S.R. Durand: "My great-great grandfather, Colonel Daniel Kemper, was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey on August 27, 1749. His mother and father had settled in New Brunswick that year after giving up farming in New York state. In 1759, he removed to New York City with his parents. In 1765, at the age of 16, he and his older brother Matthew took their sister Anna and her two children to join her husband, Dr. Miller, in Germany. Dr. Miller's father had insisted that he return to Germany since he was an only son, and would inherit a fortune. Matthew Kemper stayed in Germany, where he married and had several children, and died quite young. Daniel Kemper returned to New York and entered King's College (Columbia University). However, he did not complete his education because of a serious accident: one day he was standing in front of his parents' home, talking and laughing with some friends and paring a peach. Turning his foot, he slipped on a peel and fell on the clasp knife he was holding. The wound was deep, over the lung, and consequently he was seriously ill for a time. Upon his recovery, he entered the mercantile business and achieved quick success at a young age. At the age of 22 on September 29, 1771, Daniel Kemper married Jane Branson, who had been born February 1, 1750. They had six children: 1) Jacob Branson, born August 6, 1772, died on December 10, 1793 at the age of 21 years, he was buried in St. Paul's Churchyard in New York City; 2) Mary Angelina, born April 3, 1774. She married in June of 1796 the Honorable Samuel Sitgreaves, died in 1827; 3) Sophia Cornelia, born in 1777, never married, lived in Easton, Pennsylvania and died at the age of 102; 4) Daniel Darby, born in 1779, died in 1808 at Puerto Cabello Castle of San Felipe in Venezuela. He had gone with a dozen young men from New York to fight for the freedom of Venezuela from Spain, but they were captured and shot; 5) Ann Gertrude, born in 1781, married a Dr. Miller [ed.: think this may be an error - confusion with Col. Kemper's sister], and died in 1861; and 7) Thomas Ware, born in 1783, died unmarried in 1803. From the United States Bureau of Pension Records and the Society of the Cincinnati Records of the State of New York, an account written by Daniel Kemper of his military service during the Revolutionary War reads as follows:

 'I engaged in the service of my country at the earliest commencement of the Revolution in Colonel Jasper's Regiment and General Scott's Brigade which was engaged to serve for six months.  I fought in the battles of White Plains, Long Island, Springfield, and Scotch Plains at the start of the war in 1776.  I was promoted to Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant at the evacuation of Fort Lee, November 16, 1776.  On entering the service of my country, I had removed my family and my parents from New York to Elizabeth Town, New Jersey.  When our army crossed the North River into New Jersey as far as Newark, I obtained leave to move my family from Elizabeth Town.  I removed my wife and three children without delay, but my property could not be removed for want of teams.  The Hessians entered Elizabeth Town by the dawn of the day the next morning after we left, and altho my father, Jacob Kemper, was there, the Hessians would not allow him to take anything out of the house.  My loss on that occasion at the lowest estimate could not

have been less than less than five thousand dollars, as I left a considerable store of goods and a house well-furnished. I then purchased a small place in Morristown, New Jersey for my family and there they remained until the close of the Revolution. In the early part of 1777 after my six months service of enlistment had expired, I did duty on the lines as a Volunteer with the militia and the Continental troops and was at times with General Maxwell. Towards spring in 1777, information was brought to the General that the British were leaving Elizabeth Town and [I] and three officers obtained permission to go to reconnoitre the place. On entering, we found it evacuated by the British. Information was given to me that a schooner belonging to a notorious character lay aground a mile below, laden with valuable cargo, but she was full of troops. I obtained some volunteers from General Dayton and proceeded with them to the place where the vessel lay. I placed my men under the cover of a small knoll, and taking a flag went to the beach and demanded of the commanding officer his surrender. He was a Major McDollard of the Black Watch, having a Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant, sixty privates, and sixteen women on board. The major after a little consultation desired me to come on board the vessel, where he delivered me his sword. The soldiers and women were immediately landed and sent under guard. I then went with the major and presented him to General Dayton with the sword. The general returned the sword to me to keep it as a trophy and I still have the Major's claymore and gorget. My dress sword, service sword, and long fusee and the order of the Cincinnati are in Wisconsin.'

 On October 4, 1777, Colonel Daniel Kemper at the age of 28 was serving as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General George Washington at the Battle of Germantown.  During the height of the battle, when the British army were holding up the American advance by fortifying Judge Chew's large stone house, Col. Kemper offered to go with a flag of truce to demand their surrender.  Just as he was about to leave, a younger officer rode up and was sent instead.  He was killed by a shot from a window. The American forces never did succeed in dislodging the British from Judge Chew's house, and although they inflicted over eight hundred losses on their enemies while losing only 152 men, they had to retire six miles back from Germantown, and later to Valley Forge for the winter.  The following summer, Lt. Daniel Kemper again served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Washington in the American victory at the Battle of Monmouth, where General Clinton of the British was caught on the retreat to New York after abandoning Philadelphia.  Col.

Kemper wrote further about his military service as follows:

 'During the winter of 1777, I did duty upon the lines until by repeated colds (being very exposed to hardships and often to dangers) an inflammation seized me in the breast, and it was with great difficulty I was brought home.  I was confined thereby for two months and was attended by physicians of the Army; Doctors Shippie, Bond, Chocran and others.  My life was despaired of for some time.  It however pleased a kind Providence to raise me up again.  During my illness Mr. James Mease of Philadelphia was appointed Clothier General, and on his coming to headquarters then at Morristown, I was recommended to him as a suitable person as his deputy, to take charge of the Department with the Army with the rank of Colonel.  Inconsequence of the recommendation he had received, he thought fitt [sic] to wait the issue of my illness, and on my recovery he appointed me his Deputy and gave me charge of the Department with the Army.  In that station I continued between four and five years until Mr. Mease's resignation.  I never did receive pay for my Services - this was owing to Mr. Mease being taken off by an Apoplectic Fitt [sic] shortly after I had made a settlement with him but had not received my money due me.
 When I was Admitted a member of the Cincinnati, it was as Deputy Clothier General as the Heads of Departments of the Army were considered entitled to it, particularly those who had served several years in one Department as was the case with myself.'

Daniel Kemper's first wife died April 11, 1783. He married second on May 20, 1785 Elizabeth Marius, born May 20, 1753, the daughter of Sylvestre and Phoebe (Bergen) Marius. They had six children: 1) Sylvestre Marius, born in 1786, was severely wounded at the Battle of Lake Erie while serving in the Navy during the War of 1812 and never fully recovered. He died May 17, 1827 in New Brunswick, NJ; 2) Jane Branson, born October 30, 1788, died March 2, 1872, and was buried in Nashotah Mission Cemetery in Wisconsin; 3) David Jackson (Bishop Jackson Kemper) [# 660], my great-grandfather; 4) Phoebe Eliza born 1791, died in 1873, buried in Nashotah Mission Cemetery; 5) Rachel, born 1793, died August 16, 1793, buried in St. Paul's Churchyard, New York City; and 6) Mary Margaret, born 1795, died in 1796. In 1785, Colonel Daniel Kemper was able to move his aged parents and his six small children back to New York, which was at that time a city of 20,000 people. He had been greatly impoverished by the war, and had lost his wife in Morristown in 1783, where she was buried. He had a hard struggle to reestablish himself as a merchant, and also to support his family, which grew further after his second marriage in 1785. In 1795, he was appointed as head of the United States Business and Custom House Service in New York. He leased an estate from Trinity Church on the Hudson River at Greenwich Village, at the foot of what is now Morton Street, where he lived for many years. While acting as head of the Customs Service in 1801, three of the appointed weighmasters complained that he employed three or four deputy weighmasters, some of whom were only common laborers who were unacquainted with accounts and unskillful in that business. At a hearing before a Board, he agreed to employ only qualified weighmasters. The noted French artist St. Memin escaped from France during the French Revolution [probably sometime around 1790], and found his way to New York, where he was befriended by Daniel Kemper. He lived for some time in Daniel and Mrs. Kemper's home. During this time, he made portraits of Colonel and Mrs. Kemper which have remained in the family and are valuable works of art. His best portraits of them are in the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1807, Col. Kemper retired from the Customs Service and formed the importing partnership of Kemper and Norton, Merchants. They were large importers of sugar, coffee, grain, fish, timber, and many other products from Kingston, Jamaica. Daniel Kemper wrote in his bible, "In the year 1815, I removed with my family to New Brunswick, State of New Jersey, the place of my Nativity, being then in the 67th year of age." He rented there a large house on Carroll Place, corner of Livingston Avenue, which had been built by a Mr. Guest in 1760. The house had a sickle pear tree in the front yard, and a bush box that lived for over 200 years. Colonel Kemper cultivated a large garden in the rear of the house for many years. A recollection of Colonel Daniel Kemper written in 1825[?] by a Mr. Charles Durham Deshler speaks of him as "one of the most marked characters in the city, somewhat above middle height, of spare but broad and large frame, he was still a very active man and might be seen on the street almost every day where he attracted attention by his erect bearing, his military gait, his eagle eyes and nose, his large and serviceable cane, and his old-time and highly becoming garb. Among his friends and intimates, the Colonel was a great talker, and with children the most delightful of chroniclersÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ As a boy I have been many scores of times regaled with the delicious cakes and preserves made by his daughters, Miss Jane and Miss Eliza, and fascinated by his stirring tales of incidents of the Revolutionary War in which he had been an actorÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ In these recollections I have referred only to Colonel Kemper's youngest daughters, his elder daughters, Miss Sophia and Miss Gertrude, being in Easton, except for short visits home, where they resided with their sister, Mrs. Judge Stigreaves. Mrs. Sitgreaves and Miss Sophia were both tall and spare; Miss Gertrude was shorter and very stout. All of them were models of true gentlewomenÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ In 1829, Colonel Kemper was located with his family in the house of adjoining Christ Church graveyard on the west. Here a juvenile school that was justly popular among our citizens was taught for several years after 1828 by the Colonel's daughter, Miss Jane. She was a woman of great grace and loveliness of character - at that time approaching middle ageÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Her pupils here included the youthful scions, both male and female, of our oldest and most cultured families. In these the venerable Colonel took a great interest, visiting them daily during school hours in a wheeled rocking chair. After conducting this school successfully for several years, Miss Jane - greatly to the regret of the children and their parents - was obliged to give it up because of the declining health of her father." Colonel Daniel Kemper died at the age of 98 on August 6, 1847, and was buried in Christ Church graveyard in New Brunswick. Miss Jane and Miss Eliza went to live and keep house for their brother, Bishop Jackson Kemper, at Nashotah, Wisconsin. Among the many portraits of distinguished Americans in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. are portraits of Colonel and Mrs. Daniel Kemper painted by Charles Balthazar Julien Favre de Saint Memin. He also painted many portraits of their relatives, and of presidents Washington, Jefferson, and William Henry Harrison that are in the same Gallery. As mentioned previously, he lived in Colonel and Mrs. Kemper's home when he arrived, impoverished, in 1796 from the French Revolution. He was employed by them as a tutor and instructor in French to their children. In the family today are some crayon portraits he made, a unique type of art that he introduced in this country." In August of 1832, the 83-year-old Col. Daniel Kemper was still living in New Brunswick, NJ, when he applied for a pension for his services in the Army during the Revolutionary War. This pension was allowed.

Facts about this person:

Record Change August 01, 1999

Retirement 1815 New York, NY