My Genealogy Hound

Frederick Kern is in every respect worthy of honorable mention in these pages, for during his residence here he has been one of the honest and industrious tillers of the soil. He was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1822, and is one of four surviving members of a family of five children born to Christian and Johanna (Folk) Kern, who were born in the kingdom of Wurtemberg in 1789 and 1783 respectively. The father was a weaver by trade, and followed this occupation until his death, in 1847, followed by his wife in 1850. Frederick Kern attained mature years, and was educated in his native land, and in his youth learned the machinist’s trade, at which he worked until his twenty-first year; then joined the regular army of Germany, serving six years. At the end of that time he came to the United States (in 1849), being the first of his family to cross the ocean, and landed in New York City in June, 1849, the voyage having taken forty-three days, but only remained in that city a short time, when he moved to Ohio, where he worked on a farm during the summer. In the fall he began blacksmithing, and helped to fit up the steamboat Hollister to run on Lake Erie, and for one season was second engineer of the boat. He next went to Chicago, thence to Peru, Ill., where he worked at blacksmithing five months, and then went to Memphis, Tenn., from which place he went to Rock Island, Ill., and then spent some time in Cincinnati, Ohio. He went from this city to Peoria, Ill., where he made his home for some time, and was there married to Miss Catherine Laubenstein, who bore him two children: William H., and Charles F., who died in 1878, at the age of twenty-two years. In 1858 Mr. Kern went to Kansas, but returned to Illinois in 1861, and, when the war broke out, joined the Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry for one year, and was at Forts Spanish and Blakely. After the war he resided in Illinois until 1866, and then came to Missouri, and began working at his trade in Wheatland, being the first blacksmith of the place. In 1878 he gave up blacksmithing, and purchased 120 acres of land, on which he has since lived. He is non-partisan in politics, and is a member of the Lutheran Church, his wife being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their only son was born in 1854, in Illinois, and in 1880 was married to Miss Sarah A. Prosser, who was born in England in 1863. They reside with Mr. Kern, and have two children, Frederick and Letta E.