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Family Story

Heern-Hern first in Minnesota

It was the 17th of February, 1842, John Charles Heern was born possibly in Hanover, Stadt Hanover, Niedersachen, Germany as stated in census records.  By 1871, John had settled in Jackson County, Minnesota.
 

John chose to settle on 80 acres in southern Minnesota.  He filed his Homestead Claim in April of 1871.   (Homestead Act of 1862 -  was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. government (including freed slaves and women), was 21 years or older, or the head of a family, could file an application to claim a federal land grant.)
  
Over the next five years, John would experience several major life events while working his farm.
  
On the 25th of May 1873, John married Mary Busch from Austria who had just turned 19 years old a few days earlier on the 16th of May.  Then barely two weeks later on June 12th, farmers in southwestern Minnesota saw what looked like a snowstorm coming towards their fields from the west.  But it wasn't snow.  It was the Grasshopper Plague, which lasted through 1876. (http://www.mnopedia.org/event/grasshopper-plagues-1873-1877).

John and Mary may not have known at the time, but sometime in June, Mary would be expecting their first child nine months later.  Anna was born in March 1874.  That must have been a difficult summer.  Their first son, William was born the following year in Oct 1875.
 
The five-year date was approaching and John submitted his declaration of his intention to become a Citizen of the United States in June, 1876, and became a United States Citizen on June 27, 1876.
 
John wasted no time, as only a week later, a day after the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1876, John filed his papers for his Final Homestead Proof and Affidavit for his property.  It was then recorded in the books on the 25th of August in 1876. 
A year later, Paulina (Lena) was born in 1877 and then three years later John, their second son was born in June, 1880.  The day after Christmas in 1882 Charles Harrison would be born.  The birth of Bergena came in January, 1884, and then the birth of their seventh child, Albert L. in February, 1886.  Less than two months after the birth of Albert, on the 16th of April, 1886, Mary died at the young age of 32.  There must have been complications after her delivery of her last child.
  
Having a family of seven children, one being an infant, one could see the reason why John would remarry less than six months later.  On 20th of Sept 1886 John married Augusta Jane Miller in Lakefield, Jackson County, Minnesota.
 
It would be April of 1889 before John has his first of another seven children.  First was Clara in April, then possibly Henry, followed by Fredrich, Augusta, Julius, and Lee all born in Heron Lake, Jackson County.  John and his family are listed as living in Jonesboro, Craighead County, Arkansas, according to the 1900 Census.  It is not clear why John and his family moved from Minnesota to Arkansas.  While in Jonesboro, Alice Mae , the last of John Heern’s children was born in September of 1901.  Alice Mae was only six years old when her father John died in December, 1907.

Five of John and Mary’s children remained in and raised their family in the southern Minnesota area with a few of the next generations moving away.  Both sons, John and Charles, moved away.  John settled in Jonesboro, Arkansas.  His younger brother Charles first moved to North Dakota in 1905, just after marrying Caroline. By 1910, Charles and Caroline and family move to Spokane, Washington. Charles was the only one to drop one “e” from the original name spelling. Because of this, all of Charles Harrison and Caroline Murphy’s descendants have used “Hern” for the spelling of the family name.  There is speculation and a few different theories for the name change, but right now, no reason can be verified.
  
The union of John and Mary Heern has produced many family members. Families are spread throughout several states. A few of the states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington, so far.
 
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