This is the time of the year that the history of the Germanna Colonies is often reviewed. I thought that we might start with some of the statements made by Willis Kemper in " Genealogy of the Kemper Family in America ", published in 1899. To set the tone for the type of statements that he did make, I quote from his page 9:
"John George Kemper was a skilled mechanic, and employed about the mine in some way. He was a worker in iron, a blacksmith by trade, and perhaps had charge of the tools about the mine. His sons John and Henry followed their father's trade and were employed about the mine. John especially, was evidently a skilled miner, and it was this that brought about his emigration to America."
Four things are said about John George Kemper. He was 1) a skilled mechanic, 2) employed about the mine in some way, 3) a blacksmith by trade, and 4) perhaps had charge of the tools about the mine. No evidence is offered for any of these statements. The son John is said to have followed his father's trade (whatever that was) and he was a skilled miner. It was these skills in the son John that brought about his emigration to America. [Editor's note: At the time of emigration, John was nineteen years old.]
The only statement concerning an occupation or an assigned duty that I have ever read about John George Kemper is that he was an elder in the church. I have never seen or heard any statement of an original nature about the occupation of John Kemper, the nineteen-year old emigrant.
From these statements, one learns the type of history that Willis Kemper wrote. In short, he wrote fiction. The two sentences quoted above should put one on guard against believing anything that he wrote, unless one can find a collaborative statement from another source. Usually it is easier to find evidence that he was in error.
Still on page 9, Kemper wrote in the next paragraph:
"It was not long until he discovered evidences of iron ore in the district toward the Blue Ridge."
The "he" that Kemper refers to is Alexander Spotswood. "Not long", by implication in additional statements, was within four months of his arrival in Virginia. For his evidence, he cites a letter of Spotswood to the Council of Trade, but he misinterprets the statements. Also, from later letters of Spotswood, Kemper should have known his interpretation was false.
Spotswood did mention in his letter of 24 Oct 1710, "...the iron mines lately discovered in Virginia." Never did Spotswood claim, in any way, that he had discovered the iron mines. In a letter two months later, he identified the iron mines as the mines which were being worked in 1622, so they were not "lately discovered", as he had mistakenly written earlier. Taken all together, Spotswood never, in any way, claimed to have discovered any iron himself.
(06 Jul 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.