Son of Lawrence Kemp Jr and Mehitable (Ellis) Kemp.
He married Polly Stewart about 1830. She was born at Colrain,MA on Dec 4,1807, a daughter of Enos Stewart and Lucretia "Sally" Clark Stewart.
From the 1911 book Past and Present of Hardin County Kowa, pp. 664-667:
Sumner Kemp (and Lawrence Kemp)
The Kemp family has long been regarded as leaders in the affairs of Hardin county, and it is one of the old names in the annals of American citizenship, its representatives having been more or less conspicuous in various walks of life wherever they have dispersed for some four hundred years. We first hear of four members of this family settling in Massachusetts, one, William Kemp, arriving there in the ship "James" on April 5, 1635, settling at Duxbury; he was a juryman and adopted freeman on March 5, 1638 or 1639. He got a land grant on January 7, 1638 or 1639. Robert Kemp settled in Dedham , Massachusetts , and was adopted to the church on April 24, 1639. Edward Kemp also emigrated to that state and settled in Dedham and was probably a brother of Robert; he was admitted a freeman on March 13, 1638 or 1639; he removed to Wareham , that state, in 1651, thence to Chelmsford , the same state, in 1655; his family consisted of two children, Esther and Samuel. Samuel Kemp married Sarah Foster, a daughter of Sergt. Thomas Foster, of Braintree , Massachusetts , May 23, 1662 , and their children were Samuel, Abigail, Zerubbabel, Jonathan, Mahitable and Bithes. Zerubbabel, son of Samuel Kemp, settled in Groton , Massachusetts , about 1666; he and his wife Mary became the parents of seven children: Zebenezer, Zerubbabel, John, Mary, Doralba, Hezekiah and Sarah. John Kemp, son of Zerubbabel, was born in Groton , Massachusetts , January 18, 1707 , and lived there until his death; his family consisted of the following children: John, Lawrence, Oliver, Jabez, Stephen, Henry, Amora and Sarah. Capt. Lawrence Kemp was born September 24, 1733, and died in Groton, Massachusetts, October 2, 1805; he was a soldier in the French and Indian war in Captain Cleve's company, of Deerfield, Massachusetts; he was captain of the Thirteenth Company, of Colonel David Field's regiment, was commissioned May 3, 1776, and fought in the Revolution at Ticonderoga in 1777 and was captain in Col. David Willis's regiment; he removed from Groton to Deerfield; in 1767 he moved to Shelburne; on July 4, 1756, he married Dorothy Steffin and their children were Oliver, Solomon, John, Hannah, Dorotha, Able, Lawrence and Mahitable. Lawrence Kemp, the son of Capt. Lawrence Kemp and grandfather of Sumner Kemp, of this review, was born at Shelburne , Massachusetts , March 3, 1776 , and died August 3, 1821 ; he married, on October 9, 1799 , Mahitable Ellis, of Buckland , Massachusetts . Sumner Kemp was born on September 12, 1800, and he died at sea; Lawrence, born September 21, 1802; Abner, born February 12, 1804; John, born February 6, 1806, and died at Heath; Lucinda, born January 25, 1808, married, October 18, 1827, Orin Dole; Benjamin E., born December 9, 1810, married Sarah Eddy, November 12, 1834; Joseph, born August 30, 1813, lived at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was in the employ of the United States government; Noah, born February 16, 1817, died while single.
Lawrence Kemp, father of the subject, married Mary Stewart, daughter of Enos and Lucretia (Clark) Stewart; her death occurred on December 13, 1885 . To this union the following children were born: Mary Ann, born January 4, 1831 , married Ashael G. Mathews; they live at Brookline, Massachusetts, and are the parents of three children, Ella, Anna (deceased) and Florence; Sumner, of this review, was born in Shelburne, Massachusetts, February 6, 1833; Horace, a farmer, was born August 17, 1835, lived at Colerain, Massachusetts, and died in February, 1910; Lucretia, born March 24, 1838, died December 7, 1891; Charles S., born August 4, 1840, died November 12, 1862; Ann Jennette, born February 10, 1845, died July 31, 1845; Elsie Cordelia, born July 20, 1847, died September 14, 1865.
The father of these children received only a common school education. He followed the sea on a whaling vessel for four years and later he owned a farm near Shelburne , Massachusetts , which he operated successfully. He was a Democrat and a man of positive ideas and sterling honesty.