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Senate Years of Service: 1911-1917 Party: Democrat
KERN, John Worth, a Senator from Indiana; born in Alto, Howard County, Ind., December 20, 1849;
attended the common schools and the normal college at Kokomo, Ind.; taught school; graduated from
the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1869; admitted to the bar the same
year and commenced practice in Kokomo; unsuccessful candidate for election to the State house of
representatives in 1870; city attorney of Kokomo 1871-1884; reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court
1885-1889; member, State senate 1893-1897; special assistant United States district attorney
1893-1894; city solicitor of Indianapolis 1897-1901; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for
Governor in 1900 and 1904; unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States on the
Democratic ticket with William Jennings Bryan in 1908; elected as a Democrat to the United States
Senate and served from March 4, 1911, to March 3, 1917; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in
1916; Democratic caucus chairman 1913-1917; chairman, Committee on Privileges and Elections
(Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses); died in Asheville, N.C., August 17, 1917; interment on the
Kern estate near Hollins, Va.; reinterment in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Ind., in 1929.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Oleszek, Walter J. John Worth Kern: Portrait of a Floor Leader. In First Among Equals:
Outstanding Senate Leaders of the Twentieth Century, edited by Richard A. Baker and
Roger H. Davidson, pp. 7-37. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1991; Sehlinger, Peter J. John
W. Kern: A Hoosier Progressive. In Gentlemen from Indiana: National Party Candidates,
1836-1940, edited by Ralph D. Gray, pp. 189-217. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau,
1977.
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