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From: "Wilmer L. Kerns" <>
Subject: [KERN-L] John A. Kerns
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 23:08:39 -0700


Posted on: KERN Queries
Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/surnames/k/e/KERN/queries/10070

Surname: Kern, Kerns, Bentley
-------------------------

There were three John A. Kerns from Winchester all living within the same
period. The Rev. John Adam Kern (1846-1926) was a son of Nimrod and Eliza
(Bentley) Kern of Kernstown, which is now a suburb or Winchester. He was
an ordained Methodist minister who later was elected Bishop of the Southern
Methodist Episcopal Church. He taught at Vanderbilt University and served
as President of Randolph-Macon College in 1897-1899. His son, Paul Bently
Kern, was a famous preacher, who later served as President of Southern
Methodist University (SMU) in Texas.

A licensed minister ("local preacher") is not ordained, but may preach,
teach, marry and bury. The records of the Braddock Street Methodist Church
in Winchester show a Rev. John A. Kern leading services (Bible studies)
in the 1840s. If this wasn't John A. Kern of Berkeley County, I don't know
who else it could have been. Maybe we have a 4th John A. Kern.

A third John A. Kern in Winchester was John Austin Kern who married Mabel
Willis. He was younger than the other two Johns A. I don't have his vital
information before me, but could retrieve it from a file.

John Adam Kern and John Austin Kern both descended from Adam Kern (1730-1799)
of Kernstown. There is no proven relationship between the John A. Kern
(of Jacob in Berkeley) and the John A. Kerns (of Adam in Frederick) families.

Wilmer L. Kerns

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