My Genealogy Hound

W. H. KERN, homeopathic physician. McKeesport, was born in Johnstown, Pa., June 8, 1839, a son of George W. and Martha (Wakefield) Kern. George W., a native of Little York, Pa., was a merchant of standing, and began his mercantile career at Greensburg, Pa.; removed to Johnstown in 1829; for a number of years kept a drugstore, and later a general store. He was the first postmaster of Johnstown, and also the first justice of the peace. He had considerable reputation as an engineer, and surveyed the line for the Somerset plank-road, a distance of eighteen miles, between Johnstown and Stoystown. He was one of the original stockholders and projectors of the bridge between Johnstown and Kernville, which latter place was named for him, he having surveyed and laid out the town.

W. H. Kern was educated at Johnstown Academy and Elder’s Ridge Academy, Indiana county, and in 1857 began the study of medicine with Dr. Samuel Kern, of Wilmore, Cambria county. The war, however, interrupted his studies, and Aug. 3, 1861, he enlisted in Co. H, 12th P. R., and served as second lieutenant three years. In April, 1864, he enlisted as a veteran in the same company, served as first lieutenant, and in June, 1864, was appointed captain by brevet. He was honorably discharged from the service June 29, 1865. In 1870 he resumed the study of medicine at St. James, Mo., entered Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1873. He located in McKeesport in 1871, and has had a large and extensive practice. He is the oldest established homeopathic physician in the city; is a member of the Homeopathic Medical Society of Allegheny county, Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, Medical Society of America, Institute of Homeopathy and International Homeopathic Medical Society. In 1877 Dr. Kern took a special course of lectures on diseases of women at the private school of Prof. Reuben Ludlam, M. D., Chicago, Ill. He is a Freemason and a republican.