Simon Kemp - Chickasaw

Simon is a son of the distinguished Chickasaw, Joel Kemp, and was born in December, 1842, on Clear Creek, near Fort Towsen, Choctaw Nation; after which his family moved close to Bloomfield in 1844. He married Elvira Colbert in 1862, and two years after her death (which happened in 1869), he married her younger sister, Eliza.

Mr. Kemp was first elected to office in the second Harris administration, when he was made Sergeant-at-Arms; his next office being that of Constable of Panola county. During the Overton administration he was elected to the House of Representatives, and was re-elected each year durng the administrations of Burney and Wolfe. During Guy's executive term, which followed, Mr. Kemp was electied Speaker of the House, in which office he acquitted himself admirable. At the same period he was one of the Committee on Citizenship. After this, in 1886, he ran for County Judge against Mr. Franklin, and was beated by two votes; again, in 1888 (when Byrd was forced by the Natiuonal party to usurp the Executive seat), Simon Kemp became a candidate for the judgeship of his county, and was elected over W. Finch. He still holds the office to the apparent satisfaction of all parties.

Mr. Kemp is a farmer and has two hundred acres of land under fence at the old home of his father, at which place he has resided for forty-six years. He is also owner of the Joel Kemp ferry, on Red River, which brings him in a comfortable revenue. He has no heirs, the children of his first wife, two in number, having died at an early age.

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