Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)
Frederick T. Kemper
1816 - 1881
Frederick Thomas Kemper, pioneering Missouri educator and founder of Kemper Military School in Boonville, was born at Madison Courthouse, Virginia. After graduating from Marion College in Palmyra, Missouri, he came to Boonville in 1844 and opened his first boarding school for young boys, the new Boonville Male Academy. For the next ten years the school grew in enrollment and went through several name changes until he settled on the name Kemper Family School in 1854. In that year he married Susan Holten Taylor, a teacher in a local school for girls, with whom he had eleven children. In 1856 Kemper accepted a position at Westminster College in Fulton where he remained for the next five years. With the impending Civil War he returned to Boonville and reopened his school. In the 1873-74 school year a military flavor was introduced for the first time with the adoption of a cadet-gray uniform in the West Point style. The school continued to grow in both enrollment and physical size up to the time of Kemper's death on March 9, 1881, at which time the reins of the school were handed over to one of his former students, T.A. Johnston. Kemper and his family are buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery in Boonville. During Kemper's lifetime he was an advocate of strict family discipline and Christian morality along with the rigorous regimen of a classical educational curriculum. His motto was "Not to make mere scholars, but to make men."
Dedication: June 24, 2006
Sculptor: Kwan Wu
Erected 2006.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Churches & Religion • Education. A significant historical month for this entry is March 1843.
Location. 38° 58.596′ N, 92° 44.68′ W. Marker is in Boonville, Missouri, in Cooper County. Marker is on Morgan Street near Main Street (U.S. 40), on the left when traveling east. Monument is in Morgan Street Park. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Boonville MO 65233, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. George Caleb Bingham (here, next to this marker); Hannah Allison Cole (a few steps from this marker); Walter Williams (a few steps from this marker); James Milton Turner (a few steps from this marker); David Barton (within shouting distance of this marker); Capture of Boonville (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Cooper County Korea - Vietnam War Memorial (about 300 feet away); Cooper County World War Memorial (about 300 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Boonville.
Also see . . .
1. Kemper Military School. (Submitted on August 10, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
2. Kemper Military School Alumni. (Submitted on August 10, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
3. Boonville History. (Submitted on August 10, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
4. The Life of Professor F. T. Kemper. (Submitted on August 10, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
Credits. This page was last revised on April 28, 2022. It was originally submitted on August 10, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. This page has been viewed 858 times since then and 25 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on August 10, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. 4. submitted on August 9, 2011, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.