Montrose County CO Archives Biographies.....Kem, Omer M. 1855 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 26, 2006, 12:54 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     It is only within a very re[c]ent period that the great West of our country

has been able to make itself heard in any effective way in its demand for the

aid of the general government in developing its vast arid regions and bringing

them into productiveness and fertility through systematic and sufficient

irrigation.  To all appeals on this score prior to a few years ago the congress

of the Untied States turned a deaf and often defiant ear, apparently unable or

unwilling to see that the waters of the Rocky mountain region, if properly

stored and distributed, would not only fructify the great plains that stretch

away from it to the Mississippi, but would also be restrained from creating the

disastrous floods which spring after spring for centuries have wasted many, many

times the wealth required for their proper use in this way.  Among the

broad-minded and aggressive representatives of the West whose persistent efforts

at last compelled an attentive audience to this subject and secured provision

for the mighty means of beneficence and local and national aggrandizement

involved therein, Hon. Omer M. Kem, a member of the fifty-second, fifty-third

and fifty-fourth congresses from Nebraska, but now an esteemed resident of

Colorado, is entitled to special consideration and credit.  From the time of his

entry into the halls of national legislation to the close of his valuable

services there he was a persistent and able advocate of the scheme, and labored

incessantly in committees and on the floor of the house of representatives in

its behalf.  His efforts and others’ have at length been crowned with success,

for the government is now engaged in constructing immense irrigation works

throughout the West, which solves for all time the irrigation problem.  If there

were nothing else in his life worthy of regard, his efforts in this behalf would

entitle him to be enshrined in the loving remembrance of the Western people for

all time.  Mr. Kem was born in 1855 at Martinsdale Creek, Wayne county, Indiana,

and is the son of Madison and Malinda (Bulla) Kem.  His father was a native of

West Virginia, and at the age of sixteen emigrated to Indiana, then a newly

opened territory and an almost unbroken wilderness. He was a carpenter by trade

and settled in Wayne county, with his parents, Joseph and Lucy (Helms) Kem, who

were among the first settlers there, what is now the city of Richmond having at

the time of their arrival only three log cabins as the sum of its human

habitations.  Both father and grandfather passed the remainder of their lives in

that state, the latter dying at the age of eighty-four and the former at that of

seventy-five.  Mr. Kem’s mother was a native of the state, her parents having

come thither from North Carolina previous to her birth.  They died while she was

a young girl, and she passed away in 1883, aged sixty-five years, leaving eight

children, of whom Omer was the last born.  His boyhood and youth were passed in

Indiana and in her district schools he received his education.  At the age of

fifteen he engaged in farming there, remaining until 1880, when he moved to

Illinois and during the next two years farmed in Vermilion county, that state. 

He then moved farther west to the frontier of Nebraska and settled on a

homestead in Custer county near what is now the city of Broken Bow, the county

seat.  Here he farmed and improved his land, and gave earnest attention to the

public affairs of the section, aiding in developing its resources, multiplying

its conveniences, raising the standard of life among its people, and doing all

that a man of public-spirit, breadth of view and patriotic devotion to his

community could do to accelerate its progress and better its condition.  In 1890

he was selected deputy county treasurer and served in that capacity till July of

the following year.  He was nominated by the People’s Alliance party for

representative in the fifty-second congress, and at the ensuring election was

successful.  He was twice re-elected, serving in three successive congresses,

and during that service of six years was of great benefit to his state and

section in many ways.  He fully understood the people he represented, and was in

full sympathy with their aspirations and thoroughly imbued with their spirit. 

Moreover, he knew the needs of the region, was familiar with its history, had a

comprehensive conception of its resources and possibilities, and was entirely

loyal and devoted to its interests.  It was inevitable that a man so prepared

and equipped, and with the ability to use his forces effectively in set

arguments or running debate, and withal possessed with a courtesy and geniality

of manner that almost disarmed opposition to begin with, should prove to be a

most valuable and serviceable representative, and his people set the seal of

their approval on his usefulness by continuing him at his post so long.  After

the close of his congressional career he moved to Colorado and settled on the

farm of one hundred and sixty acres which is his present residence, three miles

west of Montrose.  On this he has planted an orchard of twenty acres, containing

apple, apricot, plum and cherry trees, and a vineyard of select varieties of

grapes, and has erected a fine brick dwelling of modern pattern and ample

proportions, with all the needed outbuildings and other appurtenances for the

stock industry which he conducts in connection with his fruit culture.  In

Colorado he has taken but little part in politics, but is none the less keenly

alive to the enduring welfare of the state, and neglects no opportunity in

promoting it.  Mr. Kem has been married twice, the second time in 1884 to Miss

Maria Lockhart, of Ohio, a daughter of Robert and Rachel (Welch) Lockhart, of

that state.  The father was a minister there and died in 1877, and his widow is

now living at Paonia, Colorado.  By this marriage Mr. Kem became the father of

seven children, five of whom are living, Huxley Darwin, Iris, Myrtle, Victor and

Kathleen.  Another son, Bert, and a daughter, Marie, are deceased.  His first

marriage was to Miss Lenora Benson, a native of North Carolina, who died in

1882, at the age of thirty-four, leaving three children, Maud, Malinda and

Claud.  Two others, Edwina and Earl, died in childhood.  

     The following extracts are from a speech delivered by Congressman Kem in

the national house of representatives on Friday, August 10, 1894, on the

question of government irrigation.  It is entitled to special interest as being

the first speech ever made in congress publicly advocating government irrigation

and also because the government is now practically following out the ideas

embodied therein.  [Note:  the speech excerpts are in small print on part of

page 694 through most of page 698.  If this is your ancestor, I’m sure you’ll

want to read them, but since they’re not specifically related to genealogy and

they’re long, I’m not going to type them.  You can email me for photocopies of

those pages with a subject heading of Progressive Men or request them through

your local library on interlibrary loan.]

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/montrose/bios/kem456gbs.txt

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