William Kemp Culbreth was the oldest son of Thomas Culbreth and Ann Eliza Peabody. For a time he lived with his Aunt Mary Culbreth, Thomas' sister, where he helped tend her farm. He married Margaret Morris Pearsall of Wilmington, North Carolina, on October 19, 1881. Margaret, or Maggie, was a school teacher. Maggie's mother, Lucy Pearsall lived with the family for some time. She was a small woman, rendered deaf mute as an infant. She was known as "Little Grandma" and signed through a black woman who lived with the family. 

William Kemp, or W.K., was an vocal proponent of agriculture and ran for Sheriff of Robeson County several times on the Republican ticket. He was active in the Populist movement and the Grange. He was appointed road supervisor and served as Post Master in the Purvis Community. To his detractors he was known as "Windy Billy" for his long winded speeches and harangues of the local political establishment. 

He operated a mill at Moss Neck Depot with his brother Malcolm Nathaniel Culbreth. 

Following the death of Maggie Pearsall in 1924, he married Nealie Smith, on July 4, 1927. He was seventy-one and she was twenty seven. According to family lore,  when W.K. Culbreth died in 1928, his daughters packed Nealie's belongings, put her on a mule and sent her down the road.