Johann Wilhelm Kern Family History

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Introduction

This is an attempt to document of what has been a life long learning for me. I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s in what was the homestead of my great-grandfather, Johann Kern. Johann was the first Kern along with his brother, Peter, to come to the Frankenmuth area in 1852 from Germany. I grew up in the house that Johann had built in 1884 after the first house burned down. The house was on an 80 acre farm about one half mile east and one half mile north of Frankenmuth. My grandfather, Adam Kern, lived with my parents Arthur Kern and Helen along with us six children. I was the oldest.

Living on the homestead with my grandfather provided opportunities to learn about my family. Descendants of my great-grandfather would come to visit including my grandfather’s siblings. Included were many conversations with my grandfather whom I would ask questions. My father also would love to tell stories about the family. This was especially true when we were hoeing weeds in the fields.

Much of my writing is from oral history and family legends. I recognize that some of the history may be in error. I, myself, have found some history from my grandfather and father to be in error which I have been able to correct by facts. However, I have tried to corroborate as much as possible with family members. In addition, I have done much research on the family. Also, be aware that this is not an effort to have the correct version of names. There is the issue of German versions versus English, or the correct version of German names spelled in English. There are issues of “b” vs “p” and “s” vs “z” in names between German and English. I have not tried to resolve them in this documentation. The important part of this paper is to document the family. The documentation is also considered a “work in progress”. This means that it will be modified as new information becomes available.

Franconian Settlements

Four Lutheran settlements were made in the Saginaw valley with people from Franconia. These were called Frankenmuth in 1845, Frankentrost in 1847, Frankenlust in 1848, and Richville (formerly Frankenhilf) in 1851. Frankenlust did not have much interplay with the other three communities due to the distance from them.

The Franconians were from the northern part of Bavaria. The settlements were organized by a Pastor Wilhelm Löhe from Neuendettelsau and sent people to do missionary work amongst the Indians. The people were to be a living example of Christian living while the minister did the actual missionary work. Settlements also was a place for a new life since a lot of the people could not get married in Germany because they could not provide evidence of enough self support required by law. It was practically impossible in Germany to acquire property unless it was through inheritance. Click here for additional information on the Franconian Settlements. The nearest large city to Frankenmuth was Saginaw which was about 15 miles away. The nearest big city was Detroit which was about 100 miles away. There was a lot of interplay between the three settlements. People would move from one community to another and also intermarry. The settlements were located a day’s walking distance apart. A map shows the placement of the communities for reference.

The Indians stayed for a number of years before moving west. The Indians eventually settled in a reservation near Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. They still live there today. It was to my astonishment when I attended Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant to discover that the descendants of the Frankenmuth Indians lived nearby. There they are called the Chippewa Indians. Mt. Pleasant is about 60 miles northwest of Frankenmuth.

Regarding intermarriage I have discovered that it is not unusual to find for my generation to be related to another descendent at about the third or fourth cousin level. My own parents, Arthur Kern and Helen Weber, were second cousins. My great-grandfather, Johann Wilhelm Kern was a brother to Ursula (Kern) Schnell; my great-grandmother on my mother’s side. My father was from Frankenmuth and my mother from Richville.

On people moving I find my family not unusual. My great-grandfather, Weber, was born as the first child of the first settlers to Frankenmuth. However, after his return from service in the civil war he found a young lady in Richville and married her. There they establish a farm. Then another great-grandfather, Schnell, was the youngest child to the first settlers in Frankentrost. He found my great-grandmother, Kern; in Richville, married her, and some years later established a farm in Richville. This is repeated to this day.

All three communities exist today in an agricultural setting. However, Frankenmuth has prospered as a bedroom type city, has a large tourism industry, and has a population of about 5000. The other two towns have populations in the low hundreds.

Johann Wilhelm Kern

Immigration – Johann immigrated to the United States and Frankenmuth in the summer of 1852 at the age of 18. He came on the ship Hector. He was asked by the Hubinger brothers in Frankenmuth to fill their need for a miller for their flour mill on the Cass River. Apparently Johann had been trained in Germany as a miller. It is not known where he was trained but he could have been trained at the Kernmühle or at several other flour mills around Roßtal. Johann was born in Roßtal where the family operated a general store at the Markt Platz. The Markt Platz is next to the church and is the town center. Johann came with his brother, Peter, who was age 16. On their journey across the Atlantic Ocean they encountered many icebergs. The captain was at the helm of the ship for over 30 hours straight navigating the ship through the icebergs. They saw floating debris from ships that had crashed into them. A large part of the group on the ship Hector settled in either Frankenmuth or Frankenlust. Having read other family histories there are stories of the Hubinger brothers having a boarding house for people that worked for the Hubingers. It is possible that it is the first place Johann lived upon his arrival to Frankenmuth. It also is possible that Peter may have lived there for a while. Peter did live in Frankenmuth for a number of years and then settled on a farm in Richville just a short distance north of the town.

For years I believed that Johann came to the US by himself at age 16 as told to me by my grandfather, Adam, and my father Arthur. However research of ship passenger lists, birth records, cemetery monuments, and census records proved that he came with his brother at age 18 and that it was his brother, Peter, who was 16 at the time they came. My father until he died believed what he told me and there was no arguing about it.

Johann’s Birth Family – Johann was the oldest son of Friedrich and Anna (Winkler) Kern. There were eight surviving children in the family. Johann had an older sister by the name of Kunigunda. The rest of the family came to the United States in 1861 after the death of their father. This included his mother, six siblings, and a daughter of Kunigunda. They settled mostly in Richville. Records indicate the Kerns lived at the Kernmühle at 1532 until they sold it in 1748. Then they lived in Roßtal until their coming in 1861. It appears that perhaps when they left for America that there were no more Kerns in Roßtal. A search of telephone directories indicates that there is a substantial population of Kerns north of Roßtal in such towns of Cadolzburg, Zirndorf, Oberasbach, and Fürth. For a map of the area click here.

Farm Settlement – The settlement of Johann on the farm is rather clouded. I had been lead to believe that Johann settled on a farm owned by the Enselbergers on Frank Road that were his wife’s parents. However, studying an abstract of the ownership of the farm made in 1967 indicates a much different picture. A copy of the first three pages of the abstract can be seen by clicking on abstract. According to the abstract a Johann George Rebensberger purchased the south forty acres of the farm on November 1, 1853 from the federal government. See a copy of the patent by clicking here. At this point we don’t know who the Rebensbergers are. Next Johann purchased the north forty acres from the federal government on August 15, 1854. See a copy of the patent by clicking here.

The next part is interesting. On May 8, 1855 The “Rebensbergers” sold their forty acres to George L. Meyer and his wife for $100.00. On the same day the Meyers gave the farm to Johann and his wife for $50 when demanded. The Meyers were also given rights to wood for burning and to build with; and the right to clear and improve up to ten acres of land. It is interesting the existence of intermediate owners and their generosity with the Kerns, i.e. that at maximum, the Kerns paid a reduced price compared to what the Meyers paid for.

It is also interesting that Johann bought the north 40 acres several months before he got married (November 1854). In the sequence he bought the south 40 acres about six months after his marriage. It appears strange that the first owners of the south 40 acres possessed it for less then two years. One would ask if they ever lived on it. It is understood that Johann purchased and moved a house from someplace nearby years after his settlement on the farm. That house stood on the premises until July 1884 when it burned down. Not much is known about the Rebensbergers and Meyers from records. They all appear to have disappeared shortly after Johann obtained the farm. A search of the 1850 Federal Census found a Maria S. Enselberger in the household of Johann M. Hubinger, a farmer.

Family - Johann married Maria Sabina Enselberger in November 22, 1854. This would make Johann 21 of age at the time of marriage. They had had six children. They were Friedrich, Peter, Maria, Elizabeth, Michael, and Lorenz in that order. Maria Sabina died on May 10, 1870 from some liver ailment. See Death Record - Line 2. Johann then arranged for a bride whom he knew from Germany to come to Frankenmuth. She was Anna Margaretha Auer and got married on September 6, 1871. That would appear to be rather quick considering the time it took for communications to travel back and forth and for some romance to form. They together had seven children. The first pregnancy resulted in twins. The children were Johann, Wilhelm, Matthais, Adam, Anna, Georg, and Sabina. My grandfather, Adam, was from the second mother. Johann did not have a great interest in the farm and according to my grandfather let it run down. Some of this makes sense because he was raised in a business family. It is believed that Johann earned a good share of money from working at the Hubinger flour mill and also working in the Hubinger saw mill.

The Land and Area History – Michigan was admitted to the Union in 1837. In 1819 there was a treaty made with the Indians called the Treaty of Saginaw in which the Indians seceded the land to the federal government. It was made between General Lewis Cass and Chief John Okemos and Chief Wasso and other tribes. The treaty pertained mostly with the Ojibwe tribe (sometimes also called Chippewa). The treaty reserved several smaller tracts of land for Indian use within the ceded territory. This included the setting up of an 8000 acre Indian reservation called the Village of Chief Otusson in the Frankenmuth area. This included land along the Cass River and most of the farm of Johann Kern. Later the reservation land was available from the federal government. Any land bought from the federal government from the former reservation commanded a premium price of $2.50 an acre. The premium of $1.25 an acre was to compensate the Indians. Otherwise the price of non-reservation land was $1.25 an acre. The first Frankenmuth settlers that came in 1845 paid $1700 for 680 acres along the Cass River.

The land is rich and nearly flat. The land was greatly influenced by the last ice age. It appears from satellite photos that the Cass River in the “Michigan Thumb” area is a dividing line of sorts. The land to the north is dark rich soil that is nearly flat while the land south is somewhat sandy and more undulating. Also the last ice age must have left a lot of different kinds of rocks, the majority appearing to be igneous. Even during the years I was growing up we searched the fields for rocks which surfaced because of frost and picked them up – quite an arduous job. We had a stone pile on the farm yard where we stored the rocks.

The land when the settlers came was somewhat wet and swampy which had to be drained. The farm is part of the Saginaw River Basin which is drained by the Cass River. Saginaw Bay is about 20 miles from Frankenmuth. Drainage of the land was required to be able to successfully farm the land. The first settlers dealt with mosquitoes. It was common for people to get sick from malaria due to the mosquitoes. If one travels north to the Richville area and further north one will see deep drainage ditches. Most of the land was also forested. This required the cutting down of trees and removing the stumps - a very arduous job! Thus one can see where there is the supply of timber for the cutting for the Hubinger saw mill and the return to the farms of lumber for the building of buildings. Logs were floated down the Cass River to the saw mill. I can remember being out in the fields to hoe as children and my father digging a small hole and finding water. He dug deep enough to keep beverages cool for refreshment later.

Another feature of the land in the area was that there were salt mines near Saginaw and Bay City. This must have come from sea water a long time ago. There also were salt mines in Detroit. There were oil wells and coal mines in the Saginaw Bay area. It is understood that there even were some mineral rights sold on the Johann Kern farm for oil. Apparently the oil is too deep to economically pump.

A more in depth description of the land including the geologic history can be found on this clickable website. Included is a history of the Indians and a full copy of the Treaty of Saginaw (1819). The site also has a downloadable book on the Indians and their beliefs. The book was written by an Indian.

The Farm - In the accompanying figure one can see a layout of the farm and the relationship to Frankenmuth. It shows that to this day there still is a stand of trees of perhaps seven acres. In the southwest corner of the woods there were Indian burial mounds – an obvious sign that Indians were present at one time. The farm consisted of 80 acres. Diagonally across the corner of Frank and Roedel Roads to the northeast was the farm of Michael Kern, a younger brother of Johann who came to America with his mother. He was called “Meister” which in German means “Master” referring to Michael being a “master mason” by trade. He was a stone mason by trade. Many of his male children became masons, plasterers, wallpaper hangers, and painters. The land was slightly tilted in elevation toward the southwest so that’s how the drainage of the farm was organized. In the later years of Johann farming his son, Willie, dug a well in the center of the 80 acres. He accomplished that by stepping across the width and length of the farm to determine the center. The well was used to water the cattle when they were out in the fields. In addition, Willie would at times go to the well and provide a supply of water for the squirrels in the woods.

The farm yard was near the southeast corner of the farm on Frank Road. It included the house, two barns, several sheds to store cars, trucks and implements, a corn crib, a chicken house, a hog house and pen, a blacksmith shop, and a smoke house. An open area between the chicken house and the dairy barn was a near perfect baseball field. Every farm had an apple orchard and grapes including ours. In the old days some of the apples were used to make apple cider and the rest were stored in a root cellar which also was on the farm. The grapes were used to make wine, grape jelly, and grape juice. My grandfather was known for his wine.

Often his brothers would come and visit in the basement and they would have some of his good wine. Between the barns and Frank Road was a large vegetable garden. Near the root cellar was an outdoor bake oven. Also there were several pear trees. Near the stand of trees (woods) there was a hickory tree that had to be harvested every year and nuts used for Christmas cookies. The root cellar was made with an arched concrete roof. When the first house burned down the intense heat cracked the concrete roof. First, a roof of wood singles was placed on the cellar. The roof was popular for the children to slide down. Even school kids that would walk home from school would occasionally stop by to slide down. However, it was not without risk to receive a wood splinter or two in the derriere while sliding down on the roof. What an embarrassing situation to have your mother or friend extract the splinter! Later and in my lifetime, metal sheeting was placed on the roof. Thus it was splinter risk free for us children to slide down!

Family Life – It is understood that Johann had epilepsy and occasionally had seizures. Also according to my grandfather his father, Johann, was mean and abusive. My grandfather told the story that his father would destroy toys that his children built out of meanness. To avoid this, my grandfather built a toy threshing machine underneath a void beneath the barn that his father could not get to. The toy never got destroyed. There also is a story of Johann pinching the derriere of his second wife while she had a piece of fire wood in her hand and firing the outdoor bake oven. Apparently she swung around and gave Johann a good wallop with the firewood. Not much is known about the family life with the first wife.

The understanding is that after his first wife died “he sent for another wife” in Germany. The story goes the woman asked Johann where his house was as they were getting closer to the farm. He finally pointed to a building (house) which had stumps leaning against the house. It appears the house did not appear as was described in the letters she received from Johann. Later on Lorenz from the first wife described their step-mother as being mean. It was followed by “she even spanked me on her wedding day!”

On July 5, 1884 the boys were shooting off fire crackers near the house to continue celebrating the 4th of July. My grandfather, Adam, said he was nine years old. The house was in bad shape and still had stumps and straw around the house to keep it warm. A spark from the firecrackers started a fire near the house that completely destroyed the house. The boys said that they were glad that it burned down because it was a cold and dilapidated house. By fall a house was built on the same site for about $900. The house still stands today. A consequence of the house burning down is that everything was lost in the fire. Having lived on the “homestead farm” there was an accumulation of household items including pictures that I have had access to. However, there are no pictures before the house burned down in 1884.

My grandfather, Adam, often talked about the difficulty of the raising a family from two different mothers. Apparently there must have been a lot of tension. It made such an impression on my grandfather that when his wife (my grandmother) died at an early age that he would not remarry.

My grandfather’s mother lived with him until she died in 1915. There are stories that I heard from the Trinklein family about my grandfather’s mother. The Trinkleins had a farm near the corner of Genesee and Frank Road which is about one half mile south from the house. The Trinkleins had a parcel of land about a quarter of a mile north of our house which included pastures. The Trinklein children would herd their cattle on Frank Road every day north of us to their land. In the evening they would bring them back to their farm. Occasionally their cattle would stray into our yard and my grandfather’s mother would get upset and yell at the Trinklein children.

Biographical Data - Johann Wilhelm Kern was born in Roßtal, Germany on 23 October 1833 and died on 29 March 1902 in Frankenmuth. First wife Maria Sabina Enselberger was born in Germany on 15 February 1834 and died 10 May 1870. Second wife Anna Margaretha Auer was born in Germany on 12 April 1838 and died 27 April 1915. They are all buried at the St. Lorenz Lutheran Church Cemetery in Frankenmuth. Pictures of the gravestones can be seen by clicking on this line.

The Johann Wilhelm Kern Children

Introduction – It is interesting that all of the thirteen children reached adulthood except for one. Georg died at an early age of 24. On some of the children I know very little while on others I know more. The children are presented in their birth order from oldest to youngest.

Fredrick – Lived in Detroit and operated saloons. He was killed in a saloon brawl where someone hit him with a bottle and cut him. He bled to death from the cut on December 3, 1898. He had two sons by the names of Edward and Lawrence, and a daughter by the name of Francis.

Peter – Owned a farm between Richville and Reese. He was tall and a gregarious type person. His children and descendants were similar. The Kerns have had a reputation of being called “Neugierigen" (Inquisitive) Kerns. I have discovered that the term possibly may refer to Peter Kern who asked people who herded their cows past his farm as to how much a new cow had cost.

Maria – Married a Kundinger and lived in Saginaw. They had one son by the name of Conrad.

Elizabeth – Married an Unger and lived in Detroit. One member of the family was employed by a candy manufacturer. It may have been the Wollinzen family.

Michael – Lived in Frankenmuth and engaged in several businesses that included a haberdashery and a grain threshing company while also holding various public offices. Later he owned a farm on the northeast corner of Main and Genesee Streets in Frankenmuth. The picture shown was taken in about 1900 when Mike had a butchering fest. Of interest there are four of the Johann Kern boys on the picture. They are Wilhelm, Michael, Georg, and Lorenz. Also on the picture is Michael's wife, Anna, and children.

Lorenz – He was famous for owning the Kern Commercial House in down town Frankenmuth. The original purchase agreement between Maria Rau and Lorenz Kern on November 1, 1894 can be seen by clicking here. There he had a boarding house, restaurant, and saloon. They are known as the first establishment to serve an all you can eat chicken dinner in Frankenmuth in 1895. Lorenz also was an avid fan of horse racing and attended races in Caro, Michigan and Kentucky. He had two sons and a daughter. The two sons were known for their music, baseball, and bowling. More can be learned on the history of the Lorenz Family from a link.

Johann – He was the first born of the second wife. John and Wilhelm were twins. John owned a farm in Frankenmuth, was married, but had no children.

Wilhelm – He was known as “Uncle Willie” to us being my father’s uncle. Uncle Willie was never married and was a somewhat independent type guy. He appeared to float around doing different types of things. At one time he owned and operated the farm directly south of us (the homestead). He later sold it to his nephew, Edwin, son of Mike. Uncle Willie lived a good share of the time with his brother, Lorenz, but also lived with my grandfather, Adam, until my father, Arthur, married. It is possible that he filled in somewhat with house chores after my grandmother died in 1920. Willie left town without telling anyone and traveled to the western part of the country working for his keep helping with threshing crews. The Kern families never got any correspondence from him nor learned of his whereabouts. The church removed him from the church roster due to his disappearance and later caused a lot of stress. on his return to Frankenmuth he refused to apply again for church membership as offered by the church. Several nephews including my uncle, Winfried Kern, an elder, tried to persuade him to apply for membership but he refused.

Matthias – He owned a farm north of Kern Sausage Store in Frankenmuth, MI Frankenmuth and had one son, Marcus. Marcus is famous for starting the Kern Sausage business in Frankenmuth in 1949. Marcus would come to our farm (the homestead) in early spring to butcher one or several hogs. He would oversee the butchering. It is believed that Marcus learned the butchering from John Kern. John was a cousin of my grandfather from the Michael Kern family living kiddy corner (northeast) from the homestead. As a young child I was afraid of John. He was pale and had red hair. For additional history of Kern Sausages – click here.

Adam – Adam was my grandfather and inherited the homestead farm. He was the youngest surviving son. Adam was industrious, mechanically inclined, and practical. He fixed up the farm after his father had let it run down. He cleared more land and drained the land. At first square wooden tubes were buried to drain the water from the fields. However, they would fairly quickly decompose. He then invented a machine to manufacture drainage tile from concrete. He received patent number 1,023,656 from the US government on April 16, 1912. Click here to see a copy of the patent. During my life on the farm I saw him create many machines that were labor saving. He probably influenced me to become an engineer. His son, Winfried, was also very mechanically inclined and in his later years was called by the Frankenmuth town businesses to solve challenging mechanical problems. Adam was unfortunate to lose his wife to influenza in 1920 and never remarried. He did not want his children to experience the stress of a second marriage like his father’s.

Anna – Married Conrad Hecht and lived about a mile to the northeast from the homestead on a farm. My father was friendly with her children. They were known for their fine herd of dairy cows.

Georg – Never married and died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis. He is buried with his father and mother. They called him “Georgla”. In English that means “Little George.”

Sabina – Married a Hilbrandt and lived for a while in Frankenmuth and then moved to Saginaw. Legend has it that she met her future husband when he was staying at her brother, Lorenz Kern’s, Commercial House and she helped with cleaning the rooms there. He started a cigar manufacturing business on the corner of Main and Genesee Streets. The business was called, Frankenmuth Cigars. In Saginaw they owned a grocery store. We, as children, always loved to have Sabina visit us. She was a delight to visit with. It is interesting that she has the same name as Johann’s first wife. Although I had a sister by the name of Charlotte, my father called her Sabina. We, as siblings, started too to call her Sabina as a nickname. We called her that with affection.

New Information

Research on February 19, 2009 found a record of a stillborn birth to John and Ann Kern on April 21, 1880 in Frankenmuth. From possibilities it is most probable that the birth was from Johann and Anna Margaretha Kern. It fits in right in the middle between the births of Georg and Sabina. There previously was a five year gap.

Last Updated: August 21, 2010

The History of the Johann Wilhelm Kern Family: Legend & Lore
by Wally Kern

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