Parker County Today January 2016 | Page 28

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 26 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