nationally known expert in fancy and target shooting performances was with the show in 1899 and probably other seasons.

Col. Victor F. Cody, nephew of Buffalo Bill Cody, traveled with the Kemps with his wife and daughter, Miss Jennie. A sad day for the Kemp Shows was when Jennie died, a young bride, and the entire troupe attended her funeral in the eastern city where she was buried. From then on the Cody family's specialty of trick and fancy shooting and lariat throwing had to be revised.

Tee Stokes, Two Braids Ora Woodman and Rocky Mountain Hank Walker were other mainstays in the Kemp company. Woodman was a white who had been raised by the Apache Indians and he carried an Indian name. Hank Walker was an old time stage driver who always drove the coach in the Kemp act entitled "Attack on a Stagecoach by Indians." The only western act requiring more props and persons was entitled "The Great Train Robbery." Lem and Blanch Hunter were in these acts and also in a specialty act of their own, coming to Kemp's from Buffalo Bill's competing Wild West Shows.

Genuine old stagecoaches were gone by 1890, but G. P. found one called Old Concord which had been stored away for years, and he coolly paid $1,000 for it. Real Apache, Sioux and other tribes staged daily attacks on Old Concord and Hank Walker for eastern audiences in those pre-movie days. At times G. P. had to dampen the ardor of his

Part of the Kemp Show Troupe about 1894 with Old Concord stagecoach in the background.
Page 92

Go to previous page

Go to next page

Go to El Paso Story gateway page