Kemper Military School - Yearbook (Boonville, MO)

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on the other would make a univer- sity. Prof. Kemper lived the life he taught and his goings out and comings in taught lessons of per- sonal conduct and instilled lessons in achievement that find their echoes and work their results all over our country in lives trained under his care. His laborious, useful and hon- ored life came to a close in 1881. He labored and we have entered into his labors. His intellectual sons are in every business and in every State. His politics have been vindicated, and his ideals have been increasingly realized. It is the busi- ness of us to whom his work has fal- len and who are gathering Where he so wisely sowed, to see that the school that bears his name shall at- tain to ever increasing usefulness and that the name of Kemper shall grow in renown with the years. is-I' 1Nf,'gQfifEr'!4? ' N532 ' W -4---ang - , - , Ai: 1,1-' - -...., .. -...L lf. ...Q , 1 -A.. 5

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Frederick Thomas Kemper Bl! Bppfttitfibli IXTY-ONE years ago Cen- tral Missouri was on the educational frontier. The public school system had scarcely struggled to its birth. The population were hardly a generation removed from the daring pioneers of civilization who fought Indians and lived by hlmting. There Was no large educated class, no accumulated wealth, no traditions or atmosphere of culture. Into this educational wilderness came a young man, Frederick Thomas Kemper, recently gradu- ated from a Western Missionary College. Born of a stock of which several members have achieved dis- tinction in church, in state, and in letters, he inherited splendid natural abilities. Reared to manhood in the mountains of Virginia, their sub- limity and strength, and to some degree their ruggedness, were built into his character. Though edu- cated at a College without age or traditions it included in its Faculty several great-souled men from whom he received a strong religious im- pulse and a bias towards classical culture that made him pre-eminent among scholars in that department of learning. Having decided to make education his life work and having selected Boonville as ii location he founded 4 here a school in May, 184-4. Begin- ning with no building, with no finan- cial backing, and with slender pa- tronage, the school t'hus and then begun has lived, grown, and pros- pered to this day. The first building was erected for it in 1845 on the present site. After some experiment- ing to determine the scope and ideals of the work to be undertaken, it was given the form of a boys' prepara- tory school which it still retains. Only in the addition of the military feature has there been any change in the character of the school, and the change in this regard has been more apparent than real, as the or- der, accuracy, obedience and atten- tion to detail that belong to military usage were cardinal features of his system. He once in court described his oc- cupation as the making of men. No mere imparting of information filled his ideal. He conceived of an educated man as a power, ready for action in any desired direction, and with desires chastened and trained so as to choose only those directions which are good. Admirably as the methods and machinery of his school were adapted to these ends, his own life, words and examples were the best means he employed. Some one has said a log with President Mark Hopkins on one end and a student

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James Gibson. f -n 'dll' ill av 1 H! Y Cwzmeutory to Kemper Memorial Whdow. A list of the contributors to the fund for the Frederick Thomas Kemper memorial window in the First Presbyterian Church, Boon- ville, Mo. Mrs. S. H. Kemper. Rev. and Mrs. Wm. Warren. Mr. and Mrs. Jas. T. Montgomery. Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Wheeler. Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Toll. Mrs. William Campbell. J. A. Quarles. D. C. McCurtain. H. B. Rollins. E. R. Taylor. Washington Adams. W. H. Bocock. A. D. Stanley. F. G. Gantz. A. M. Hitch. E. E. Browning. J. A. Wettendorf. R. W. Cocke. M. H. Brewster. W. M. Hoge. P. G. Bender. 6 Lynn W. Smith. Geo. F. Black. Henry F. Black. Geo. E. Priest. T. A. Johnston. Chas. G. Miller. David Spahr. J. P. Huston. W. Speed Stephens. H. H. Smiley. C. W. Blow. Virgil M. Harris. Geo. T. Irvine. L. A. Daly. B. C. Lockwood. Frank D. Roberts, Jr Frank R. Smiley. Fritz Meredith. R. A. Johnston. W. E. Evans. E. H. Harris. M. M. McCarty. J. M. Byler. O. Keuckelhan. F. C. Livingston. Samuel Davis. Lambert Ott. Frank McConnell.