General Facts About The Area
Kempner is at the junction of U.S. Highway 190 and Ranch Road 2313, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Lampasas River in southeastern Lampasas County. It moved a number of times during its early years of development. It was first settled in the early 1850s when a number of families named Pickett moved to the area, which became known as Pickett Valley. The majority of the settlers were land and slave owners of prominence until the Civil War. The community was also briefly known as Brummersville during 1865. The Pickett cemetery is still located slightly west of Kempner. Around 1854 Dan W. Taylor moved to the area with a large herd of cattle and built a store for his men on Taylor Creek, two miles from the present townsite. He was an influential man in the community and was often consulted to settle local legal differences. A post office named Taylor’s Creek was established in his store in 1873. After Taylor’s death, the community was named after a local landowner named Slaughter. The Taylor’s Creek post office was discontinued in 1878, and that same year a post office named Slaughtersville was established.
In 1882 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was built through the area, two miles from the Taylor store, and the community’s center finally became fixed when the post office was moved to a frame building near the railroad tracks and renamed Kempner after Harris Kempner, a Galveston merchant and director of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe. The first postmaster at the new location was Johnnie Chance. The coming of the railroad caused the population to double. The first rock store in town was erected by Jo Brown. By 1884 Kempner had two steam gristmills and cotton gins, a church, a district school, and telegraph service, and by 1896 a hotel had been built. Telephone service was available by 1914. In 1918 a Mr. Rancier organized a bank in Kempner; this establishment later failed, and the stockholders lost their accounts.
The population of Kempner remained at an estimated 103 from 1904 to 1926. It rose briefly to 300 in 1927 but began to drop again in the 1930s, reaching 125 in 1933 and remaining at that level for a number of years. It began to rise again in the mid-1960s until it reached 420 in 1974, where it remained through 1990. Nine businesses were reported in 1986. By 2000 the population was 1,004 with fifty-four businesses. Annual festivals include the All-West Roundup and the Octoberfest.
To learn more about what Kempner has to offer its residents, visit the Kempner website by clicking here.