BIOGRAPHIES

The following biographies are extracted from:
Source #1 - The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
By Henry Holcomb Bennett
Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis., 1902
Source #2 - A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio
Vol. II.
Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York 1917

A - B - C - D - EF - G - H - IJ - K - L - M - N - OPQ
R - S - T - UV - W - XYZ

Biographies will be added upon request.
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KARSHNER, Philemon S. KATHE, Bernard H. KEEPERS, J. G. KELLHOFER, Joseph KERNS, William KINSLEY, Charles R. KIRSCH, Michael G. KLINE, Arthur D.

KLINE, George KNECHT, John KNOLES, Charles W. KOCH, Jacob KRAMER, Adam KRAMER, Michael KRUGER, Charles KUHN, Valentine

WILLIAM KERNS, of Lyndon, was born in Pike county, Ohio, in 1831.  His father, Thomas Kerns, also a native of Ohio, in 1831.  His father, Thomas Kerns, also a native of Ohio, spent his life in agricultural pursuits and died in Clinton county in 1872.  By the first of his two marriages he left four sons, fo whom William was the second, the others being John, James and Thomas.  In 1845, William Kerns removed to Buckskin township, Ross county, and engaged in farm work until he was nineteen years old.  Later he learned the carpenter's trade, but in July, 1862, left work to become a soldier in the Union army.  He enlisted in Company H, Eighty-ninth regiment Ohio infantry, and with this command saw much arduous service.  Sent first into Kentucky to meet the advancing Confederate raiders under Morgan and Smith, the regiment participated in all the subsequent movements of the year.  The first heavy engagement was at Fort Donelson and the next Stone River, later on the campaign from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga, culminating in the great battle of Chickamauga in September, 1863.  On the second day of that bloody encounter, Mr. Kerns' brigade was captured and he was one of the unfortunates who failed to escape.  This was a very calamitous event for himself and comrades as it meant for long detention in the dismal prisons of the South.  They were first taken to Richmond, Va., then confined for six months at Danville, and finally landed in that abode of horrors known as the Andersonville prison pen.  Mr. Kerns passed through the gates of this modern "Inferno" in April, 1864, and it was not until eleven months afterward that he obtained his release.  Some notion of the sufferings and cruelties he endured may be derived from the statement that on the day of his capture he weighed 170 pounds and when, more dead than alive, he again reached the Union lines his recorded weight was only seventy pounds.  Owing to his weakness, Mr. Kearns was compelled to spend three weeks in the hospital at Vicksburg, after which he was prostrated over a month with typhoid fever at Jefferson Barracks.   It is needless to say that when at last he reached home on May 25, 1865, he had enough prison and hospital experience to last him the rest of his life.  It was still a month later, or June 25th, before he obtained at Camp Chase his final and honorable discharge from the army of the United States.  As soon as he had rested and recuperated, Mr. Kerns engaged in the business of contracting, which he followed until 1897 and then retired to his farm near South Salem, where he enjoys repose' after a long and well spent life.  In 1854. Mr. Kerns was married to May J. Pricer, who died in 1894, leaving three daughters.  Sissy Jane, the eldest of these, became the wife of Albert Warner of Chillicothe; Sarah Catherine married to Robert Wallace, of South Salem, and May Frances is the wife of David Sommers  In the spring of 1897 Mr. Kerns was again married, his second wife being Eliza Ann Sanders.  Mr. Kerns has long been a member of the Presbyterian church of South Salem and for sixteen years has served as deacon.  He is a trustee of the Salem academy and member of hte local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Source #1 - The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio By Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis., 1902 - Page 547