Kern, John W.

KERN

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:04:52

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.367

JOHN W. KERN
In the spring of 1854, while pioneer customs were still lingering, and the large majority of the prairie lands lay undisturbed by the white man’s plow, Dr. Jacob H. Kern, of Alto, Indiana, cast his lot with the early settlers of White Oak Township, many of whom had known the doctor in Alto, where he had been their family physician. For ten years he farmed and practiced medicine. The people were glad to have their old doctor among them. His distinguished son, who is now (July, 1908) the candidate for vice president on the democratic ticket – the running mate of W. J. Bryan, was then five years old. He attended the public schools during the winter seasons, such as other boys did. Several of his schoolmates still reside in the county, and well remember their school association with young Kern. He was a slender figure with a large head. A glance at him was sufficient to impress one with the positiveness of his character. He was noted for his excellent memory. At fourteen he had a reputation for spelling and declaiming. The readiness with which he committed poems caused his school fellows to stand in awe before him. However, there was nothing in his boy-life that brought out any special prophecies of his future greatness. Mr. Kern is now regarded as a very learned man in the law, but whatever his scholarship, the foundations of his education were laid among the “Hoosiers” in White Oak Township. Dr. Kern was the best educated man in the community; he took newspapers and magazines, and had the largest library among the settlers, and both he and his wife up to the time of her death, gave John the best instruction they were capable of, and omitted no opportunity to push him forward and show him off to the best advantage. They believed in John, and did not underestimate his possibilities. They expected him to become all that his is. John W. Kern’s contact with the sturdy pioneers, and with nature himself, and with the processes of planting civilization, were superb environments for the development of the choicest qualities of an American citizen. During the doctor’s residence in Iowa, the mother of the now noted John W. Kern, died and was buried in what people call “Hewitt’s graveyard.” Since John W. reached his majority, he has twice visited his mother’s grave. Those who accompanied him the last time to the tomb say his remarks were touching and beautiful. The man who stands at this mother’s tomb twenty-five years after her demise and weeps, is human, and in that act gives the best possible proof of the presence of divinity in humanity.