This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Kerns Freeman Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/zJB.2ACE/1594.5.2 Message Board Post: In 1857, Dr. Absalom Kerns, by written contract, donated two acres of his farm for the purpose of a church and burial grounds to be shared by the Baptist and Methodist Episcopal South Churches. It was agreed, in exchange, that the churches would erect a " suitable house of worship" upon the property. The first burial to take place in the cemetery was that of America Kerns, the four-year-old niece of Absalom, and the daughter of Adam & Martha Kerns. She died 15 January 1857. Six others ere buried this first year, all children. Included in these were three of Absalom's own, who died of the Scarlet fever epidemic of 1857. The following year held five more burials, again all children. Absalom died December 2, 1863, at 38 years of age and was buried along side his children. Whether the church was not completed during Absalom's life time, or whether the matter of the official deed was overlooked, is not clear since it wasn't until Feburary of 1867 that the trustees of the two churches approached the probate courts for a conveyance of the actual deed. At the time, G. Issac Gibson, brother-in-law of Absalom and administrator of his estate, was ordered to make a " good and sufficient deed" for the property. Originally the church was known as both the " Brick Church" and " Kerns Chapel". On Febryary 22, 1870, in an attempt to further settle Absalom's estate, the property surrounding the church and cemetery, containing 72 acres in all, was actioned off at the Buchanan County courthouse to the highest bidder. The buyer was Stephen Freeman, another brother-in-law to Absalom, and recent widower of Eliza (Kerns) Freeman, also buried in the cemetery, near her brother. The burial grounds were set to the North of the " Brick Church", until the building was destroyed by a tornado. At this time Stephen Freeman donated another plot of land, directly East of the cemetery, for the building of a new chapel, thus opening up the entire two acres to be used solely as a cemetery. Hence the change of the names from Kerns Chapel and Cemetery, to t\The Freeman Chapel and Kerns Cemetery. By 1912 it was also refered to as the Kerns ~ Freeman Cemetery. While this name is generally accepted, it is technically unfounded, since the property of the cemetery was entirely donated by Absalom, though the name of Freeman justly applies to the church. (I have the opriginal copy of this but my scanner won't work. when I get it to working I will post the original...I also have a complete list of the ones buried there. If anyone wants to check a name or date let me know. Ann Kerns-Marsh)