Robert Junius and Ruth Jones Kernodle House

11.17.2006 (DC tax office)

(Below in italics is from the 1984 National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

Type A bungalow built circa 1910; shed-roofed dormer. has three windows with latticed muntins in the upper sashes. A shallow one-story dining room extension is located on the south side. Less-than-full-facade porch carried by tapered box posts on brick plinths.

(The information below in italics is from the Preservation Durham Plaque Application for the Robert Junius and Ruth Jones Kernodle House)

Robert Junius Kernodle was born in Alamance County, North Carolina, on December 19, 1886, to John Tobias Kernodle (1849-1929) and Georgia Ann Carrina Clymer Kernodle (1858-1898). The Kernodles were farmers who lived in Boon Station Township near Elon College. At the time the 1910 census was taken on April 26, 1910, Robert was 24 and still living at home with his father and three of his siblings. He was listed as a farmer like his father.

 
Ruth Jones was born in Virginia on April 26, 1888, to William Henry Jones (1816-1895) and Susan Turner Jones (1847-1934). Ruth's father, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, was already 72 years old when she was born and died when she was only seven. Ruth's mother was his third wife, the first two preceding him in death. The 1900 census shows Ruth at age 12 living with her mother, Sue Jones, on a farm in the Holy Neck district of Nansemond County, Virginia, in the Virginia tidewater region, along with her mother's 26-year-old niece, Ava L. Turner, and an overseer, a servant, and two farm laborers. 

By May 12, 1910, at the time the 1910 census was taken, Sue and Ruth Jones were living in a boarding house in Elon College, Boon Station Township, in Alamance County, North Carolina. Sue was 63 years old at this time, and her occupation is listed as "on income," meaning she had her own income and did not need to work. Ruth was 22 years old and is listed as a teacher at a graded school. The boarding house was owned by Bell J. Mechim, a 39-year-old widow with two daughters, ages 15 and 6. Many of the other boarders were teachers at Elon College. 

Robert and Ruth likely met after Ruth had moved from Nansemond County, Virginia, to Alamance County, N.C., where Robert lived. On October 22, 1910, Robert married Ruth Jones in Nansemond County, Virginia. 

By 1911, Robert and Ruth had moved to Durham, and Robert had gone into the undertaking and livery business, partnering with Richard T. Howerton to form Howerton-Kernodle Undertakers and Liverymen, located at 228 W. Main Street. Robert and Ruth made their home at 606 Burch Avenue. (1911-12 Durham City Directories) By 1913, Howerton had gone into business with his sons at 316 N. Mangum, and Kernodle was partnering with J. Ernest Pickard in Kernodle-Pickard Co. Funeral Directors, of which Kernodle was president-secretary-treasurer. (The September 6, 1913, Durham Morning Herald advertises Kernodle-Pickard Co. FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND LIVERYMEN, 228 West Main Street, Successors to Howerton-Kernodle Co.) Robert and Ruth were living at 502 Milton Avenue (now 502 S. Buchanan Blvd.) by this time, though they had purchased the property on Watts Street in October 1911. 

The business at 228 W. Main was located just past Five Points within the triangle formed by W. Main Street, E. Chapel Hill Street, and Market Street. 

By 1917 the Kernodle-Pickard Co. is no longer in business, and Robert Kernodle is listed in the City Directory without an accompanying occupation. J. Ernest Pickard is listed in 1917 in the livery business at 212 Foster Street. Kernodle is listed as a foreman by the time the 1919 directory is published, and he begins being listed as a foreman employed by Liggett & Myers in the 1922 directory, though he could have been employed by L&M earlier but the directories may not have listed employer. 

The Kernodles raised three children at 1013 Watts Street. Jennie Sue Kernodle (later Snyder) was born July 15, 1914 (Durham High Class of 1932) and died March 23, 1979, in Durham. William Henry Kernodle was born April 26, 1919 (Durham High Class of 1937) and died July 31, 1981, in Cinncinnati, Ohio. John T. Kernodle was born October 20, 1921 (Durham High Class of 1940) and died March 24, 1986. 

Robert Junius Kernodle died on April 5, 1958. His obituary published on Thursday, April 9, 1958, in the Burlington, N.C. Daily Times-News, read: 

"Final rites for Robert Junius Kernodle, 71., of 1013 Watts Street in Durham were held yesterday morning at 10 o'clock at the Congregational Christian Church in Durham. Mr. Kernodle died Saturday following several weeks of critical illness. Rev. W. T Scott, Jr., pastor of the church, conducted the service. Music was furnished by the church choir. Burial was in Magnolia Cemetery in Elon College. Pallbearers were Frank Southerland, Joe Kernodle, Lawrence J. Ohleyer, Dr. John Robert Kernodle, George F. Hackney and H. Calloway Pollard, Jr., nephews of Mr. Kernodle. Mr. Kernodle was son of the late John Tobias and Georgia Ann Corinna Clymer Kernodle. He was a member of the Congregational Christian Church of Durham. For many years before his retirement he was employed by a Durham tobacco company. Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Ruth Jones Kernodle; one daughter, Mrs. Jennie Sue Kernodle Snyder of Ashiya, Japan; two sons, William A. Kernodle of Cincinnati, Ohio, and John T. Kernodle of Durham and Raleigh; two sisters, Mrs. W. Levi Burke, Sr. and Mrs. H. C. Pollard, Sr., both of Burlington; two brothers, L. D. Kernodle and J. Ed Kernodle, both of Burlington, and seven grandchildren."

In 1968 Jennie Sue Kernodle Snyder, now a widow, moved into the home at 1013 Watts Street with her two children in order to care for her ailing mother. 

Ruth Jones Kernodle died on January 18, 1975. Her obituary in the Burlington, N.C. Times-News was published on Sunday, January 19, 1975 and read: Mrs. Ruth Jones Kernodle, 86, of 1013 Watts Street, Durham and formerly of the Burlington area, died Saturday in Hillhaven Convalescent Center in Durham. A native of Virginia, she was the wife of the late Robert J. Kernodle who was a native of Alamance County. She was the daughter of the late William Henry Jones and Susan Turner Jones. Survivors are one daughter, Mrs. Jennie Sue Snyder of the home; sons, William H. Kernodle of Cincinnati, Ohio, and John T. Kernodle of Orlando, Fla., and six grandchildren. Final rites will be at 2 p.m. Monday in the United Church of Christ in Durham with Dr. William C. Smith, Jr. officiating. Graveside services will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Magnolia Cemetery at Elon College. In lieu of flowers the family requests contributions be made to the United Church of Christ Endowment Fund. 

After Ruth Jones Kernodle's death, the Kernodle children sold the house to Paul D. and Julia B. Brown, who moved into the house in mid 1975. Paul D. Brown lived at 1013 Watts Street from 1975 until August 1984. Julia continues to reside at 1013 Watts Street. While Paul lived there, he was a psychiatric social worker at John Umstead Hospital in Butner and at Orange-Person Chatham Mental Health and then at Durham Mental Health. Paul and Julia had two children while living in the house, Arlo (born 1973) and Rachel (born 1977). Julia ran a part-time family day care home at 1013 Watts Street from June 1975 until August 1990. She has been a paralegal at Self-Help Credit Union for over 25 years, starting there in March 1992. Prior to joining Self-Help she worked in two law firms as a paralegal from 1981 to 1992.