James W. Kerns

How did the Kerns branch get to Nebraska?

A key figure in our family history is James W. Kerns, who was Gene Ely's maternal grandfather.  

We have a genealogy book prepared by the relatives in Illinois during the 1980s that has more about his background.  In a nutshell, his parents, Peter and Mary Kerns,  came from Ireland in the 1840s with their four children.  For a short time they lived in New York and then on to Illinois.  In this country, they had six more children.  James was the seventh child in the family, born in LaSalle County, Illinois.

At age 17, about a year after his father's death, James headed west to work.  He returned to Illinois to marry Alice Crowley on Christmas Day in 1879, somewhat unusual but allowed in the church due to their travel schedule.  They returned to Omaha by train and eventually moved to Calvert (now Auburn).  Twelve of their 13 children were born in Auburn.  Their second oldest was Laura Sophia Kerns Ely,  Gene Ely's mother.

J.W. Kerns Grows Up
told to Anne Ely Kenlon by Mary Alice Ely,
April 2003

James Washington Kerns (known to Mary Alice as "Grandpa") grew up on a farm  near Mendota, Illinois, a younger son in a large Irish family. Several of the older boys had been born in Ireland, but the family had come to the U.S. by the time young J.W. was born. The older brothers were responsible for most of the farm work, so young J.W. set out west after the Civil War and found work with the Chicago Lumber Company's new lumber yard in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Eager to work his way up in the business, he started to attend night school at a business college in Omaha. He had to borrow his boss's horse in order to get across the river to school. He came out of class one night to find the horse had been stolen....so he had to work many extra hours to pay off the loss.

Eventually he was put in charge of the Chicago Lumber Company's new lumber yard in Phelps City, Missouri, near the banks of the Missouri River. Now a young businessman, he began to turn his attention to his personal life, and remembered the Crowley family who lived down the road from the Kerns farm back in Illinois.

He had always liked the older Crowley sisters, and started writing letters to them in hopes of striking up a romance with one or the other. The girls responded at first, but eventually turned their attentions to the Murphy brothers who lived nearby. Seeing her older sisters snub J.W., young Alice Crowley felt sorry for him and started responding to his letters herself, though he was five years older than she. Eventually they fell in love and were married on Christmas day in 1879.

The young couple set up their first household in Phelps City, and then a major flood on the Missouri River wiped out the lumber yard. The Chicago Lumber Company decided to re-build, but not in Phelps City...instead, they chose the nearby town of Auburn, where the Union Pacific railroad had just come through. By now the couple had the first of their 13 children, (Edward) Mark, and settled in a house on the south side of Auburn. J.W. used to walk to the lumber yard each day, cutting an angled path through the settlement...the same path where he was later instrumental in creating Courthouse Boulevard.

            **********

 

Primary Sources: 

1)  Nebraska State Legislature, 1904-05
Reference:   http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/Legislature/1903/pages/nelg0118.htm

        J. W. KERNS.

      James W. Kerns, Representative from the Third District, Nemaha county, was born on a farm in La Salle county, Illinois, January 15, 1854. When he was seventeen years of age he came to Nebraska, and from 1871 to 1880 resided in Omaha, and during 1880 was at Phelps, Missouri. In June, 1881, he became a resident of Calvert, now Auburn, which has been his home since then. For one term he was city clerk of Auburn, and served as mayor of the town for one year. He was one of the organizers of, and the first president of the first Independent Telephone company organized in Nebraska. He is the president of the Auburn Canning Co. and also of the Auburn Hotel Co. For a number of years he has been engaged in the lumber and coal business in his home town. In 1879 he was married to Alice J. Crowley, of La Salle county, Illinois, and has a large family consisting of six sons and three daughters. Mr. Kerns is a Republican and is serving his first term in the House.

2.  History of Nebraska

http://www.kancoll.org/books/andreas_ne/nemaha/nemaha-p16.html

The town of South Auburn, formerly Calvert, is located on Sections 27 and 28, Township 5, Range 14, situated on the Burlington & Missouri Railroad, eleven miles from Brownville via wagon road, or fifteen by way of Nemaha City. The sections designated were originally owned by J. L. Smith, J. B. Piper, J. Maxwell and G. R. Reynolds, being purchased by the Lincoln Town Site Company in the early part of 1881, platted July 1, and named in honor of Hon. T. E. Calvert, of the railroad corporation, to which, primarily, it owes its existence. The first settler was J. N. Brust, who, some time prior to its survey, erected a small frame house, near the present depot building, in which he placed a stock of groceries in July, 1881; subsequently, closed out. In June of the same year, the Chicago Lumber Company put up a small building, now used as a dwelling, a lumber yard being established under charge of George D. Cross, who, during the first six months, disposed of 100 cars of lumber, a large part of which was conveyed from Brownville by wagons. Later in the same month, a second lumber yard was opened by J. W. Kerns; and on July 14, the first number of the Calvert Courier appeared, from which time the progress of the new town has been rapid.

3.  The Nebraskana Society
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/Nebraskana/pages/nbka0155.htm
 ** A couple of errors in this... Tess is missing...  should be "Laura S."
 typo
The Nebraskana Society information is dated 1932.

James Washington Kerns

James W. Kerns, executive and lumber dealer, was born at Ophir, Illinois, January 15, 1854, of Irish ancestry. He is the son of Peter and Margaret (Conlin) Kerns, both of whom are deceased. His father, a farmer, who was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1800, came to America in 1846. He died in LaSalle County, Illinois, in 1869.

Margaret Kerns, his mother, was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1815. She died in LaSalle County, Illinois, in 1895.

On December 25, 1879, he was united in marriage with Alice Josephine Crowley, at Mendota, Illinois. To this marriage was born the following children: Edward Mark, born December 19, 1880, married to Pearl Shipply; Laura S., March 8, 1883, married Edward H. Ely; Harry Francis, September 11, 1885, died February 9, 1892; Mary Teresa (Tess):  Thomas Leo, September 27, 1889; Albert Benedict., June 15, 1891; James W., December 26, 1892; Lawrence, July 26, 1894; Harold P., May 3, 1898; Alice F., November 16, 1899; Kathryn Marie, May 20, 1902; Emily Elizabeth, January 14, 1905; and Mercedes Leona, May 6, 1907.

A Republican, Mr. Kerns was city clerk of Auburn, and was member of. the Nebraska state legislature, 1903-05. He has been a resident of Nebraska since March, 1872, except for one year, and is at the present time president of the J. W. Kerns Lumber Company. He is a Catholic, and a member of St. Joseph's Church, at Auburn, and the Knights of Columbus. Residence: Auburn.

---