Herman and Cora Kemper
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Tuesday, 27 March 1883, page 8
The boy, Newton Vover, who has been in the jail in Newport, was taken yesterday by County Jailer Harvey (sic) Kemper to Alexandria. Mr. Kemper is going to board and care for the lad for the consideration of $75 per year, which amount is allowed by the Circuit Court.
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Kentucky Post, Sunday, 28 November 1926, page 1
"If young men would only curb their impatience, if they would
work hard and close their eyes to the luxuries others have, the jails wouldn't
be full with them like they are now."
That's the opinion of "Ma" Kemper, 75, who has given the Alexandria Ky. jail its reputation as the "best feeding" penal institution in the country. For however unsympathetic "Ma" Kemper may be with young men's pursuit after luxuries leading them to crime, she believes in feeding them apple pie and gingerbread cookies once they are lodged in the jail over which her husband, Hermann, 76, is custodian.
"Yes, I feed them well," she says as her bobbed white tresses nod affirmation. "They're nice young men the most of them and its usually only when they're crazed up with moonshine that they end up in jail." The Kemper's have had charge of the Alexandria jail 28 years. Just 54 years ago, "Daddy" Kemper who was born in Little Rock, Ark. met "Ma" Kemper in Covington and married her. From 1871 to 1875 Kemper was a sealer engaged in Covington. A son, Charles, lives in Newport.
In the top of the picture you see the front of the jail attached to which is a log cabin 85 years old, housing and cells. Man and Daddy Kemper are shown in the center: while Margaret Frazier, 17, who helps Ma prepare pie and chicken for the prisoners.