Enoch Kemp, father of the three boys, first lived on today's Route 24 at Oak and Main Streets, a little farm known for years afterward as the Fred Blumenshine place. Enoch then purchased the Potter place where the Cities Service station is located at Fayette and Front Streets. In spite of the fact Enoch lost his life in June, 1902 in an accident with horses, his three sons kept up their dangerous art of trick and fancy riding. It was on this home block of ground that the boys had winter quarters for their show for a number of years. Norris Kemp, son of Abraham, built his new bungalow there in 1950.

In 1899 the show was billed as the Kemp Brothers Shows, but Lida and Mida2 were so thrilling their audiences with their riding, roping, stunting and shooting that papers began calling Mida the girl of the golden West, and G. P. then changed the name to the Kemp Sisters Wild West Shows. The father remained as owner and manager. In that season they first showed in their home town of El Paso during the fair, and they repeated in 1900.

The shows increased in size to twenty-five or more acts, so on occasion they split the troupe into two sections and played two cities at the same time. Always a great many Indians from reservations were with the show, one headliner being Alex Long Pumpkin, a Sioux, who bore thirty-two knife and sabre wounds on his body from the Custer massacre and other Indian wars. His wife and their relatives traveled with the Kemp shows. Miss Carmine Alvrise, a Cuban beauty, inter-

The Sioux Alex Long Pumpkin and his family traveled with the Kemps for years.
 
 

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