Ada-Owyhee County ID Archives Biographies.....Lemp, John 1838 - 1912
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/idfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 18, 2008, 4:48 am

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1920)

JOHN LEMP, winning his initial success in Boise in the brewery business,
extended his efforts into other fields, and became a most successful investor in
real estate and the promoter of irrigation interests of great value to the
district in which he operated. While he started out in the business world
empty-handed, he came to be known as one of the men of affluence in Boise and,
moreover, at the time of his death had resided for a continuous period in the
city longer than any other of its residents. Many phases of Idaho's development
and progress were perfectly familiar to him and in substantial measure he
contributed to the work of upbuilding along material lines.

   John Lemp was born in Neiderweisel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, April 21, 1838,
his parents being John Jacob and Anna Elizabeth (Jung) Lemp. He pursued his
education in the public schools of his native place until he reached the age of
fourteen years. He was a lad of twelve when his father died and his mother, at
the age of seventy-five years, came to Boise, where she passed away at the age
of eighty-six. John Lemp, on reaching the age of fourteen, started for the new
world, having determined to try his fortune on this side of the Atlantic. It was
in 1852 that he landed at New York, whence he made his way to Louisville,
Kentucky, where he resided for seven years, largely devoting that time to
clerking in one of the leading mercantile establishments of the city. Attracted
by gold discoveries in California, he started for Pike's Peak in 1859 and there
engaged in prospecting and mining but without any large measure of success. With
the discovery of gold in Montana, then a part of Idaho territory, he traveled to
that state in a company of which William A. Clark, afterward United States
senator from Montana and one of America's most prominent capitalists, was of the
number. After they had reached a point within the present boundaries of Idaho
Mr. Clark and his companions proceeded to Bannock, Montana, while Mr. Lemp and
others continued the journey to West Branch, now Boise, Idaho, where they
arrived July 8, 1863. They found a little frontier settlement composed of a
postoffice and a few dwellings, together with a smaller group of business houses
of most primitive character. Mr. Lemp soon went from Boise to Idaho City but
after a brief period there passed, returned to the future capital of the state
and remained a resident thereof until his demise. In the early '70s he
established a brewery in South Mountain, then a mining camp, and for a teacup of
gold dust purchased a small and thoroughly equipped brewery in Boise. He built
what was then considered an extensive brewery and from time to time remodeled
the plant and increased its facilities in order to meet the growing demands of
the trade. As he prospered in this undertaking he made investments in Idaho real
estate, his judgment proving most sound in the placing of his purchases. It was
largely the increase in real estate values that made him one of the wealthy men
of his adopted state. His land holdings included more than five thousand acres
and he also had extensive and valuable properties in Boise, adding to the
development and beauty of the city through the improvements which he placed upon
his land. He erected and owned the Capitol Hotel building and the Shainwald
block, also built many residences and business blocks and transformed unsightly
vacancies into beautiful residential sections. He took great delight in Boise's
growth and improvement, for from the time when he settled within the borders of
the little frontier town his interests centered here.

   Mr. Lemp did a most important work in connection with the promotion of
irrigation projects. He was one of the most active and influential supporters of
the Settlers canal, one of the first and most important irrigating systems of
the state. The work was scarcely under way when others associated with him lost
heart and became discouraged concerning the prospect, but Mr. Lemp never
faltered and largely financed the undertaking, which cost him a fortune. He
encountered many difficulties in the way of slides, quicksands and breaks, but
at length the canal was completed and proved of the greatest value and
importance to the district, supplying an abundance of water for the irrigation
of extensive tracts in the Boise valley. Mr. Lemp also figured in banking
circles, becoming an extensive stockholder in the First National Bank of Boise
and served for a number of years as its president. He was also one of the
promoters and large stockholders of the Boise Rapid Transit Company, which built
the first electric street car line in the capital, now the property of the Boise
Railroad Company.

   On the 7th of May, 1865, Mr. Lemp was married to Miss Catherine Kohlhepp, a
native of Marburg, Hesse-Cassel, Germany, born November 20, 1850, and a daughter
of William Kohlhepp, who brought his family to America during the early girlhood
of his daughter Catherine, so that she was reared at Muscatine, Iowa. In 1864
the family started across the plains for the northwest. An immigrant party that
had preceded them had been massacred by the red men and there was much danger
attendant upon the trip, for the party took with them a fine herd of cattle,
always an attraction to the Indians. Mrs. Lemp, however, was largely
instrumental in preventing any hostilities, for she would invite the Indians to
partake of meals with the party of immigrants and before breaking camp she
always contrived to make delicious biscuits for them and thus gained their
goodwill. It was after the Kohlhepp home was established in Boise that she
formed the acquaintance of Mr. Lemp, who sought her hand in marriage, and for
about forty-three years they traveled life's journey happily together, being
separated by the death of Mrs. Lemp, which occurred on the 7th of January, 1908,
while Mr. Lemp survived until July 18, 1912. They were the parents of thirteen
children, seven of whom are yet living, namely: Elizabeth, who married William
B. Conner; Augusta, the wife of A. Roderick Grant, of Portland, Oregon; Ada, now
Mrs. Edwin G. Hurt; Louise, who married Marshall C. Simonson; Albert C.; Herbert
F.; and Bernard L.

   Mr. Lemp gave his political support to the republican party, of which he was
a stanch advocate, and he was at all times an interested student of the problems
of vital import to the government. For twenty years he served as a member of the
city council of Boise and in 1874 was elected mayor, giving to the city a
progressive and liberal administration. He belonged to the Masonic lodge, in
which he filled all of the offices, including that of worshipful master, and he
was also a member of the local lodge of Odd Fellows, in which he served as
treasurer for ten years, and was past grand patriarch at the time of his death.
He belonged to the Boise Commercial Club and the Boise Turn Verein and he was a
devoted member of the Lutheran church. He was a man of firm friendships, of
undoubted loyalty to his convictions and of most charitable and benevolent
spirit. At the time of his demise the Boise Evening News said of him: "Many of
the early pioneers visited the Lemp home this morning and informed the bereaved
children of good deeds which their father had done and many of which were
previously unknown to them. One of the visitors who had known and been close to
Mr. Lemp for years stated that the deceased had done more for charity than any
other man in the state, as he was always lending a helping hand to those who
were down, giving generously and helping them onward, and he here provided for a
number of men for several years after their day of work was done and they were
without the means with which to live."


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

IDAHO

DELUXE SUPPLEMENT

CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1920


Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/ada/photos/bios/lemp53nbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/id/ada/bios/lemp53nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/idfiles/

File size: 8.5 Kb