Cemetery notes and/or description: (Find-A–Grave, Kemp Perry Cemetery, Bryan County, Oklahoma).
Kemp Perry Cemetery, also known as the Kemp Family Cemetery, is very old and sits almost on the banks of the Red River. Joel Kemp (ferry owner during the Civil War) and most of his family are buried here, but not his son Jackson (a later owner) or daughter noted previously. Jackson is buried in another nearby cemetery. This 40 X 40 feet plot had a chain link fence around it and was unkept in 1985. It is located in Section 36, Township 9 South, Range 9 East from IBM of Oklahoma.
The cemetery was recorded by Sue Gordon and Wanda Shelton in the fall of 1985. Their directions to the cemetery were: After going one mile east of Achille, turn right at the Kemp turn off and go 6 miles south, turn left (at Liberty), go 2 miles east, and turn left about 1/4 mile. The cemetery is then southeast through a pasture. It is southeast of Liberty. Optional track: go 1 1/2 miles east of Kemp, turn right for 2 1/2 miles (going south on Tombstone Road), and then go southeast through the pasture.
Yarnaby, Yuba, Achille and old Bloomfield Academy grounds are nearby. Mulberry, Texas lies just across Red River from the Cemetery. Go 12 miles south from Mulberry to downtown Bonham. I believe the old stage road and ferry crossing lay between the Kemp Perry Cemetery and Mulberry, TX. It is only 2.2 miles east (94 Az) from the Cemetery across Red River to Mulberry, TX.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Bloomfield Academy and all other boarding schools in Indian Territory closed. During the war, the facility was used as a free private school for three hours a day in the morning. Early in the War, the Chickasaw Battalion planned to occupy it, but there was not enough space for all the soldiers, so the J. H. Carr family was allowed to remain. The soldiers camped outdoors, and used a small building in the yard for a doctor's office. They also used the sitting room for stores and the school house as a hospital.
So ends the saga of MG Sterling Price's Retreat in Indian Territory, November 22, 1864!