DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Louis Wiltz Kemp, and friend, this one is worth every mile. Born September 4, 1881, in Cameron, Texas, Lou Kemp came into this world as a man with two lives ahead of him — and he lived both of them flat out. The first was respectable enough: a long career as an asphalt salesman and executive of the Texas Company, the outfit the world would come to know as Texaco.
Roads and oil and commerce. Fine work, steady work, work that kept a man moving across this big state constantly. And that's where the second life took root.
All that travel. All those miles of Texas rolling past the window. Starting in 1920, Kemp turned his time on the road into something nobody asked him to do and nobody could have stopped him from doing — historical research.
He investigated and documented the facts of early Texas history in great detail. Everywhere he went, he was looking. Listening.
Digging. Now here's the thing that really got under Lou Kemp's skin. He discovered that the graves of many notable Texans — heroes, statesmen, men who had bled for this republic — were unmarked.
Neglected. Forgotten by the very ground they lay in. That bothered him.
That bothered him deeply. So he did something about it. He arranged for the reinterment of more than a hundred Texas heroes and statesmen in the Texas State Cemetery.
More than a hundred. And in 1932, the roads of that cemetery were dedicated to Kemp himself. But the man didn't slow down to admire that.
He became a Texas history expert, a tireless speaker, and a prolific writer — books, articles, biographies. Notably The Heroes of San Jacinto. Notably The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
He served as president of the Texas State Historical Association. He was an original member of what is now the Texas Historical Commission. And then came 1936 — the Texas Centennial.
Kemp chaired the Advisory Board of Texas Historians for the whole celebration, directing the placement of more than eleven hundred markers, monuments, and buildings across Texas. Eleven hundred. You have probably stood in front of one of them without knowing the hand behind it.
He was an organizing trustee and long-time president of the San Jacinto Museum of History Association, and he was instrumental in creating the San Jacinto Museum and Monument itself. On that monument — carved right into it — is Kemp's own summary of the Battle of San Jacinto. His words, in stone, on the monument to the battle that made Texas.
In 1925, Kemp married Violet Volz, and together they had three sons. He lived at 214 Westmoreland Avenue in Houston from 1919 until his death on November 15, 1956, filling that house over the decades with an extensive collection of books and records on Texas history. A life's worth of gathering.
He is buried in the Texas State Cemetery — the same ground he spent so much of his life honoring. Governor Price Daniel put it plainly: "Louis Wiltz Kemp ranks with the immortals of Texas history. To my knowledge, no other person did more during his lifetime to preserve the great heritage of Texas." An asphalt salesman who drove the roads of Texas and decided — quietly, stubbornly, completely — that somebody had to remember.
And that somebody was going to be him.
What the marker says
(September 4, 1881 – November 15, 1956) A native of Cameron, Texas, Lou Kemp had a long career as an asphalt salesman and executive of the Texas Company (Texaco), but his passionate avocation, starting in 1920, was historical research. During the extensive travel required by his work, Kemp investigated and documented the facts of early Texas history in great detail. Upon discovering that the graves of many notable Texans were unmarked or neglected, he arranged for the reinterment of more than 100 Texas heroes and statesmen in the Texas State Cemetery, where the roads were dedicated to Kemp in 1932. Kemp became a Texas history expert, a tireless speaker, and a prolific writer of books, articles and biographies (notably The Heroes of San Jacinto and The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence). He was president of the Texas State Historical Association and an original member of the Texas State Historical Survey Committee (now Texas Historical Commission). He chaired the Advisory Board of Texas Historians for the 1936 Texas Centennial, directing placement of more than 1,100 markers, monuments, and buildings across Texas. An organizing trustee and long-time president of the San Jacinto Museum of History Association, he was instrumental in creating the San Jacinto Museum and Monument, on which is carved Kemp's summary of the Battle of San Jacinto. Kemp married Violet Volz in 1925, and they had three sons. He lived at 214 Westmoreland Avenue in Houston from 1919 until his death, amassing an extensive collection of books and records on Texas History. Kemp is buried in the Texas State Cemetery. Governor Price Daniel wrote, "Louis Wiltz Kemp ranks with the immortals of Texas history. To my knowledge, no other person did more during his lifetime to preserve the great heritage of Texas." (2013)