Gouverneur Kemble

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gouverneur Kemble (January 25, 1786 – September 18, 1875) was a two-term United States Congressman, diplomat and industrialist. He helped found the West Point Foundry, a major producer of artillery during the American Civil War.

Kemble was born to a prominent family in New York City, the eldest son of prosperous attorney and merchant Peter Kemble. He was educated in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1803, then engaged in the merchantile business. He was friends with Washington Irving and other members of city society, who enjoyed socializing at Cockloft Hall (an old family mansion on the Passaic River inherited by Kemble).

He was sent to the Mediterranean as a naval agent during the Second Barbary War with Tripoli. As a young man with political connections, in 1816 he was appointed United States Consul at Cádiz in Spain, where his attention was attracted to the Spanish government's state-of-the-art process of casting cannon.

Returning home, he saw an opportunity to introduce the process in the United States. Along with other partners including his brother William, in 1814 he invested in the West Point Foundry Association, which had received a charter from President James Madison to produce artillery pieces following the War of 1812. The foundry was built near West Point in the village of Cold Spring, New York, and soon began to make cast iron steam engines for locomotives. Despite the lack of local artisans and craftsmen skilled in ironworking, Kemble and his partners succeeded, especially after they hired Robert P. Parrott to be superintendent in 1836. Kemble continued to be president of the association until the expiration of the charter. He became known as the "Patriarch of Cold Spring" for his charitable activities in the village.

In 1823, Gouverneur Kemble leased land in Orange County, New York for the mineral rights to mine iron ore. Four years later, the Kembles acquired most of the nearby Greenwood Iron Foundry and related industries. In 1839, the brothers sold the foundry to Parrott. A year later, his sister Mary married Parrott.

Kemble was an active member of the Democratic Party and became involved in politics. He was elected to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses representing Westchester and Putnam counties, serving two terms during the presidency of Martin Van Buren. In 1840, he declined a nomination for a third term. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1840 and 1860. He was elected as a delegate to the 1846 convention for the revising New York's state constitution. In his later years, he was interested in the promotion of the Hudson River Railroad and the Panama Railway, as well as amassing a sizeable art collection.

Kemble died in Cold Spring at the age of 89 and was buried in Cold Spring Cemetery.

Famed Civil War general Gouverneur Kemble Warren, born in Cold Spring in 1830, was named for Kemble, a close friend of his father, Sylvanus Warren.