DeWitt, Abel Alexander, Jr., 1865-1953

Christopher Jensen Kempe (1837-1901) was a Mormon missionary and pioneer.

Christopher Jensen Kempe was born in Denmark on June 26, 1837 to Jens Rasmussen and Ane Kirstine Neilsdatter Kempe. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, Neils Larsen Kempe and Marie Christensen. He was sent to school when he was 7 and then apprenticed in his uncles' wagon shop. He loved to read in his spare time. He left his small Danish town for Copenhagen to be a wagon maker. On February 16, 1859 he was baptized into the LDS church. A month after his baptism, he was called to serve a mission in Sweden and Denmark and 5 months later was called as president of Helsingborg Branch. He served 7 years as a missionary after requesting 3 times to be released so he could go to Utah, it was time and left on the ship B.S. KIMBALL on May 10, 1865. He traveled in the Miner G. Atwood Company across the plains. He arrived in Salt Lake City on November 8, 1865. He married Anne Ongerod in 1865, but she died in the same year. He then married both Oline Olsen and Anna Dorthea Johnson in 1865 and had 16 children. He lived in Provo and Richfield, UT and then was called to settle northeastern Arizona along the Little Colorado River. He served 2 years in a Detroit penitentiary for polygamy, and was released on October 9, 1886 after receiving a pardon from President Grover Cleveland. After returning home, he was called as bishop in Concho, Arizona. He owned a general store and had fine large orchards. He was called to serve a 2nd mission at the age of 62 in Scandinavia, and returned in 1901. He died on September 30, 1901.

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