Captain Isaac Williams and His Grandchildren

Williams Family History

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Captain Isaac Williams and His Grandchildren Pioneers of Lawrence County, Indiana By Ben & Alice Dixon

KERN COUSINS

Abraham Kern was a Dunkard Preacher from Nicholas county, Ky. He was born June 24, 1786, in North Carolina, according to his census return for 1850. He died in Lawrence Co., Ind., Oct. 25, 1858. His wife, Susan Wi1son, came to Nicholas county from Pennsylvania, where she was born Oct. 5, 1785. She died August 16, 1852. Abram and Susan met and married in Nicholas Co., Ky. They are buried side by side at Old Union.

Elder Kern brought his family to Lawrence county on a sled in the winter of 1815-16. Five children had been born in Kentucky, the o1dest barely eight. The sixth one, Ambrose, was born in Kentucky just before the famous sled-ride, or in Indiana, just after it. Five more joined Abram and Susan north of the Ohio.

ISSUE

Abraham Kern and Susan Wilson

Nativity Married

1. Fannie Kern Ky. 1808 John Wesley Adamson

2. Lucy Ky. 4- 6-1810 Garrett G. Williams

3. Abigail Ky. 11-13-1811 Richard Williams

4. Eli Ky. 6-15-1813 Mahala Williams

5. Anna Ky. 4- 7-1815 1) Pryor Williams; 2) Daniel Hall

6. Ambrose Ky? 1816 Ind? Elizabeth Ann Armstrong

7. Albert Ind. 6-15-1820 Elizabeth Hutton m. 1-2-1840

8. John R. Ind. 8- 5-1822 Mahala Adamson

9. Louis David Ind. 1-17-1825 Susan Virginia Armstrong

10. Jane Ind. ? No further record

11. Andrew Jackson Ind. 6- 9-1829 Malinda Rains

While Elder Kern came in 1816 to settle, Capt. Williams came and entered his land more than a year before moving. When the Williams and Adamson families arrived in the fall of 1817, to settle their White River purchases, they found they were neighbors to the old preacher's family. The children grew up together. And, as happened so frequently on the frontier, the youth of neighboring families intermarried.

Thus Isaac Williams and Rachel Adamson became the grandparents of many of Elder Kern's grandchildren-- and he likewise of theirs. Four of the Elder's siblings married neighbor Williamses; two married the Adamsons. Genealogically and legally, double cousins are the exact blood relation to each other as brother and sister. Thus we have a very good historical reason for the traditional clannishness of the Adamson-Kern-Wi1liams "trinity".

Elder Kern was a 1eading light in his community. He became known as the "marryin'est parson" in Indiana. The marriage registers of Lawrence county for four decades are all cluttered up with such enries as "Abram Kern, MG", "Rev. Abram Kern", or "Abram Kern, Elder". Besides conducting a wel1-ordered farm, he preached the gospel for free. He founded a church in his township -- on his own farm -- and gave the land for church and cemetery. It became famous as "Old Union"-- Dunkard at first, then New Light Baptist, and finally "Campbellite" Christian. The proudest boast of Elder Kern's life was that he never received a dollar for his forty years of active ministry. His only fee in fact was a 25-cent piece an enthusiastic worshipper once forced upon him!