 30 June 1913 |
Remember...Clarence Alva Kerns
|
Clarence Alva Kerns was born at Higby, Roane County, West Virginia, on May 5, 1893. His parents were Isaac Nathan Kerns and Martha Jane Rhodes Kerns. Clarence was the next-to-last child. Isaac and Martha had an infant in 1882 who died that year unnamed. The following year Corda Belle Kerns was born, followed by Perry Louis [Lewis] Kerns (b. 1885) and John Monroe Kerns (b. 1887). Two years after the birth of Clarence, Mary E. was born in 1895. (Information from 1900 Federal Census and Sandra Morral family tree on Ancestry.com.) At various times Clarence lived in Roane County, Clay County, and Jackson County.
By the time of the 1910 Federal Census, Clarence's mother, Martha Jane, was deceased. His father was living at the time in the Jackson County household of his young son John M. Kerns. The census that year notes that Isaac was divorced, but this fact is not corroborated by any other source. Sixteen-year-old Clarence, however, is listed in the household of Jonathan K. and Corda B. Riley. Corda, Clarence's sister, and her husband had by that time five children from an infant through age eight. Clarence was helping his brother-in-law with his Roane County farm.
The next record of Clarence is his World War I draft registration. He's living in Flatfork, West Virginia, and working on the farm of S. A. Fleshman of Walton. He's single, with no dependents. The registrar indicates he's of medium height and medium build, with brown eyes and black hair.
Army Private Clarence A. Kerns was assigned to a mobile veterinary unit,11th Training Headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. It is likely that he seamlessly transitioned into his duties in this unit because of his farm background. According to the United States World War One Centennial Commission website,
Fort Meade [also known as Camp Meade and designated as Fort George G. Meade in 1928] became an active Army installation in 1917. Authorized by an Act of Congress in May 1917, it was one of 16 cantonments built for troops drafted for the war with the Central Powers in Europe. The present Maryland site was selected June 23, 1917 because of its close proximity to the railroad, Baltimore port and Washington D.C. . . .During World War I, more than 400,000 Soldiers passed through Fort Meade, a training site for three infantry divisions, three training battalions and one depot brigade. During World War I, the Post remount station collected over 22,000 horses and mules. Major Peter F. Meade, a nephew of General Meade, was the officer in charge of the remount station. ("Fort Meade," accessed 26 September 2023, https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/component/tags/tag/fort-meade.html.)
Private Clarence Kerns never made it overseas. On October 6, 1918, while stationed at Camp Meade, Maryland, Pvt. Kerns died of pneumonia, a complication associated with the influenza pandemic of that year. While history tends to emphasize the deaths associated with combat in The Great War, equally tragic was the number of fatalities caused by the flu and resulting pneumonia, for which there was no vaccine at the time, and treatment was often not effective because of the multitude of victims and the rapid onset of symptoms. Fort Meade was particularly hard hit. As one account states:
World War I claimed an estimated 16 million lives. The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history.The plague emerged in two phases. In late spring of 1918, the first phase, known as the "three-day fever," appeared without warning. Few deaths were reported. Victims recovered after a few days. When the disease surfaced again that fall, it was far more severe. Scientists, doctors, and health officials could not identify this disease which was striking so fast and so viciously, eluding treatment and defying control. Some victims died within hours of their first symptoms. Others succumbed after a few days; their lungs filled with fluid and they suffocated to death.
The plague did not discriminate. It was rampant in urban and rural areas, from the densely populated East coast to the remotest parts of Alaska. Young adults, usually unaffected by these types of infectious diseases, were among the hardest hit groups along with the elderly and young children. The flu afflicted over 25 percent of the U.S. population. In one year, the average life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12 years.
It is an oddity of history that the influenza epidemic of 1918 has been overlooked in the teaching of American history. Documentation of the disease is ample, as shown in the records selected from the holdings of the National Archives regional archives. Exhibiting these documents helps the epidemic take its rightful place as a major disaster in world history. (Source: National Archives and Records Administration, "The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918," accessed 24 May 2016, https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/.)
Clarence Alva Kerns is buried in the Rhodes Cemetery in Jackson County, West Virginia.
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure
September 2023
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
