The Descendants of David and Isabel Hern
David Hern (1755-after 1827), his wife Isabel (1758-1819), and their children and grandchildren raised Jefferson's crops, drove his wagons, cooked his meals, cared for his children, built his barns, directed his laborers, and made nails, barrels, plows and plow chains. Their daughter Edith Hern Fossett became Monticello’s head cook, after training with a French chef at the President’s House in Washington. Their son James was a foreman of farm labor, who was noted for raising the "best lot of pork" on the plantation.
James Hern (1776-after 1823) and his brother Moses Hern (1779-after 1832), a blacksmith, were able, with persistent petitioning, to persuade Jefferson to purchase their wives, who belonged to other owners. Moses and Mary Hern’s son Lewis Hearns was a founding deacon of Union Run Baptist Church (pictured at right, about 1940) and one of the first freedmen able to purchase property after the Civil War. Many of their children and grandchildren were teachers and school principals as well as active church members. Their descendants include:
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