Kemp, Joseph Alexander

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Joseph Alexander Kemp. Now there's a name that Wichita Falls doesn't say quietly.

The marker calls him a visionary and an entrepreneur, and before this story's done, you'll understand why both of those words were earned. Kemp was born in Clifton, out in Bosque County, and he didn't waste much time gettin' started. He opened his first store at the age of eighteen.

Eighteen. Most young men that age are still figurin' out what they want for breakfast. He married Flora Anderson in 1882, and the very next year, he and Flora packed up and moved to Wichita Falls.

That's where the story really takes off. He partnered in a general mercantile store. Then came a wholesale grocery.

Then, well, the man just kept going. He and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell, helped establish several rail lines together, two of them as a pair, and they operated a number of other companies that the marker describes as vital to the commercial development of Wichita Falls. Vital.

That's not a word a marker uses lightly. Now here's where the story gets something close to legendary. Wichita Falls needed water.

That's not a small problem in this part of Texas. Kemp looked at that problem and decided it was his to solve. With private funding, his own money, he completed Lake Wichita in 1901.

That lake provided water, irrigation, and electricity to the community. But Kemp wasn't done. He went further, creating Lakes Kemp and Diversion, which brought water and flood control to Wichita Falls from across county lines.

The man was drawing water out of the landscape like it owed him something. And all the while, he was building. The Floral Heights addition, platted and named for his wife Flora.

City National Bank. The Kemp Hotel. A library that stands today as the Kemp Center for the Arts.

He and Flora raised five children through all of it. Then came the oil boom of the early twentieth century, and where another man might have just ridden that wave and called it a life, Kemp worked to diversify the community's economy. He saw past the boom.

That's the thing about a visionary. They're always looking at what comes after the obvious thing. Joseph Alexander Kemp died in 1930, and when he did, the city and the state both honored him as a great pioneer and leader.

The marker says he was a man of character who inspired, motivated, and led, and that he played a monumental role in developing the city of Wichita Falls. Lakes, rail lines, buildings, a library, a neighborhood named for his wife. Some men leave a forwarding address.

Kemp left a city.

What the marker says

Joseph Alexander Kemp was a visionary and entrepreneur whose business and civic activities were vital to the development of Wichita Falls. Kemp was born in Clifton (Bosque Co.), where he opened his first store at the age of eighteen. He married Flora Anderson in 1882 and they moved to Wichita Falls in 1883, where he partnered in a general mercantile store, later opening a wholesale grocery. The couple raised five children. Kemp's business activities were varied. He helped establish several rail lines, including two with his brother-in-law, Frank Kell, with whom he also operated a number of other companies vital for the commercial development of Wichita Falls. He also worked to provide the community with an adequate water supply. Kemp completed Lake Wichita with private funding in 1901, which provided water, irrigation and electricity to the community. He made further contributions to area irrigation with the creation of Lakes Kemp and Diversion, which provided water and flood control to Wichita Falls from across county lines. Other noted activities by Kemp included the platting of the Floral Heights addition, named for his wife; the construction of a number of important area buildings, including City National Bank and Kemp Hotel; and the opening of a library (now the Kemp Center for the Arts). He also worked to diversify the community's economy in the face of its early 20th century oil boom. When he died in 1930, Kemp was honored by the city and state as a great pioneer and leader. Today, Joseph A. Kemp is remembered as a man of character who inspired, motivated, and led, playing a monumental role in developing the city of Wichita Falls.