Papers, 1787-1972 (but mainly 1801-1870), of Jackson Kemper and of the Relf-Poyntell family, to whom he was related by marriage. The collection includes 50 chronologically-arranged volumes of letters received, together with occasional church minutes, reports on special subjects, and miscellaneous material. Letters written by Kemper are documented in books in which he kept digests of his correspondence and by photostat and microfilm copies of Kemper letters in other archives. There are many diaries, dated 1814-1870 with gaps and overlappings, but primarily covering the post-1835 years as a missionary bishop. There are also some miscellaneous ministerial papers and many small notebooks that mix diary and letterbook functions with financial records and memoranda.
For the early years there are letters from his family, classmates at Columbia University, and clergymen in the Philadelphia area, together with occasional reports and notations of his own. From about 1835 to the end of his life there is an exchange of letters with his daughter, Elizabeth Kemper Adams, most numerous during the years he lived in St. Louis; and with the Revered Samuel R. Johnson, for many years a pastor in his diocese.
Records of his missionary journeys, with notations on traveling conditions, personnel, the state of religion, prospect for advancement, and his ministerial services, are contained in his diaries, and are complemented by letters from laymen and clergy describing the progress of the work after his departure. There are references to numerous official visits to neighboring areas during his Philadelphia ministry, across the Alleghenies to Pittsburgh and surrounding regions in 1812, 1814, and 1825; and to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1834. After his elevation to the bishopric with jurisdiction over Indiana and Missouri, he made frequent visits to parishes in those states, as well as to many other points on the expanding frontier. These visits included Illinois and Iowa in 1836, Fort Leavenworth in 1837, down the Mississippi River in 1838 on a tour that took him into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and that same fall through the Wisconsin settlements and on a horseback trip to visit the Seneca Indians in southwestern Missouri. There are many references in the diaries and correspondence to his missionary work in Wisconsin, dealing with the organization of the church in the state, parish by parish. There are also records of many visits to Minnesota beginning in 1843, and after 1856, to Kansas and Nebraska. Much attention is devoted to the three colleges that Kemper was instrumental in founding: Kemper College in Missouri, in existence from 1835-1845; and in Wisconsin, Nashotah Seminary and Racine College, which was established in 1852. There are many letters from James Lloyd Breck about Nashotah Seminary, his Indian missions at Gull Lake and Leech Lake in Minnesota, and on the founding of the Seabury Divinity School at Faribault; and from Richard F. Cadle, who opened a mission at Detroit in 1824 and who served the church in many capacities in Wisconsin from 1829-1844.
Kemper's sermons and an index to their subjects are part of the papers of his biographer, Gilbert Doane. Miscellaneous church and religious papers in the Kemper Papers include lists of sermon subjects and marriages and baptisms performed; notes on religious subjects, and fundraising records pertaining to the General Theological Seminary.
In addition to the correspondence, the collection includes papers of Kemper's two wives, his daughter, and various in-laws. Jerusha Lyman, Kemper's first wife (d. 1818), is represented by letters to and from her husband, diary-like “ledgers of conduct,” and information concerning the estate of her father General William Lyman. The family of Kemper's second wife, Ann Relf Kemper, is represented by microfilmed papers including correspondence, 1801-1807, from William Tayler, a London relative, to her father Samuel Relf, editor of the National Gazette in Philadelphia, and by European travel letters from William Poyntell, Relf's father-in-law, to his wife, Anne Wilcocks Poyntell. Taylor's letters concern political, military, and naval developments in Europe, and they were probably intended for publication. There is also biographical information about Kemper and many family members prepared by Samuel Relf Durand. About Elizabeth Kemper Adams, Kemper's daughter by his second wife, there are almanac diaries (1832-1855), a chronological register of her father's career, and photocopied letters to her grandmother and from Helen Griffith, a Philadelphia friend. There is also biographical information about and poetry by Commodore William Bradford Whiting, whose daughter Mary Lee married the Adams' son, Francis Kemper Adams.
The visual materials in the collection include photographs, a lithograph, and copy photographs of paintings, circa 1814 to 1900, of and relating to Bishop Kemper and to his work at the Nashotah Seminary in Wisconsin. Also included are portraits of Kemper and detailed descriptions of his work with the church, along with images of members of the Adams and Relf families. Included are portraits of Kemper's first and second wife, Jerusha Lyman Kemper and Ann Relf Kemper, other family members, and images of his residences, including his birthplace in New York and homes in Nashota, Wisconsin, and Delafield, Wisconsin.
