age 76 years 7 months ?? days

ELLIS COUNTY PIONEER DEAD
Judge A.A. Kemble Expires at Waxahachie, Aged 77 years

Special to The News.
Waxahachie, Tex., May 7. -- Judge A.A. Kemble, one of the oldest citizens of this county and city, an ex-Confederate soldier and the oldest member of the Ellis County bar, died at his home in this city today. Judge Kemble was born in Warren County, Kentucky, in 1826, and moved to this place in 1858, where he has resided continuously since.

At a largely-attended meeting of the Ellis County Bar Association this evening resolutions of respect were adopted and many touching remarks made by the members, upon the ability and learning of Judge Kemble as a lawyer; his uniform courtesy and fairness as a practitioner, and his generosity, honesty and nobility as a man.

Source: The Dallas Morning News, 8 May 1903.
LETTER FROM A.A. KEMBLE TO HIS SON GUSSIE
The writer, A.A. Kemble (Abram Allen Kemble) was born 3 Oct 1826 in Warren Co. Ky. died 7 May 1903. He was the 5th child of Abraham Kemble and Mary F. New, daughter of John New, she was born in Stokes Co. N.C. Dec 5, 1798 (or 1793) d. Sept 19, 1867, Tex.
1. Copy of original manuscript made by Y.D. Kemble
2. Second copy made by W. Curtis Kemble, son of J.A.C. Kemble on Mrch 1832.
3. Third copy made by Miss Lillian K. Thomas, great granddaughter of Joe W. Kemble on Aug 18, 1938.
4. Fourth copy made by Charles V. Rutledge, great grandson of Fannie Kemble (wife of Frank E. Waller) Nov, 1943.

Waxahachie, Texas
April 21, 1894

My Dear son Gussie:

You seem to feel some interest in our geneology, you will find my home papers somewhere written down all that I know from records and some from tradition. But this will be to you another paper from which you can collate in case of loss of all others.
By tradition we learn that our American Kemble family is a branch from the English stock which produced John and Charles Kemble of stage fame and later Fannie Kemble of the Kemble family appears at Philadelphia, and I have no record when they came to be there.
My grandfathers was born there in 1750 so is my recollection of family records. His name was Hezekiah Kemble. He married there, His wife’s name was Abigail, but her family name is lost to my recollection.
Grandfather Kemble and his two brothers, George and Levi, removed to North Carolina, Surry Co. (I think). There grandfather raised his family, and from there moved to Kentucky, Warren Co, about 1810 or 1812. Grandfather’s children were Thomas S. (Uncle Tommy). He raised a family and died some 15 miles N.E. from Bowlingreen. Some of his decendants are now living thereabouts.
My father, Abraham, was the next son and was born in Philadelphia in 1794, I think, but my home record will show just the date. He came to Kentucky with Grandfather’s family and married my mother, Mary F. New, in Warren Co. in 1818, I think.
My father’s next brother was William S. who married a Miss Fielding and moved to Howard County, Missouri, about 1831 and raised a family of two sons and one daughter. The daughter came to Graves County, Kentucky, about 1850 and made my father’s home her home for a time. She married twice and died leaving no children. One of the sons, William was married and living in Graves County, the last I heard of him. He, if living, would be very near my age.
Another son of my Grandfather Kemble’s was Charles. He was, I think, the youngest. He married in Warren County, Kentucky, but died young leaving two of three children. They were in Warren County, Kentucky, at the last account.
Of my father’s sisters there were four. Aunt Sallie married her cousin, Charles Kemble in South Carolina and from there that family came back to North Carolina and removed to Kentucky with my Grandfather and raised several children in Graves County, viz: Charles, William, Collin and Burr, sons, and Pamelia, Malinda and Sallie, daughters. Uncle Charles died at my father’s in Warren County, Kentucky in 1831 or 1832, and in 1832, 33, or 34 this family all went to Illinois, about Peoria, and there settled, except Collin B. who did not go but moved to Graves county and was a school teacher in my boyhood, and except Pamelia who never married but generally lived with my family. she died recently in Graves Co. Kentucky.
Another sister of my father was named Increase, but Aunt Crecy was what we called her. She married John Crawford in Warren Co. Kentucky. They moved to Calloway County in 1831 or 32 and raised a large family, seven sons and three daughters. I do not know what became of them. One Alfred lived and died near the old home in Calloway Co.
Another, Thomas, was a lawyer and was killed while a judge in Louisiana, Another, Issac, was living in Louisiana during the war, and Marcus was then living in Texas, in Hays County. Another raised a family and died in northwestern Arkansas. His name was Abram. He died sometime about 1860. One Marshall was a preacher in Kentucky, but I have not heard of him in nearly forty years. Another, Tarleton, went to Chine as a missionary some fifty years ago and was still there in the same calling up to the last accounts, some ten years since. As to his success as a missionary, I can only say that from reports, that he had a heathen for a cook and greatly in hopes of his final conversion to some sort of pigeon Christianity.
Of the three girls two died unmarried and the other was living single with one of her brothers in Louisiana the last I knew. Another sister of my father was Aunt Rachael Thomas. They moved to Graves Co. Ky., about the time our family did. They raised the children: Hezekiah, John , Wallace, Solon, Lycurgus, Calvin and Joseph and one daughter, Rachael. Two of the sons died in Missouri, left families there. One died, left family at Bowlingreen, Ky. One died young in Warren Co. Ky One raised a family and died in northwestern Arkansas. One died and left a family in Graves county, Ky., and one Joseph, is till living on his father’s old farm. One Robert Wallace died in Collin County, Texas or three years since. The daughter, Rachael, was the mother of Dr. Fristoe of Red Oak, Ellis Co. Texas.
Another sister was Aunt Elizabeth Cacey. I never saw her. She died young leaving one child, a daughter. She, the daughter, married one Jeffrey and was living somewhere about Louisville Ky., the last I knew but that has been at least fifty years ago.
Of my father’s family, your Uncle Joe (J.W. Kemble) was the eldest, born in Warren Co. Ky in 1819. He, as you know, died in Texas, at this homestead on Grove Creek, north of Waxahachie, in Ellis Co. in 1875, leaving two children, James H. and Mary C. who married John Z Linn, and is now living in West Texas.
The next sister was Elizabeth C. She was born in 1821, I think. She married Bethel Slayden, the father of Joe Slayden. They raised a large family in Graves Co. Ky. Both are now dead. She died in 1857 and he just a month or two since.
My next sister was Sarah S. and she was born in 1822, I think. She married John Dyer, when she was some 35 years old and then lived and died in Trigg Co. Ky. She left two children, girls. One of them married her cousin, Scott Holbrook, and the other married a man named Sullivan. They are both living in Graves Co. Ky.
My next sister Mary E. born in 1823 or 1824. she married Felix Holbrook, her cousin. She died twelve or fourteen years ago and Felix died a year or two since. They lived and died in Graves Co. Ky, and left several children there.
The next was John N. He was born in 1828, never married. Came to Texas and lived here for several years and died in 1866 or 1867.
The next was a girl, Charlotte. She died at three or four years old.
The next was Cicero (M.T.C.) He also came to Texas at the beginning of the war and died 1867, leaving his widow and two children. One only is living, Fannie Bell, who married Tom Lancaster and now lives in Coleman County, Texas. But I am wrong again. My sister Fannie was older than Cicero. She married Frank Waller. She died in Red Oak, Ellis Co. Texas and was buried in the cemetery at Waxahachie in 1865 or 1866, left three children, one son and two daughters, Drew, Lula and Cora. Drew, the oldest, left one child, Earle Waller, who lives with her mother at Alvarado, Texas.
I had one other sister, the youngest Ann Cora. She died in infancy.
As to my mother’s family I do not remember much about them. My mother’s name was Mary F. New. She was born and raised in Stokes County, North Carolina. Her father was John New. I do not know about her mother. I remember ther father. He, with several of his younger children, removed from Kentucky to Indiana when I was about six years old. I remember two of his sons, Uncle Daniel and James, and I think there was another, George. They and one daughter, Aunt Fannie, all went to Indiana. There were others of my mother’s sisters; one, Aunt Patsy, married William Dalton and they went to live at what was then called Lead Mines. I suppose about where Des Moines, Iowa, now is. this was about 1831 or 1832.
Another sister of my mother was Elizabeth. She married John Holbrook in Ky. moved to Tennessee, raised a large family and old Uncle Johnny became a hard=side Baptist preacher. They again moved and settled in Graves Co. Ky., near my father’s and were living there when I came to Texas, both dead now. It was one of their boys, Felix, that married y my sister Mary E. and one of Felix’s and Mary’s boys married sister Sarah’s daughters.
N.B.: After looking over this I remember that my mother’s brother, George New, remained in Stokes Co. N.C., and some of this family was still there at the beginning of the war. I also recall another brother, William New, who went to Indiana with Grandfather New in 1832.
Now my own family: my wife was Emily J. Wortham, a sister of Mrs. Elizabeth Whitmore of Mayfield, Ky. She died in December 1887., at our old homestead south of the public square in Waxahachie, Tex. We raised several children, but the eldest Willie, died in 1881 at the age of about 27 years. He died single. The remaining children are: Robert B., married and living near Waco, Texas. Gussie (J.A.C.) is next married and living here. Yancy D. is next married, also living here. Then we Have Walter S. and Edgar P. and Cora, my only daughter living, all the latter are unmarried and they and myself are living together as one family.
I will conclude by saying that I have neither seen nor heard of but few of the Kemble family other than the descendants of my grandfather. Occasionally I read of the same bout Philadelphia and father west in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. These I presume, are descended from the stock left at Philadelphia when my grandfather lest there. I occasionally see the name in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. These I suppose, are the descendatns of my father’s brothers left in North Carolina.
Probably you might feel some curiosity concerting the home life and occupation of some of our ancestors. On this subject, in brief, my grandfather in his younger days was a shoe and boot maker, then called the County “Cordwainer.” They made shoes and boots altogether by hand, and grandfather never entirely quit the business, but kept it up until his death as a sort of local or neighborhood shoe maker while his boys carried on the farm. I remember well his old shoemaker’s bench and tools, seeing him at work. In fact my father kept the outfit and made shoes on it with that same kit of tools after I was grown. And I made for myself a last” and then made me a pair of shoes on it with that same kit of tools. Of my Uncles, on the Kemble side, Uncle Tommy never would work in his farm to do any good. He kept a wagon and team and hauled merchandise as a business from Glascow and Bowlingreen, some one hundred and fifty miles. There were no railroads there then and no steamboat navigation nearer than along the Ohio river. All the others of my father’s brothers were farmers all of their lives. None grew rich but all made a fair support.
On my mother’s side, my grandfather was skilled in wood working in the line that was then called cabinet work, such as making bureaus, tables, desks, drawers, etc., and a very fine workman he was indeed. My mother still has some of the pieces of his work when I left Ky. I remember a table made from the wild cherry, and the pieces were so skillfully put together that when it had been in use for more than 30 years we could not tell where the pieces were joined together. She also had a flax spinning wheel and a loom and I have worn many a shirt and pair of pants made by her on these from flax we produced and prepared at home in the farm.
Her brother, as before stated, left Ky. and went to Indiana when I was but a child and I never saw them after that, but father and mother corresponded with them until I left Ky. I thin they all followed farming, though I remember that Uncle William was also a good wood workman.
My grandfather died with cancer, his wife died when my mother was hardly grown. She was American raised but of French descent. I don’t know her name.

Signed - A.A. Kemble.

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