Arnold Family Papers (MS-599)

Harry Leo Kern was born to Frank E. Kern (1854-1931) and Josephine Spires Kern (1859-1946) in 1894. He attended school at Lancaster schools in Lancaster, Ohio, before enlisting in the American Army during the First World War as the company Bugler. After returning from Europe, Harry Kern married Mary Schwendeman the daughter of Frank Schwendeman and Margaret Tornes Schwendeman (born 1895) on July 20, 1920. They moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Harry found work with the United States Postal Service while Mary Schwendeman Kern worked at The Ohio State University in the Home Economics Department. On June 2, 1923, the couple welcomed the birth of their son, and only child, Robert Francis Kern. After their retirement the couple moved out of their home near The Ohio State University, where they often rented rooms to students, and built a new home. Harry Kern died in 1975, and Mary Schwendeman Kern, who was suffering from dementia, was moved to a nursing home in Urbana, Ohio, where she died in 1978.

Robert Francis Kern was born to Harry Leo Kern and Mary Schwendeman Kern on June 2, 1923. During the summer he visited his grandparent’s farm where he was able to visit his many cousins. He attended high school through The Ohio State University high school program and continued to earn his Bachelors (1947) and Masters (1950) degrees from the college. Before he was able to graduate from The Ohio State University he was drafted in the United States Army in 1943. At Ohio State he had met Marjorie Elaine Baker, who preferred to go by Elaine. The two were married in August of 1944 before he was assigned to the Philippines with the 540th Amphibious Tractor Battalion. Upon his return Robert, or Bob, Kern earned his Masters degree in business and worked on his father-in-law’s, Wendell Homer Baker’s, farm outside of Urbana, Ohio. In 1951 Elaine and Bob welcomed the birth of their first child Gregory Allen Kern and their second child Theodore “Ted” Robert Kern. However, with the birth of their third child Roberta Elaine Kern in 1960, Robert Kern decided to accept a position at Wright Patterson Air Force Base with the Logistics Command. He retired in 1984 and continued living in Urbana, Ohio, until his death in 2014.

Marjorie Elaine Kern Baker was born in Champaign County, Ohio, on April 19, 1922, to Wendell Homer Baker and Mary, or Marie, Decker Baker. She attended Urbana High School before going to Christian College in the late 1930s. After her education at Christian College she attended The Ohio State University to earn a Bachelor Degree in Education. While there she met Robert Francis Kern and the two were married in 1944 before he was deployed to the Pacific during World War II. She held secretarial positions for the United States Army while her husband was overseas and while he was earning his Masters Degree. When the couple returned to Urbana, Ohio, she took a teaching position at Urbana High School. She had three children: Gregory Allen Kern (born 1951), Theodore “Ted” Robert Kern (born 1958), and Roberta Elaine Kern (born 1960). Upon her retirement she continued to live in Urbana until her death in 2017.

Gregory (Greg) Allen Kern was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1951 and attended Urbana High School and went to college at Purdue University. He married and had a son Brendan Kern (born 1981) while he was working for the Tennessee Valley Authority. After his divorce he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania while his son attended high school. After Brendan Kern entered college Greg moved to New York City, New York, to work for the city’s housing department. He is retired and still living in New York City while his son currently resides and works in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Theodore “Ted” Robert Kern was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1958 and attended Urbana High School and went to college at The Ohio State University where he obtained a degree in Law. He married Wendy Cherry in 1982 and lived and practiced law in Columbus, Ohio, before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee. Ted and his wife adopted their daughter Jennifer Kern in 1994 before their divorce. Ted Kern still practices law in Knoxville, Tennessee, and has remarried. Jennifer, or Jenny, Kern now has a son named Alsdair.

Wilson Marion Baker (1847-1924) was the son of Peter Baker Jr. (1822-1902) and Martha Ann Johnson Baker (1823-1896). The family owned a large farm in Champaign County and made their living as farmers. In 1881 Wilson Baker married Lottie Pence Baker, (1858-1935) the daughter of Allen Pence (1820-1895) and Sarah Riker Pence (1819-1885). The couple had their son Wendell Homer Baker in 1883. The couple continued to run the family farm and opened the Baker Egg Case Company (1881-1913) where they made wooden egg cases before they sold it to another company in Indiana. Upon Wilson Baker’s death Wendell Homer Baker inherited the family farms.

Wendell Homer Baker grew up in Urbana, Ohio, and married his first wife Bessie Swimley and had a daughter Virginia. However, due to differences in personality the two were divorced. In 1921, he married Mary, or Marie, Decker Baker (1896-2000) and they had two children, Marjorie Elaine Baker Kern and Allen Homer Baker. Allen Homer Baker worked on the family farm after graduating from Urbana High School and married Eileen Scott Baker Kennedy (1923-2015) before his death in 1945. Allen Homer Baker’s surviving son Allen Douglas Baker (born 1946) still lives in Urbana, Ohio, with his second wife Anne Connell Baker. Wendell continued working the Baker and Son Farm with his son-in-law Robert Francis Kern before he was forced to retire and died in 1966.

Mary Decker Baker, or “Marie” as she preferred to be called, was born in 1896 in Minster, Ohio, to Joseph Decker and his second wife Mary Gertrude Meyer. After going to school in Minster she went to work in Dayton, Ohio, at a piano store owned by Wendell Baker’s uncle James Webb Martin. The two were married in 1921 and had two children. She assisted in the running of the family farm until the land was sold after her husband’s death in 1966. She lived with her daughter Marjorie Elaine Baker Kern in Urbana, Ohio, until her death in 2000.

Robert Andrew Arnold was born in 1961 on the Island of Nantucket to Bertha Manter Arnold and Harold Arnold. Robert, or “Bob,” attended Providence College where he met Roberta Elaine Kern Arnold the daughter of Robert Francis Kern and Marjorie Elaine Baker Kern. He gained an education from Johnson and Whales as a chef and gained a position in Washington D.C. at the Sheraton Hotel. Bob and Roberta married in December of 1982 and had their first child Amanda Marie Arnold Norris in 1985 before they moved to Columbus, Ohio. There they had two more daughters Emily Elizabeth Arnold (born 1988) and Katherine Celeste Arnold (born 1993). After moving back to Urbana, Ohio, the two opened a restaurant in 2004 called Robert’s On Miami. They sold the business in 2013 and Robert Arnold obtained a job a Sodexo. Emily Arnold had a son in 2016, Alexander Erik Matthews. Amanda Marie Arnold Norris married Gregory James Lee Norris, or Jamie, in 2016 and graduated with her Masters from Wright State University in 2018.

Joseph Decker was born in 1836 and made his living as a cooper and a shipper of freight on the Miami and Erie Canal. He married his first wife Mary Catherine Steinemann Decker, but the couple remained childless when she died in 1884. He then remarried Mary Gertrude Meyer Decker (1862-1941) and they had a daughter Mary (Marie) Decker Baker in 1896. Joseph Decker died a few months later and Mary Gertrude Meyer Decker never remarried and continued to run her late husband’s farmlands until her death in 1941.

The Pence and Wiant families came to Champaign County, Ohio, from Virginia after the American Revolutionary War. The families made their living as farmers and businessmen around the village of Saint Paris, Ohio.

The Enneking, Meyer, and Steinemann families came to the United States from Germany in the early 1800s. They travelled through Cincinnati to the lands surrounding what is now the village of Minster, Ohio, in Auglaize County. Within one generation the Steinemann family had founded the village of Minster and the Enneking’s and the Meyer’s made their livings as farmers and businessmen.