February 27, 2018
While searching GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives recently, I found several articles about my grandfather Willard H. Kemp.
I didn’t know that.
They gave my grandfather a silver watch? As “a reward for collecting the most money of any child in the Sunday-school.”
He was only 8 years old.
How much money could he possibly have collected?
I also discovered that he was the pitcher and team captain for the Whippoorwill Juniors, a baseball team in Stamford, Connecticut, when he was 13 years old.
I didn’t know that either.
Yale & Towne, a lock company, was founded in Stamford in 1868. The company grew – this is how it looked in 1897 when my grandfather was 5 years old.
A major company in town, it spread over multiple city blocks and was the largest employer in Stamford.
I knew that my grandfather was a salesman for Yale & Towne. What I didn’t know was that he had attended the Merrill Business College to qualify for that position.
I found this article showing that he graduated from the business school on 28 June 1909, when he was 17 years old.
Details, details.
Each one tells a bit of my grandfather’s story, and helps complete the story of our family history.
Thanks to GenealogyBank I now know more about my grandfather.
