Jackson Kemper was born in 1789 in upstate
New York, the son of a soldier who had served
under George Washington in the Continental
Army.
He studied theology under Bishop Benjamin
Moore and the Rev. John Henry Hobart and was
ordained a deacon at age 21 and priest two
years later. After missionary tours of western
Pennsylvania, Virginia and eastern Ohio he
became a patron of the newly formed Domestic
and Foreign Missionary Society.
In 1835 the General Convention of the Episcopal
Church decided to appoint bishops to direct the Church's future missionary
work in the expanding west and Kemper was elected the first missionary
bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Kemper’s life as a missionary is almost inconceivable to us today. He
travelled from the shores of Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico by
steamboat, on horseback, by stagecoach, and often on foot. He slept in the
open or on the hard floor of a remote hunter’s cabin or in an Indian wigwam.
Bishop Kemper travelled by water whenever possible, but often had to resort
to stagecoach or horseback. All his possessions were in his saddlebags:
vestments, bible, prayer book, chalice and paten, and personal items.
He organized six dioceses, consecrated nearly a hundred churches,
ordained more than two hundred priests and deacons, and confirmed almost
10,000 souls. He lobbied, unsuccessfully, in the East for a German
translation of the Book of Common Prayer to use in his ministry to German
immigrants.
Pleased with the establishment of a Winnebago mission at Oneida in
Wisconsin, he pressed for further work with Native Americans. Bishop
Kemper later confirmed five people of the Ojibwe nation, among them John
Anmegahbowk Johnson, now commemorated on June 12 in the Episcopal
Church's liturgical calendar as Enmegahbowh, the first Native American
Episcopal priest.
In 1847 he was elected to be first Bishop of the new Diocese of Wisconsin,
but he declined. Later, in 1859, after Kemper had retired from missionary
work, he was immediately elected for the second time to the Diocese of
Wisconsin, and this time he accepted, remaining in that office until his death
on May 24, 1870.
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