Pennsylvania Families

The household of Joseph Kern in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1800 includes a female over forty-five. This is probably his widowed mother, Catharine Funck, who would have been fifty-nine. (1800 Census, York Boro, York County, PA, Series M32, Roll 44, Page 1294.)

The abstract of Joseph's obituary says he was born in 1772 and moved to Greensburg at the age of 35. (Source: Mary Jane Mains, compiler, Newspaper Accounts of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1808-1929, not all inclusive, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Greensburg, Pennsylvania: Westmoreland County Historical Society, 1994, citing the Westmoreland Republican and Farmers' Chronicle.)

Joseph was apparently caring for his mother and then moved to Westmoreland County after she died. "Widow Kern" is said to be on the York Boro, York County, tax rolls in 1800 and Joseph is said to be on the York tax rolls for 1800 to 1805. (Source: Ed Morrill, "In Reply to: KERN family of York Co., PA," posted at rootsweb.com York County message board on 30 Nov 2003.)

Joseph's brother John is on the tax list for Westmoreland County in 1802 and his other brother Jacob joins John on the 1804 list, but Joseph himself appears first in 1808. He is listed on both the Borough of Greensburg and Hempfield Township tax lists in 1810. (Source: Tax Lists, Westmoreland County, PA, 1786-1810.)

In 1815, Joseph was assessed (amount in dollars) and taxed as follows:
Kern, Joseph, Hatter (60), 1 house and lot (700), 1 horse (40), 1 cow (10 ), Total (800). Tax 1.33. (Source: 1815 Tax list of Westmoreland County, as found in The Old Westmoreland, Vol 9, No 5, August 1989, Laughlintown, PA: SW PA Genealogical Services.)

He is also on the tax list for 1817. (Source: "List of Taxable Inhabitants of Greensburg in 1817, with tax assessed," from History of Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., PA, B. F. Vogle, (Greensburg: Vogle & Wensheimer, c. 1899.)

In 1810 his household is on the census in Greensburg, apparently including a male apprentice or boarder age 16 to 25. In 1820 his household numbered thirteen, apparently including a number of apprentices or boarders. Joseph was engaged in commerce. (Sources: 1810 Census: Greensburg Borough, Westmoreland Co., PA. Series M252 Roll 51 Page 183, and 1820 Census, Greensburg, Westmoreland Co ., PA Series M33 Roll 112, Page 98.)

In 1829 there is a Joseph Kern, no occupation listed, on the Mt. Pleasant Borough tax rolls. He owns a house and lot valued at $300 and three vacant lots valued at $100 (for all three.) This is more likely his brother John's son Joseph, since they were in Mt. Pleasant. (Source: "1829 Tax List, Mt. Pleasant Borough, Westmoreland County," contributed by Thomas J. Metzgar, in The Old Westmoreland, Vol 10, No. 4,(Copyright 1991, Southwest Pa. Genealogical Services.)

I have not yet found Joseph on the 1830 Census. By 1840 his household, now in Hempfield Township, had become smaller. The census figures only allow for Joseph, Margaret, and their two youngest children. (Source: 1840 Census, Hempfield Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA Series M704, Roll 498, Page 384.)

On June 18, 1834, John Taylor, Daniel C. Morris (Joseph's son-in-law), and George W. Kern (Joseph's son) bought nineteen acres of land in Johnstown from Shepley Priestly for $800. On July 7, 1840, Joseph Kern purchased the two-thirds interest held by Taylor and [the estate of] Morris. The Kern land belonging to father and son lay below Dibert street and east of Apple Tree alley, which was between Franklin and Napoleon streets, extending to the Stonycreek river. This was known for a time as Kernville, and was part of the fifth and sixth wards of Johnstown. (Source: Henry W. Storey, History of Cambria County, Chapter 13, "Land Titles", pages 290-310, as found at http://www.accessible.com/amcnty/PA/Cambria/Cambria13.htm.)

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Will of Joseph Kern
The index to Joseph Kern's probate information is at:
Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994, Westmoreland, Register's and Orphans' Court record index no date I-K
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-28809-16312-93?cc=1999196&wc=9PML-HZ3:268494501,268525101

In Joseph's will, written 15 May 1846 and probated 26 May 1846, he discusses this property, improvement needed to it, and a possible purchase from a Joseph Haynes to make the improvement possible. (See text of will below.)

Instead the land was sold to Joseph Haynes, being described as beginning at a point on "the road leading from the bridge to Amish hill, along the west side of Apple Tree alley." This deed bears the date of August 2, 1847. (Source: Henry W. Storey, History of Cambria County, Chapter 13.

Something in the will or some action of the executors led to Sarah's son, Jacob S. Kiel petitioning as heir of Sarah against the executors in Westmoreland County Orphans Court on 6 November 1867. A look at Jacob's petition would help here. (Source: Frank W. Kiel, Hendrik Gerrit Kiel, page 43, citing Westmoreland County, Orphans Court Records, 6 Nov 1867, No 31.)

I found the index listing for Jacob's action at Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994, Westmoreland
Register's and Orphans' Court record index no date I-K, but the document itself is not at familysearch.org as of Octuber 2014. The index reads:

Kiel Jacob S, of Cambria County, Citation. Volume 6, Docket OC, Page 160, File Number 31 N, Year 1867
It is at: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-28809-16410-92?cc=1999196&wc=9PML-HZ3:268494501,268525101

According to Jacob S. Royer's Reminiscences of My Grandmother [Mary Ann Kiel,]'s Life, "the executors made way with the money from the sale, so that little of it ever came to the heirs."

This seems to be referrd to also in a letter from Joseph's granddaughter Elizabeth Extine (Kiel) Hamilton to her brother Daniel Morris Kiel on 31 Aug 1890. The letter says, in part:
"I see in the paper the other morning that Mr. Gorgas, a prominent farmer of Derry, was robbed of $2.50 worth of jewelry in his house. I think it a pity they did not take him along, for I think he is about as big a thief as they were who stole it. When [their sister] Celia came home from your place, she stopped at Derry and asked about that land in Kernville and he says they were all in debt to him. Where did he get his share? I see in the Johnstown papers they are going to make Stoney Creek wider. So I suppose they will get a chance to get something for the land, but I hope it will never do them any good."
(Transcribed in Frank Wilson Kiel, Hendrik Gerrit Kiel: Dutch Immigrant to Pennsylvania, Comfort, Texas: Skyline Ranch Press, 2000, pages 66, 67.)

The probating of this will went on for 70 years. The final account was not received until 1916, according to the index page mentioned above. The probate records themselves are not at familysearch.org as of October 2014.

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Joseph's listing at findagrave.com (contributed by Kim Frye, adriftiam@yahoo.com) states that he died 23 May, 1846 and was buried in Old German Cemtery, Greensburg.

A transcription of the cemetery says that Joseph Kern died May 23, 1843. This is in error since his will was not written until May 1846. This transcription is in an article entitled "Tombstone Inscriptions" contributed by Mary Ellison Wood on page 26 of Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. VI, No. 1 (March, 1915). The image is found at books.google.com.

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A Biographical Sketch

The following reference to Joseph Kern appears in a biographical sketch of his son-in-law Timothy Hunt of Johnstown, who married Eleanor Kern:

"Mrs. Hunt is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as were also her parents, and her father, Joseph Kern, was born at "Little York," this State, and settled at Greensburg, the county seat of Westmoreland, where he died May 23, 1846, aged seventy-four years.

Joseph Kern was a hatter by trade, and carried on hatting at Greensburg for many years before combined capital, improved machinery and specialized piece work drove the individual manufacturer from the market by cheaper but not better work. Mr. Kern was a man of forsight and judgment, and in the early years of Johnstown's history, perceiving its future importance, invested largely in real estate in what is now the Fifth ward, where his son George was the first settler. When buildings were erected and the town commenced to grow on his land it was named Kernville in honor of him, and continued to hold that name until it was made a part of Johnstown as the Fifth ward.

Joseph Kern married Margaretta Stinebaugh, who died April 16, 1856, aged seventy-six years and nine months.

The Hunt and Kern families are among the sturdy, substantial and useful families of Western Pennsylvania, although not so old or numerous as many other families west of the Alleghanies."
(Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, Spartansburg, SC: The Reprint Company, Publishers, 1980. Originally published in 1896 by The Union Publishing Company of Philadelphia, pp. 46, 47.)

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Will of Joseph Kern, Written: 15 May 1846, Probated: 26 May 1846
as transcribed online at:
ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/westmoreland/wills/kernj.txt
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Linda Bischoff (lkbischo ff@mchsi.com)

I Joseph Kern of Hempfield Township Westmoreland County considering the uncertainty of this life, and being of sound mind and memory do make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following:
First I order and direct that all of my just debts and funeral expenses be paid as soon after my death as my Executors here in after named can by sale of property or the collection of claims due me acquire the funds for that purpose.

Secondly It is my will and desire also that my said Executors or the
survivors of them sell the farm on which I now reside as soon as they in
their judgment can effect an advantages sale of it and further being
possessed of the undivided two thirds of a lot of ground near Johnstown
in Cambria County containing eighteen acre more or less, it is my will
and desire that my said executors or the survivors of them shall dispose
of the same in such manner as they many deem most profitable. And in
order more fully to effect the premises, my said executors or the
survivors of them shall have full authority to lay out and divide the
same into town lots with the needful streets and alleys and to sell such
lots as such times and in such portions and in such conditions as they
may suppose may best occur the interests of my estate. And [I] also
authorize them to make a purchase from or an exchange with Joseph Haynes
of as much ground as may be needed to make the tier of lots on the west
side of the Turnpike Road from the bend upward (ten rods deep with an
alley one rod wide behind them, and the same also to divide and sell as
aforesaid. And [I] thereby authorize and empower my said executors or the
survivors of them to sell convey and make titles for my real estate
authorized to be sold as well that already contracted to be sold as that
which is not.

Thirdly I order and direct that out of the proceeds of the above named
property to be sold the sum of one thousand dollars be placed on interest
by my said executors which interest shall be paid to my beloved wife
Margaret semi-annually for her support during her natural life and until
such sum of money shall be so invested the sum of sixty dollars per annum
shall be paid her as above. And further I direct that such articles of
personal property as may be deemed necessary for her comfort by herself
and my said executors shall be allowed her.

And further I will and bequeath to each of my children equal shares of
my estate to be divided share and share alike except as the special
desire and request of my daughter Catharine Ann I order that the share
which upon an equal division of my estate among all my children would
fall [to] her share be added in equal portions to the share of my
daughter Eleanor M and my son Samuel M. and excepting that my daughter
Mary Ann shall have fifty dollars more than her equal share.

The before named bequests to be paid out of the proceeds of my real and
personal property by my said executors or the survivors of them as soon
as the funds come into their hands with this exception that the shares
which fall to my daughters Sarah Sibylla, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and
Eleanor shall be held by my executors and paid to them or their heirs as
my said executors shall consider expedient and prudent hereby giving my
said executors full authority and control so that they may be put to no
trouble about the shares of my said daughters Sarah[,] Sibylla, Mary
Ann, Elizabeth and Eleanor but they may pay the same in such manner and
at such times as will be calculated in said executors opinion to benefit
my said daughters most.

And lastly I hereby nominate constitute and appoint my sons George [W].
Kern, Henry R. Kern and my son-in-law Samuel L. [Gorgas] to be my
executors of this my last will and testament hereby revoking and making
null and void all wills by me at any time heretofor made. In testimony
whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this fifteenth day of May
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty six.

Signed sealed and published in the presence of us who [have subscribed
our] names as witnesses of the request of testator in presence and in
presence of each other

John Lemple [Semple]
John Rugh Jospeh Kern (seal) - own sig.

Legally proved and approved the 26th day of May AD 1846 Same day
recorded and Letters Testamentary granted to Executors.

Executors sworn before D. Cook, Regr.

 

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1830 Census - Joseph not yet found.
Not in Hempfield Twp. or Mt Pleasant Twp. I think I looked in the rest
of Westmoreland Co. as well.