Christopher Jensen Kempe

Christopher Jensen Kempe was born a Lutheran in Denmark. He apprenticed as a carriage maker. He liked to read, and when he was about about 22 he read something by apostle Erasmus Snow about being virtuous, and was impressed. Shortly thereafter he had a dream and was shown where the Saints would be meeting. On Sunday he went there, and was baptized a few weeks later. His uncle then withdrew a large inheritance. C. J. Kempe was a missionary in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. On his mission he was chased by a man with a large butcher knife who wanted to make "mince meat" out of him, and was also imprisoned on a minister's false charge, but he forged on and had good success. Upon his release he wanted to go to Zion. Local church leaders wanted him to marry an aristocratic young lady names Anne Ongerod, which he did not want to do, but agreed to do so if she would pay for poor saints to go to Zion. They took the ship "Aurora" and then the "S.B. Kimball" to America, accompanied by Daniel Wells, George Reynolds and others, but Anne died of smallpox at Quincy on the way west. C. J. Kempe crossed the plains with pioneers under Captain Miner Atwood as part of Elder Smith's independent company, and the group dealt with such challenges as another man's wife being carried off by Indians. In Salt Lake City he married Olena Olsen (Oline Olsendatter), who he had baptized in Norway, and who had been disowned for joining the Church, and who was on the ship with C. J. Kempe and Anna. Shortly thereafter he also married Anna Dorthea Johnson, a plural wife. Olena was usually in town, and Anne was usually on the farm. C. J. Kempe worked on the construction of the Tabernacle, moved to Provo, Utah, and then to Richfield to farm. They lived the United Order, which he considered a good principle that was terribly abused. Then, called through the wilderness by wagon to St. Johns, Arizona, led by Jacob Hamblin, the family was off to a very hard life platting land, digging irrigation ditches, building a gristmill, sawmill, and school, and organizing a militia. The locals were not friendly, and the Mormons were very poor compared to the Mexican sheep owners. However, the federal government intervened to give him two years of free room and board in a Detroit penitentiary, for polygamy (he opined that the judge fined them $500 because the judge needed whiskey, and observed that the prosecutor could not even stand due to an immoral disease). Then he was on to Concho, Arizona to be a bishop. This was a difficult calling for him, especially since as a store owner he found church members believing he should be lenient in expecting payment for goods. Olena came with him, but Anna stayed in St. Johns. He had not been formally educated anywhere, but was a well read man who spoke good English. His peach orchard was famous for delicious fruit, and he ran the ACMI (Arizona Cooperative Mercantile Establishment, the Arizona equivalent of ZCMI). At 61, C. J. Kempe was called on a mission to Denmark. Shortly after his return, he was injured by a runaway team while hauling hay, and died two weeks later.

Anna Dorthea Johnson

Born in Norway to a family of fisherman, Anna (also Anne, also Jonsdatter) learned to row and get around on the water. She joined the LDS church against her Lutheran family's wishes, and emigrated on the ship "Monarch of the Sea." She walked across the plains, often barefoot to save her shoes, and learned English on the way. In Utah she married Christopher Jensen Kempe, a missionary she had known in Norway, and was his second (plural) wife. Her first home in Provo was a dugout, then a brick home. Before long they were off to colonize Arizona, living in a dugout and wagon boxes. She lived in St. Johns, and Concho, in eastern Arizona. She had a garden, an orchard, and livestock, and had a popular supply of yeast, but was also able to raise money by working as a seamstress for the local Mexican population, who were much richer than the Mormons. She even made the local padre a robe.

Ruth Leila Kempe

Born in Richfield, Utah to Christopher Jensen Kempe and Anna Dorthea Johnson, she went off to Arizona as a baby. She was a sickly child, with whooping cough, measles, and typhoid fever, but she kept bouncing back. When C. J. Kempe went to Concho with his first wife, her mother Anna stayed in St. Johns. She helped her mother run a dairy. She went to Brigham Young Academy in Provo, and diligently worked at self improvement, trying not to be quick tempered, and seeking higher things. She and other students sang at Karl Maeser's funeral, and she studied under George Brimhall. At 16 she was dying to get married, at 20 she was having too much fun to think of it, and at 30 she was getting a lot of suggestions from friends. When she married she had a lot of land, was homesteading, had cattle, and was in charge of arts in the Mesa schools. She married widower Abel Alexander DeWitt, Jr., who had six children, and they had six more. During World War I, A.A. insisted they switch to growing cotton, which she thought was unwise. That paid well during the war, but at the end of the war they went completely bust. The family went to California, parked in a barn, and the barn burned and took their car with it. While traveling to a farm they had rented, they inadvertently left $600 in cash behind at a camp, along with a recommendation from the governor of Arizona. The family was poor, with her husband renting a series of farms and upgrading them, but falling back into poverty again when he was fleeced in a real estate transaction. Leila was a quiet, intelligent, talented woman who went from riches to rags. However, she raised very good children.