home to mother who took care of him along with her children until spring when father took him into the hills until he found his tribe. They were very happy to get him back and were father’s friends from then on, making him beaded gloves and moccasins as gifts. I remember seeing them bring them and father told them they could have me but it didn’t take long for me to run and get under mothers bed. The old Indian just spat on his knees and laughed.

Mother learned many treatments with herbs from the Indians. One was to cure a caked breast in time of weaning a baby, it was to milk the milk on the inside of the stove lid, holding the breast in the steam to soften it as well as to dry up the milk. Another was to gather the little red leaves of the strawberry plant making a brew which was good for diarrhea. She also learned to gather fire weed for drying then brew it to stop bleeding of wounds.

The Dapsons still live near Syracuse. I went up and met them. Two brothers with their families lived together all their lives, one on each side of the house. When I was there one brother had died but they still lived together getting along fine.

While in Baldwinsville father was to get rid of an old cat so he put it into a sack along with a big rock and threw it into the canal but the next morning when he went out there it was sitting on the door-step, so it was permitted to live.

On coming home father brought some fresh meat which mother cook and invited the neighbors in. When they were all enjoying their meal, he slipped an old bear’s claw out of his pocket and upon the table in sight of everyone. Then they all knew what they were eating. I am told it is very good meat but a little sweeter than other wild meat.

Mother died 27 July 1897 leaving seven children, the eight one was buried with her. Father had his sheep to care for as well as the children. Lewis was old enough to work for Ike Powers and it was there he learned the rest of his schooling. I was the youngest, being two and a half years old. So the neighbors helped to take care of me. Carrie would take me by horseback up to Horns while she went to school.

Father would get a woman to stay with us but she wouldn’t stay long. He sent for a house keeper, Rebecca Jane Jewkes Argust and they were married in 1898. She had one child, a girl named Victoria Argust, but she took the name of Kemsley when father married her mother.

After Rueben’s birth father moved down to Utah, buying a farm in FarrWest, ten miles from Ogden. Out in Idaho our neighbor was Thomas Bates who had a son Richard who played with my brothers. Thomas Bates moved to Utah and when he came back to put a stone on his daughter’s grave, (she was Richards sister who was drowned in a ditch as she fell out of a wagon), Mr. Bates talked father into moving down to Utah. So the next winter father made the trip and stayed at the Bates home looking for a place and bought one near the Bates place. Then when my sister Beatrice died he took my father down and bought a buriallet next to his in Plain City, Utah. So we have been neighbors for four generations, and are still very good friends.

Father was well like as a neighbor, never too busy to do some butchering or shear a sheep. All he ever got for his work was the liver so I was raised on it and still like it.

Out in Idaho he started the cemetery by gathering all the bodies that were in the gardens and putting them on a hill together. He even found one out in the hills and brought it in and put her in our lot. That is where my mother is buried.

Father was the Presiding Elder of our church, a nurse, carpenter, and undertaker, making the caskets all except mothers. He was also the civic leader to look after the education of the children, keeping the books, even to building a long desk for the larger boys, in the back of the room. One boy even hid in the place which father had made to keep their books in. He also played the part of Santa Claus so after he left Idaho and moved back to Utah and was away for over ten years, he went back for a visit. It was Christmas time and my brother who resided there promised to take the part of Santa, not letting them know father was coming. So on Christmas Eve when it came time for Santa, father went in. People thought it was my brother until he started telling some of the old jokes of years ago. Then the people knew who it was and made more fuss over Santa then the children did. The children had to take a back seat while the parents had a visit with Santa. Later he went to spend the night with some old friends. Seeing that the girls were away for the night to a dance and were going to spend the night, he was put into their bed. At the dance a boy offered to bring them home so they came instead of waiting for the morning. Going into their room they proceeded to undress without a light so as not to awaken their mother. They awoke father but he lay very still so as to surprise them, which he did when they felt his mustache on getting into the bed. They forgot they weren’t going to awaken their mother for then ran in and jumped on top of her in bed and were very frightened on finding a man in their bed.

At one time out in the hills with sheep near Sublett he saw some people camped near so went to get acquainted with them. They made him welcome and all had a very enjoyable evening. And when he was ready to leave they told him they were sure glad he had come as they were afraid of those Mormons but felt safe with him around. He then told them that he was the leader of all the Mormons around there. They then changed their opinion of the Mormons.

Father never lost his English manner of speaking. He would say Hamey go in the ouse and get me at. Also Hamey go to the hen house and gather the eggs. One story he would tell is how he kept dry when out in the hills. When it looked like rain he would find a flat rock, take off his clothes, put them on the rock and sit on them to keep the rain off them. After it stopped he would shake himself off and put on his dry clothes.

In later years after he lost two of his daughters, Cora and Eliza, with the flue, he sold out his farm and moved into Ogden where his last child was born. He was 61 years old, so he had a baby in his house for nearly forty years. He lost another daughter in 1924, Pearl, with diabetics, after which he moved to California helping Charles with his ponies

Father was gateman at the Zelig Zoo. All the animals were very fond of him and all the grandchildren enjoyed their visits at the zoo. He enjoyed the roses and the sunshine without ever having to shovel snow. He died 3 Sept. 1932


Biography by Carrie Kemsley

Source: Ancestral Legends & Lore [1]

When father was in Sublett he went down to Salina, Utah and got a herd of sheep and trailed them to Sublett. While going over Rattlesnake pass there was a lot of rattlesnakes and the sheep would run and jump on them with there front feet and kill them.

Father married all the people while at Sublett. Also he buried all that died even made the coffins, called caskets now. He bought mother’s coffin and it was the first one to be brought there. Everyone thought it was very pretty. It was different because it had a rounded top and was the same width all the way down. The homemade ones were tapered down at the foot of the coffin. Because hers was wider than the others they had to put a cover on the porch to have it there. They took a buggy with the back seat out and put the coffin in the back and backed the buggy up to the church house door while they held the funeral.

Father even made the nest eggs for the old hens. He whittled them out of a sand rock in the shape of an egg.

We never heard him say a swear word when anything went wrong. He would say “devil take the luck, thunderation, or cuss the luck.”

After Father was in Utah for a while he wrote back to New York and told them they could all come out to Utah as he had killed Brigham Young and this was published in the New York Star.

The first of Sept. 1932 we finished haying at Taylor Hay Camp. I got a letter from Mother Jane saying father was not very good. So I took a bus to go see him. I got there the second. That night father seemed to be himself. He talked to me about mother. He told me mother had come and stood by his bed. He said he talked to her. He said she had a pretty white dress on with lace all down the front. He wanted to touch her so he reached his hand out, got a hold of the lace on her dress. She went back and he tore the lace on her dress. He felt very bad about it. He talked to us that night more like himself. Next morning Charlie took him and gave him his bath while I made his bed. It had worried him as they took his garments off so he told me. Charlie said he and I would go to town and get him some that day. Then I asked father if he would feel better if I put the marks in his long night shirt until we could get to town. He shook his head and said yes. Then he lay down and seemed to be relieved. I put in the marks and then he just seemed to grow weaker and passed away about five o’clock that evening. I was the only one in the room when he went. He is buried in the Inglewood Cemetery in California.

While living in Centerville Father was called on by a man who was a polygamist. This man had an office and he asked him if he would come and sit in his office for a day, as the law was coming from Salt Lake to get him and he wanted to get away. The Sheriff came and saw father sitting there and told him he was under arrest. Father went with them. When they got to Salt Lake, father asked who they were after and they said the name and he told them he wasn’t the man so they took him back. The other man was able to get away.


Further Reading

See more stories under his marriages: Jesse Kemsley and Eliza King and Jesse Kemsley and Rebecca Jewkes.

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References
  1. 1861 British Census Ancestry Plus. 1861 British Census.