Jackson Kemper | |
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Born |
Pleasant Valley, Columbia County, New York |
December 24, 1789
Died | May 24, 1870 Nashotah, Waukesha County, Wisconsin |
(aged 80)
Jackson Kemper (December 24, 1789 – May 24, 1870) in 1835 became the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Especially known for his work with Native American peoples, he also founded parishes in what in his youth was considered the Northwest Territory and later became known as the "Old Northwest" (Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska), hence one appellation as bishop of the "Whole Northwest". Bishop Kemper founded Nashotah House and Racine College in Wisconsin, and from 1859 until his death served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Wisconsin.
Baptized David Jackson Kemper by Dr. Benjamin Moore, the Assistant Rector of his parents' congregation at New York City's Trinity Church, he would eventually drop the given name "David." He had been born in the Hudson River Valley of New York, where his parents had taken temporary refuge during a smallpox outbreak in New York City. He was the son of Col. Daniel Kemper, a former aide-de-camp to Gen. George Washington at the battles of Germantown and Monmouth during the American Revolution, and Elizabeth (Marius) Kemper, who descended from well-known families of the Dutch New Amsterdam era.
He entered Columbia College at the age of fifteen, where he studied theology under Dr. Henry Hobart and graduated in 1809 as the valedictorian of his class.