Elias Kern, son of Henry Kern, and grandson of Christopher, was born June 19, 1816, in Washington township, near Rockdale, where he was reared and educated. He attended his father's saw mill which for a long time was operated both day and night. Elias was visited on a dark night by a panther and for safety ran into his cabin and made the door fast, where he remained until morning. Meanwhile the animal jumped on the cabin roof and for some time emitted bloodcurdling yells. After his marriage he removed to Mehoopany, Pa., and there purchased a farm, which he greatly improved during the forty-five years he lived upon it. In 1882 he sold his farm and went to near Quakertown, Pa., where he resided until 1896, when he and Mrs. Kern made their home with their son, John J. Kern, at Quakertown, where he died, Feb. 24, 1897. Mrs. Kern died Oct. 7, 1904, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. S. A. Baum, at Allentown. Both were interred in the Union cemetery at Slatington.