Pennsylvania Families

Samuel McLane Kern was a doctor and a farmer. He seems to have practiced medicine while still living at home. An account on page 8 of Jacob S. Royer's Reminiscences of My Grandmother [Mary Ann Kiel,]'s Life, talks about Mary Ann riding one of Samuel's horses which he used to make his rounds. She cut herself badly on a saw while getting off, and her grandmother treated her to stop the bleeding.

During the Civil War he was a private in the 204th Regiment, (Fifth Heavy Artillery) Company D, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was captured in a battle near Salem, Virginia on 6 October 1864, and was imprisoned in Libby Prison. His nephew Daniel Morris Kiel was also involved in this battle. (Frank Wilson Kiel, Hendrik Gerrit Kiel -- Dutch Immigrant to Pennsylvania. Comfort, Texas: Skyline Ranch Press, 2000, p. 47, 48.)

He is on a list of soldiers at the Cambria County Website:
KERN, Samuel M., Pvt, 5 Sep 1864, Mustered out with battery, 30 Jun 1865

(From the Civil War Muster Roll Index, Cambria County, Pa. at theCambria County website. Their source: Bates, Samuel P., History of Pennsylvania Volunteers,
1861-5, Harrisburg: B. Singerly, State Printer. 1871.)

and he listed on the Ebensburg War Memorial (Transcribed at Cambria County website at rootsweb.com)

Except for a brief time spent in Kansas about 1874, Samuel McLane and his wife Susan lived in Wilmore their entire life. (His obituary, see below .)

His obituary is as follows, transcribed from a photocopy of the obituary of Dr. Samuel M. Kern, received from Frank W. Kiel, June 2004. He received it from Jeanne Borenish, of Portage, Pa., in 1996. From the Johnstown Tribune of Oct 14, [1888?].
[note: this isn't indexed in the list online of obituaries from Johnstown papers.]

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"DEATH OF DR. S.M. KERN
One of Wilmore's Most Prominent Citizens
Passes Away -- His Eccentricities.

Special to the Johnstown Tribune

Wilmore, Pa., Oct. 14. -- Dr. S. M. Kern died at his residence in Wilmore at noon Sunday. The Doctor was well known in Johnstown and throughout the county as one of the oldest as well as a most useful and respected citizen, and though he had been in failing health for some time, his rather sudden death has cast a shadow of sorrow and sympathy over the community of which he was a familiar figure.

He suffered from an attack of incipient paralysis a year ago, and as he had recently experienced some premonitory symptoms of the same character, it is supposed his death resulted from this cause.

The Doctor evidently anticipated his early demise, as he had some months previously consulted his friend, Mr. Arthur Cullen, the undertaker, who had made by special order in Pittsburgh his coffin, which had been stored here for some months.

The Doctor especially desired his last receptacle to be according to his own ideas of simplicity and utility. His coffin, prepared from his own specifications, is made entirely of the best yellow pine material, with only an oil or surface finish.

The large establishment in Pittsburgh complied with his request to the letter, and the result of the order turned out to be so handsome -- as such things go -- that they had it on exhibition as an object of special merit.

On its arrival here, some months ago, the Doctor carefully inspected the workmanship, which required certain iron bands or stays, satisfied himself as to the correct length, and himself paid for it and had it laid aside until called for.

On Friday evening he was moving about in his usual feeble manner and apparently slept well during the night. Rising at the usual hour, he procured a bowl of milk from the family breakfast table, and, as was his habit, took it to his room, and again retired to bed.

On being summoned to dinner and not responding, the family assumed that he was only sleeping, and, as they did not wish to disturb him, he was not again called until some time in the afternoon, when it was discovered for the first time that he was in a comatose condition and could not be aroused.

Dr. Blaisdell was summoned and pronounced it a second attack of paralysis, and at once notified the family that the Doctor would hardly survive the night. The friends and neighbors surrounded the dying man's bedside and remained during the night.

Mr. Fred. Ehrenfeld, the Supervisor, who, as a boy, was one of the Doctor's family, arrived on an early train, and, with some of the family of Mr. Kerbay, the agent, and other neighbors, was with him to the last.

Dr. Kern was born in Westmoreland County in 1823. At an early age he came to Johnstown and was employed as a clerk, until he entered the office of Dr. Lowman as a student of medicine. After graduation in Philadelphia he settled in Wilmore. In [1849?] he was married to a granddaughter of ex-Sheriff Fleetwood Benson [... bad copy here. wife's name missing. Next two names are known to be his daughters:] -- Mrs Ellen Webster of Altoona, and Miss Elsie, the teacher in the borough school. A number of grandchildren have for some years been at home in
the Doctor's family.

The Doctor, though a skillful physician and widely noted for his excellent judgment and generally successful treatment, was quite averse to the practice of medicine, and spent most of his days on his farm.

"He went to Kansas in 1874, investing some $8,000, but became discouraged by the grasshopper plague, and returned to the mountains in a few years, impaired in health.

Though a man of considerable family and property, and useful at home, he enlisted as a private soldier in Capt. W.B. Lowman's company of heavy artillery, and served in Virginia in 1864. He was captured and taken to Richmond. The Confederates soon learned of his useful qualifications,
and detailed him in their hospital service in Richmond as a surgeon.

On his exchange he was furloughed. After a short visit to his home and family, he returned to his regiment, and remained until honorably mustered out at the close of the war, when he again resumed his farming operations.

The writer had the pleasure of an early acquaintance with the Doctor as a family physician, and the fortunes of war ordained that we become comrades in the field during the war.

It was one of the pleasures of the feeble old Doctor's last days to talk of his short but eventful war experience, and in the last conversation, the evening precedint his attack, he expressed an earnest desire to again visit Virginia, but the great Captain of us all had decreed it otherwise, and comrade Kern has been "mustered out" -- of the reserve below -- to answer to the roll call in the Grand Army beyond the river.

Instead of a visit to the Old Camping Grounds of Virginia -- he bivouacs with numerous Cambria county dead, in Pennsylvania and in "God's Acre" -- in his mountain hamlet he will rest in that
Low green tent, whose curtain Never outward swings.

Dr. Kern was a son of the late Joseph Kern. He was one of eleven children -- six boys and five girls. Mrs. Timothy L. Hunt is now the only survivor. He was an uncle of Mrs. Joseph Hamilton of Jackson Street.

The funeral services will be held on Tuesday afternoon at Wilmore. It is expected that comrades of his regiment and members of the G. A. R. in the neighborhood will attend the funeral.
O.K.

===============
Author's initials were O.K. and in the article he said he served with Samuel M. Kern in the Civil War. This is the only man listed in that regiment with those initials:
204th Regiment, Company C, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
KENDALL, Orson D. Pvt 17 Sep 1864 Mustered out with battery, 30 Jun 1865

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Censuses
1850 Federal Census, PA, Cambria Summerhill Twp
(Probably) Page 109, Line: 110
(Transcribed on Cambria Co. Website)
Kern Samuel 27 M M.D. 400 Pa
-----, Susan 19 F Pa
-----, Margaret C. 6/12 F PaS

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1860 Federal Census, PA, Cambria, Croyle Township
Series 653 Roll 1088 Page 288
(Transcribed on Cambria Co. Website)
NAME AGE SEX OCCUP. REAL VAL. PERS VAL
Kern S. M. 37 M Physician 8,000 2,500
Kern Susan J. 29 F
Kern Margaret C. 11 F
Kern Ellen S. 9 F
Kern Mary E. 7 F
Kern Georgianna 2 F
Kern William H. 21 M Clerk
All birthplaces: Pennsylvania.
next family was Ephraim Crum. Next to him was Joseph Horner.
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1870 Federal Census, PA, Cambria, Wilmore
Series M593, Roll 1318, Page 330.
Census page 1, line 38 to page 2, l 40.
(Transcribed on Cambria Co. Website)

LAST NAME FIRST NAME AGE OCCUP. Worth
Kurn, Samuel M. 47 Phisian 1500 500
Susan J. 38 Housekeeping 1000 400
Margaret R. 20 At home
Elener S. 18
Mary E. 16
Elsie G. 5
all Birthplaces: PA

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1880 Federal Census, PA, Cambria, Wilmore Borough
Series T9 Roll 1110 E.D.198
(Transcribed on Cambria Co. Website)
at 17 Main Street:
NAME
Kern Saml M. W M 56 X Farmer
Kern Susan J. W F 48 Wife Keeping house
Kern Elsie Grant W F 16 Daughter Housekeeper
Bosley Samuel W M 6 G.Son At Home