Around 1912 or 1913 a bear roamed a well fenced lot at the Kemp's home quarters at Front and Fayette Streets, the last of the Kemp show props. Just why the bear was kept is not known. It was considered a pet and harmless until one day it clawed and mauled Mrs. G. P. Kemp, and then it was disposed of. Mrs. Kemp recovered, and not long thereafter she and her showman husband moved for the first time into the West they had portrayed for so many years in their shows. The two brothers, Frank and Abe, continued to live in El Paso until their death. So did Charles Stambach who traveled with them. Charlie was
Mr. and Mrs. G. P. Kemp
a home town boy whose trick riding was a show specialty. His home friends induced him to put on a riding exhibition at the fair in days when Charlie was well past his prime. On an untrained horse Stumbaugh swept by the grandstand and swooped up from the ground a handkerchief full of coins without losing any of them. It was Charlie's final performance, and no doubt it reminded him of more youthful days with the Kemp Wild West Shows when far more difficult stunts were a twice a day routine.
The last Kemp in El Paso was Norris Kemp,4 a genial electrician who, like his uncle Frank, was a confirmed bachelor. Norris dimly recalled the days of his boyhood which saw the final season of the Kemp Sisters Wild West Shows, and he looked forward to this chapter of the El Paso Story. His death occurred November 9, 1953. Norris didn't live to read about the Kemp organization which for two decades spread the name of El Paso, Illinois through the eastern cities as the hometown of a high class, square dealing western attraction.
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