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HISTORY
OF THE KERN FAMILY
Written by James W. Kern, Wallace Kern & Norene Kern
As published at Frankenmuth Bavarian
Motor Lodge
The Kern Family emigrated
from Bavaria, Germany in the middle 1800’s.
The immediate family left Rosstal, their home town, which is about nine miles southwest of Nurnberg.
They operated a general store on the site of the present
“Rathous” or townhall.
The Kern family consisted of the parents Friederich and Maria
(Winkler) and their eight children. Records
at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rosstal indicate that the Kern
family was contemplating emigrating to Frankenmuth in 1846. However, the first members did not come to America until
1852.
The original Kerns' on the Frankenmuth scene in 1852 were two of
the four sons, 16 year old Peter and 18 year old Johann W.,
who were millers by trade.
Peter and Johann W. immigrated to Michigan at
the request of John G. Hubinger—owner of a first class sawmill and flour
mill on the Cass River. (Click
here to view the ship "Hector" manifest.)
Johann also worked
a 40 acre farm and later enlarged it to 80 acres.
(This farm was the property of his father-in-law Mr. Ensenberger
and since he had no son’s, he willed the farm to his daughter Sabina
Ensenberger Kern and her husband Johann.
The farm was located on Frank road, just East and North of
Frankenmuth. The farm was next owned by Johann’s son from his second
wife, Margaret Auer when Johann retired.
Arthur Kern then obtained the farm from his father Adam, and after
Arthur’s retirement, Gilbert Kern owned the farm. Gilbert Kern has subsequently sold the farm to Koester
Builders).
In March of 1861, Johann’s father Friederich died in
Rosstal. Later that year, the
rest of the family traveled to Frankenhilf, about seven miles northeast of
Frankenmuth. Frankenhilf was
another German Lutheran settlement that drew hundreds of settlers in the
mid 1800’s. Today the
community is known as Richville.
Widow Maria Winkler
Kern, born August 29, 1809, came to America in 1861, (to Richville) at
the age of 52, bringing her six remaining children. (Click
here to view the ship "Clara" manifest.)
The family had a treacherous 8 week voyage to America, sailed on
the ship “The Clara”. It
was reported that 17 icebergs were seen along the way.
Their ages at the time of their arrival were:
Kunigunda, 31; Michael, 20; Ursula, 18; Fritz, 15; Barbara, 13; and
Margaret 9. Shortly after
their arrival, Maria was employed for about a year as a housekeeper in the
new parsonage of the recently widowed Pastor George Bernthal.
Seven of the eight Kern children settled on farms.
For most this meant the arduous task of clearing the land and
providing drainage of the tillable soil.
To supplement their farm income some worked as laborers or did
mason work. Others worked in
logging camps in the winter.
Johann Michael settled in Frankenmuth.
Kunigunda Heinlein, Peter, Ursula Schnell, and Fritz settled in
Frankenhilf (Now Richville). Barbara
Abraham lived in Frankentrost, about seven miles northwest of Frankenmuth,
and Margaret Arndt moved to Saginaw.
One of the eight descendants, F.
Lorenz Kern, owned the Commercial House Hotel where the Frankenmuth
Historical Museum now stands. Although
Theodore Fischer was the first hotel man to specialize in chicken dinners
in Frankenmuth, it is believed that
Mrs. Lorenz Kern was the first to serve chicken on the famed “all you
can eat”
basis to a bridal party in 1895.
The eight Kern children produced 77
first generation American descendants.
At a Kern family reunion in 1940, 860 descendants were counted.
Today the descendants number in the thousands with the majority
living in Saginaw and Tuscola counties.
Maria
Winkler Kern died on July 21, 1887 in Richville at the age of 78
years. Her funeral text was
Psalm 73 v 23-24. She is
buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Richville, Michigan.
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