Gabriel Kern ¹

   Another name for Gabriel was Karnes Or Carnes.

  General Notes:

The following is information provided by Charles W. Haarlammert in an email to David A. Leas:

Property: land on Manila Road south of Woodville Pike. Merle C. Rummell stated in an email in January, 2007: "The house of Gabriel Karns or of his son, Jacob, is standing. It is located on Manilla Road, a quarter mile north of Woodville Pike (this corner is called "Charleston" - founded 1840), at a bend in the Manila Road.

* The earliest landowner map that I have for Goshen Township is 1875, and at that time the house believed to have been formerly owned by the Kern family is owned by Joseph Trump. On the map, I've circled in red the residence location just at where Manila Road bends a bit toward the west on it's route to the village of Goshen.

* Other houses nearby that were built in the same era include that of Jacob Myers (a short distance to the north), and our Irwin home (a short distance to the south). The Irwin house was built in abt. 1830 by David's father, Harvey Irwin. Harvey was the son of John Irwin, who it is said to have had a VMI land warrant for his service in the Revolutionary War. Harvey was a J.P. and performed marriages for many of the early families of Goshen Township. Both men filed the documents for claiming VMI land warrants in this part of Clermont County. Harvey's wife was Elizabeth Hand and her father was a house builder. It is believed that several of the 2-story brick homes in this area were built by the same crews as they moved from one site to another...lead crews digging the cellar and laying the stone foundation, as framing and finishing crews followed. Bricks were fired locally from Clermont County clay; floor joists were from local timber, sometimes sawn - sometimes logs simply hewed flat on top for the floor; windows, doors, and their frames and hardware were brought by wagon from supplies in the city.

* Before that time, as the township was very young, most houses were of frame construction and considerably smaller in size than these of brick construction. If Gabriel died in October, 1826, it is doubtful that the house referenced by Merle Rummell is the actual home of Gabriel and his family although it is certainly possible that his home was built at this same location. And, I also recall several years ago when I was researching the history of our Irwin property, being told that Manila road directly crossed the Woodville Pike (rather than jogging as it does now to cross a south branch of the O'bannon creek using the same bridge as Woodville) and that all the property shown on the 1875 map as being owned by James Arthur was owned by the Kern family.

* As such, that would support what is told that Gabriel Kerns owned all of the land to the "east of Manila Road" and the location of the Kern/Karns Family Farm would have indeed been located on his property, about a quarter mile to the south of the house and barn.

I've indicated the location of that cemetery on the 1875 map, and will also attach a copy of a plot map drawn by the WPS Project whose mission it was to record the location of abandonded and forgotten old cemeteries (I believe a copy of this map can be obtained from the Clermont County Recorder's office - you can check their website). However, I have a bit of doubt regarding the complete accuracy of this drawing... While it does seem to validate the burial location of Gabriel and possibly some of his children, it also opens up a few more problems....

Picture: KernCemetery-ManilaRd

The drawing indicates an orderly layout of 30 plots, but no records have been found showing how many actual burials took place there. Mr.Dunning, dec. (former Goshen Township Historian, mentioned by Rev. Rummel) told of walking many local cemeteries and using a metal rod to probe the gravesites....where the soil had been disturbed for a burial, it was not as compacted as unused gravesites. It should also be noted that at the time this cemetery may have been created, the intersection of Woodville Pike and Manila Road was not as distinctly defined as shown on the drawing...Woodville Pike angled a bit to the north so as to cross the creek and to climb the western hillside to Charleston at a more gentle grade that a horse and wagon of the times could more easily negotiate. The land of this location is also often flooded by the creek, and there is no reason as to why land on higher ground owned by the family could not just as easily been dug. In any case, the silty soil at this location made for a good garden for the family who built the house at the top of the hill, and so there has been no trace of the cemetery now for nearly a century.

An old house on the northeast corner of Manila Road and Woodville Pike is said to have belonged to Gabriel's son David An old house on the northeast corner of Manila Road and Woodville Pike is said to have belonged to Gabriel's son David and one across the Pike to the south to have belonged to Jacob. Gabriel, Jr. owned land west on the east side of the corner of Woodville Pike and Goshen Road.

There may have been a house there in those times, but the history of the Charleston community, written and published in 1880, tells that Charleston was named in the mid-1840s by Charles Thacker (1809 \endash 1875) and Margaret Jane (Brunson) Thacker (1811 \endash 1863) who owned a general store that they purchased from William Vaughn. (I see that is the family name of the husband of Gabriel's daughter Lydia). The town grew up around an abundance of natural springs (many of which remain active) and had a school and a Methodist Episcopal church with about 50 members. George W. Boutell purchased the general store a few years later in 1848, and also ran a private post office out of it. He also owned a hotel that provided night's lodging for the teamsters traveling from Woodville in Clinton County to the city of Cincinnati. I'll attach a picture of this hotel as it looked in about 1900. Charleston, as a community, now only consists of houses on each of the 4 intersection corners.

One of those houses stands on the the foundation of the hotel and his residence was on the south side of Woodville Pike. The house that Merle Rummell would have seen was built in 1938 and is currently owned by the son of the family who had the house built. As a youngster, I played with the children of that family, and although the general store did not exist at that time, I do remember the concrete foundation pillars on which the store was built. That little store can be seen behind the buggy with the two Roudebush ladies.
Pictures: RoudebushMen-BoutellHotel - RoudebushLadies-BoutelStore

Regarding the second house on the south side of the pike that was told to belong to son Jacob, this might be possible because it is of frame construction and the foundation of the original house consists of 6 piles of stones and a hewn beam framwork. After being owned by G.W. Boutell, this house was owned by the family of John Roudebush who raised a family of well-educated and successful children, including at one time, the Superintendant of Columbus, Ohio city schools.

The Charleston school was located on the 3rd corner and the house there was built in 1953 over the old schoolhouse foundation by a son of John Roudebush, who retired at that time from being an English professor at Marshall University. ²

  Noted events in his life were:

• Property: land on Manilla Road south of Woodville Pike.

• Migrated: He was a miller and blacksmith with his sons David, Henry and Gabriel; son Jacob Dunkard minister, 1804, Obannon Creek Area, Clermont Co, Ohio.

• Tax List, 22 Aug 1800, Montgomery County, Kentucky, USA.

Gabriel married Sarah Custer, daughter of Johannes Custer and Elizabeth Hauser. (Sarah Custer was born in 1775 in North Carolina, USA.)

  Marriage Notes:

No marriage record or proof of marriage found.