JANUARY 2016
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
F
or centuries the Kiowa and Comanche had dominated the region when descendants of adventurous
Europeans began moving to the area in the late 1840s.
By the early 1850s, people were pouring into the region,
attracted by the rolling hills and sandy loam but also for
the chance to dodge the raging malaria epidemic plaguing Tarrant County.
Led by Isaac Parker, 224 settlers signed the petition to
establish a new county. Parker delivered the petition on
time and the petition to form a new county was granted
— named Parker County.
“Lewis P. McDonald was the 16th person to sign the
petition,” Mary Kemp said. “He was my great-grandfather.”
Mention Mary Kemp in Parker County and most folks
think of her work in restoration and preservation of historic buildings and abandoned cemeteries. There is a good
reason why Mary Kemp is fascinated with Parker County
history. Her family members have played key roles in the
community’s history over the last century and a half.
Modern/Old-Fashioned Girl
She was born Mary Estelle Carnes in Parker County,
on July 19, 1927, to Everett and Lottie (Howell) Carnes.
Mary Kemp grew up on a small farm that was a neighboring property to the current Shaw-Kemp Ranch. “My
daddy sharecropped on the Staggs’ field,” Mary Kemp
said, adding that her entire family pitched in on the farm
work. “Whenever we would work in the fields at the
Stagg’s place, Maw-Maw Staggs would have us in for
dinner. The only time we had good food was when we
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went to Maw-Maw Stagg’s house. We probably would
have starved if it hadn’t been for her. We were very poor
during the Depression.” Later, Mary Kemp’s father was
hired at the defense plant that is now Lockheed Martin
in Fort Worth. “We did all right after that.” Young Mary
graduated from Weatherford High School in 1944, and
married her high school sweetheart, V.E. Kemp, Jr., in
March 1945. V.E. Kemp had grown up in Weatherford.
His family lived in a house behind his parents’ business, called the Wagon Yard, near the current location
of Craig’s Music. Mary’s son Rusty has the same love
for history that the rest of the family ha s. “You know
how the Kemp family ended up in Weatherford?” Rusty
Kemp said. “My great-grandfather got in a knife fight in
Waco, killed a guy and had to leave Waco in a hurry.
His first horse broke down in the little town of West, so
he bought another horse. Then that horse broke down
in Weatherford. But he didn’t have the money to buy
another horse so he stayed in Weatherford. He got a job
building a barn on the North side of Weatherford.” The
barn is still here and so is the Kemp family. The knifefighting barn builder got married, had a family, and built
the Weatherford Wagon Yard just off the square.
Wartime Romance, Married on Leave
V.E. Kemp, Jr. and Mary Carnes’ romance continued from their days at Weatherford High School. Like
so many other young couples across the country in the
1940s, world events sped up their courtship and wedding
plans. V.E. enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War
II. “We graduated in the spring of 1944 and we were