Mary M. Kerns

1836-1932 · Warrenton VA

Born 1836, near Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia

Died 1932

Children include Andrew

Mary M. Kerns was born on 2 August 1836 near Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia, as her family counted it. Her parents were Marshall J. Kerns and Katherine Gill Kerns, of Kernstown, Virginia. Her obituary says her grandfather, Jacob V. Kerns, came to America from England. Her sister Lucy married William Grimes of Rectortown, another sister was Mrs. S. J. Waddell, and her brother was J. W. Kerns.

Two years before the Civil War she married James W. Waddell. Their son J. Willie Waddell was a baby in 1865, the last year of the war, and the family said he heard the big guns. Eight of their children outlived her: Ida, later Mrs. D. H. Craun of Middleburg; William, of Rectortown; Walter, who settled at Girard, Ohio; George, of The Plains; a daughter who married M. E. Hamilton and lived at Keyser, West Virginia; a daughter who married Charles E. Crossley and lived in Ohio; Lucille, born about 1885; and Andrew L. Waddell, born in 1886. Her obituaries make her fifty when Andrew was born. One paper gave her age at death as only in her seventy ninth year.

James died before her. For about the last fifteen years of her life she lived at Rectortown, a village in northern Fauquier County, and for some years in the house of her son Andrew, who kept the garage there. She belonged to the Methodist church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was one of the oldest members of the Epworth League, the Methodist young people's society, in the whole Baltimore Conference. Her work for the League helped it win a banner.

Her August birthday became a family reunion. In 1929 four generations below her came, from Ohio, West Virginia, Washington and Baltimore. In 1930 the Chief Justice of Marshall reported that at 94 she still went to church and to the Epworth League and did her own housework. In 1931 she wrote to the paper herself.

On 2 August 1932 she kept her birthday as usual. Soon after, she had a stroke at the lunch table, and she died at Rectortown on 4 August, aged 96 by her family's count. She had chosen her own hymns and pallbearers. Her funeral filled the Methodist church at Rectortown, and the cars lined the road for almost a mile. She was buried at Sharon Cemetery, Middleburg, Loudoun County.

Eight weeks later her daughter Lucille, Mrs. Forness, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Nebraska Avenue in Washington.

Children

Andrew L. Waddell 1886-1938

Sources

Chief Justice, Marshall, Virginia, 9 August 1932, page 1, "Mrs. Waddell, 96, of Rectortown Dies"; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, CJT19320809.1.1

Fauquier Democrat, Warrenton, Virginia, 13 August 1932, page 5, "Mrs. M. M. Waddell succumbs; aged 90"; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, TFD19320813.1.5

Chief Justice, Marshall, Virginia, 9 August 1932, page 2, Middleburg items; the same notice in the Blue Ridge Herald, Leesburg, 11 August 1932, page 1, "Mrs. Waddell Dies"; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, CJT19320809.1.2 and BRHR19320811.1.1

Chief Justice, Marshall, Virginia, 11 August 1931, page 1, "Mrs. Mary M. Waddell ninety-five last week"; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, CJT19310811.1.1

Fauquier Democrat, Warrenton, Virginia, 7 August 1929, page 1; Chief Justice, Marshall, Virginia, 5 August 1930, page 1; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, TFD19290807.1.1 and CJT19300805.1.1

Fauquier Democrat, Warrenton, Virginia, 2 November 1927, page 5, Rectortown column; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, TFD19271102.1.5

Fauquier Democrat, Warrenton, Virginia, 1 April 1922, page 1, "Death of Mrs. Lucy Grimes"; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, TFD19220401.1.1

Manassas Journal, Manassas, Virginia, 26 March 1920, page 1; also Loudoun Mirror, Leesburg, 19 March 1920, page 1, "Killed by Train at The Plains"; Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, MO19200326.1.1 and LM19200319.1.1

Chief Justice, Marshall, 9 August 1932, pages 1 and 2; Fauquier Democrat, 13 August 1932, page 5; Blue Ridge Herald, Leesburg, 11 August 1932, page 1; Chief Justice, 11 August 1931, page 1 (her letter); Fauquier Democrat, 7 August 1929, page 1; Chief Justice, 5 August 1930, page 1; Fauquier Democrat, 2 November 1927, page 5; Fauquier Democrat, 1 April 1922, page 1; Manassas Journal, 26 March 1920, page 1; Virginia Star, Culpeper, 15 August 1929; all read on Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia.

If Mary M. Kerns is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Mary M. Kerns (1836-1932)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/mary-m-kerns-1836-1932-c4c365.