The following information was gathered from a several sources, but largely from a letter sent in 1982 to Mrs. Dorothy (Bunce) Zornman-Lundbom by Virginia L. Siter, Historian for the Town of Egremont, Massachusetts, several emails from other Karner researchers, and pages from History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

In a 1997 email from another Karner/Carner researcher, she stated:

From Hank Z. Jones’ book Palatines to America, I attached myself to the Karner line he mentions. . . . I have presumed my lines descends from LUDWICK KARNER, who was a son of the immigrant NICHOLAS JOHANN KOERNER and ANNA MAGDALENA KOERNER.  I have LUDWICK KARNER married to CATHERINE with 9 children.  One of the children was ANDREW (ANDRIES) and his sister MARY who married JOHN VAN GUILDER who was an Indian reared by a Dutch family.

In an enclosure with the Siter letter, it also states that Andrew, his brother Lodowick (Ludwig) and sister Mary, who married John Van Guilder in Egremont, Berkshire Co., Mass., were the children of Niclaus Kerner whose name appeared in the book Documentary History of New York State as being the head of a family, and also who resided in the Palatine camp on the west side of the Hudson.  The Palatines were German Protestants who fled from Germany about 1708-09 which would fit the time frame for Niclaus Kerner, since his name appeared on a militia list for Livingstone Manor, Columbia Co., New York in 1710.

There is a message board on Ancestry.com for Berkshire Co., Massachusetts that has a number of messages on the Van Guilder family into which daughter Mary Karner married.  Apparently there's also a Rootsweb mailing list for the Karner surname, which probably has a searchable archive

Below is the text copied from a letter from Virginia Siter, dated November 7, 1982 on what she had learned about the Karner (Kerner, Carner, Garner) family of what is now Columbia Co., New York.

LODOWICK (Ludwig) Karner, who died in 1757, was a brother of Andrew Karner who died in 1781.  Lodowick’s wife was Catherine (Katherine), maiden name unknown at this time.  Their children were:

1. Jacob, b. 12733, bpt. 1734 at the Reformed Dutch Church, Kinderhook, N.Y.  He married Lucy Kellogg, b. ca. 1741, d. 28 February 1817.  Both were buried in Town House Hill Cemetery in Egremont.  8 or 9 children.

2. Mary (Marytje)

3. Catharine, married Jonathan Welch in 1758.  Daughter Mary was bpt. 3 Jun 1762 (Claverack, N.Y., Dutch Church.  Sponsors at this baptism were Coenrad Smith and Marytje Karner (probably Catherine’s sister).

4. Janike (Jannetje, Jane) married Josiah Loomis, Jr., son of Josiah and Abigail (Bacon) Loomis.  I think all of the children were Jane’s but the Loomis Genealogy gives a different mother for three of the children.  Three sic other children:
   

   1. Lodowick Loomis, bpt. 3 June 1760 at the Reformed Dutch Church at Claverack, N.Y.

   2. Esther, bpt. 15 Nov. 1772 by Rev. Gideon Bostwick, St. James Church, Great Barrington [Berkshire Co.], Mass.

   3. Josiah, bpt. 19 June 1782, (also by Rev. Gideon Bostwick, where definitely listed as the mother was Jane.)

   4. Andries, bpt. 19 June 1766 at Great Barrington by Rev. Roger Viets, rector of St. Andrews Church, Simsbury, Conn., does not include the mother’s name.

5. Nicholas, b. ca. 1739, bpt. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Palatine West Camp on 15 May 1740, ae. 6 mos.

6. Matilda (Marlene) b. 5 Oct. 1741, bpt. 27 May 1742 at St. Paul’s.

7. Wensha

8. Andries, b. 15 Nov. 1748, bpt. 29 Jan. 1749 at Westenhook.  From records of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Palatine West Camp.

At the time of Lodowick’s death in 1757, Nicholas and Matilda were minors over 14 years old and Wensha and Andries were minors under 14 years.  This [is] from the records at the settling of Lodowick’s estate.

The following is quoted from pp. 678-79 of the History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, published in 1885, by J. B. Beers & Co. in chapter XXXV by H. C. Warner on the Town of Egremont.  The following information should be viewed as unproven until confirmed in other sources.

One of the settlers on the province lands south of the [Indian] reservation, about 1730, was Lodowick Karner, supposed to be from Rhinebeck, N. Y.  His farm was bounded east by the west line of Sheffield.  In the early part of 1757 he died, leaving a wife and nine children:  Andrew, Jacob, Nicholas, Derrick, Mary, Matilda, Catharine, Janike, and Wensha.  At at a Probate Court at Northampton, July 5th, 1757, the widow Catharine, and her son, Jacob, were appointed administrators of the estate, and were notified to appear at a Probate Court at Northampton, January 10th, 1758.  The widow's portion of the estate, aside from that of the children was:

“One third part of the house and barn, also the improvements where the house and barn stands, beginning northerly by the Indian line and running southerly 21 1/2 rods, and also eleven acres on the north side of a 50 acre lot, bounded south on Jonah Westover’s land; and of the personal estate, one basin, two platters, three plates, three jars, ten spoons, twelve trenchers, three porringers, water pot, coffee pot, two frying pans, flesh hook, two ladles, two jugs, two chests, two churns, three tubs, fifteen yards of linen, one bedstead, dog irons, box irons, fire pans, twenty pounds of bacon, sixty yards of woolen shirting, kersey, black and blue jacket, brown and great coat, leather breeches, stockings, leggings, mittens, shoes and boots, three linen shirts, one wagon, one corn fan, two shays, 3,500 feet boards, set harrow teeth, sleigh, plow, six hives bees, bed and bedding, one sash, one worsted cap, speckled grey colt.”

ANDREW (Andries) Karner, brother of Lodowick, was born around 1700.  This relationship is confirmed by an old deed where John Van Guilder mentions Lodowick as his brother-in-law.  John Van Guilder was the husband of Mary, Andrew’s sister.

Andrew married on 6 Dec. 1726 (Linlithgo Church Records, Livingston, N.Y.) Elizabeth Stuywer.  They indicated that at that time they were living in Westenhook and were from Hoogduytschland.  Westenhook was an area in dispute between New York and Massachusetts, covering the present area of Columbia County [N.Y.] and the southeastern part of Berkshire County, Mass.  This dispute lasted until around 1787.  Apparently both had been born in Germany.  Children:

1. Jacob, bpt. 1729 (Dutch Reformed Church, Kinderhook, N.Y.)

2. Prudence

3. Anna

4. Mary, bpt. 16 Aug. 1741, (Linlithgo Church, Livingston, N.Y.) married 14 Dec. 1758, Capt. Michael Loomis, b. 5 Sept. 1741, d. 1793, son of Josiah and Abigail (Bacon) Loomis.  10 children.

5. Elizabeth, b. ca. 1745, d. Sept. 1824, age 80 yrs. married (1) Azariah Winchel, son of Azariah who was the son of Benjamin Winchel.  6 children.  He died early in the 1780’s.  married (2) Daniel Loomis, son of Josiah and Abigail (Bacon) Loomis.  3 children.

6. Rosannah (Roxanna) married John Van Guilder, Jr., the son of John Van Guilder and Mary (Karner), sister of Andrew.

7. Magdalena, bpt. 1737 at Reformed Dutch Church, Kinderhook, N.Y. (Sponsors were Johannes Spoor and Mary Singer....who were ancestors of Virginia Siter).  She married 14 Nov. 1758 Joseph Winchel — he died ca. 1790.  son of Azariah, and brother of Azariah, the husband of Elizabeth Karner.  10 children.  Joseph and Magdalena also were Virginia Siter’s ancestors through their son, Martin.

8. Nicholas, bpt. 1727, at Reformed Dutch Church Claverack, N.Y. married 16 April, 1752, Mary Welch (Sheffield, Mass. Records)  14 children, last one bapt. 10 Feb. 1778.  He died in the Revolution before 1780.

9. Catharine Thankful, married April 1758, Andrew Loomis, son of Josiah and Abigail (Bacon) Loomis.  No children.

The large stone chimney stack mentioned in the duplicated pages [from p. 680 of the History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts] was still standing when [the mother of Virginia Siter] was attending school nearby in the early 1890s.  The location of that house [was] just across the street from [Virginia Siter’s] home.  [Further, she stated] I suspect that my home may have been a Karner home also.  In the 1790 census for Egremont there were at least four Karner families — Cornelius Laman who married Zillz Karner, Jacob Karner, Levi Karner and Lodowick Karner all in this same neighborhood.

The following is quoted from pp. 679-80 of the History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, published 1885 by J. B. Beers & Co. in chapter XXXV by H. C. Warner on the Town of Egremont:

Andrew Karner, son of Lodowick and Catharine Karner [wrong, was his brother, see above], settled on the reservation about 1730, and obtained of the Indians a lease of one half of it for ninety-nine years.  Some years afterwards Mr. Karner’s title was disputed by other settlers, but an appeal being made to the General Court, that body, in 1772, confirmed him in his title, granting the land to him and his heirs for­ever, on conditions he fulfill the stipulations of the original lease.  It is traditional in the family that Andrew Karner obtained title to this land by allowing John Van Guilder, an Indian with a Dutch name, to marry his sister, Mary.  To this John Van Guilder the Indians gave or leased one half of the reserved land in Egremont at the time Mr. Karner obtained his por­tion, and, as stated by Mr. Karner, the land extended west to the mountain, 860 rods from the west line of Sheffield.  The supposed site of Andrew Karner's resi­dence is marked by a large chimney stack, of stone, near the west end of the reservation, in the northwest angle of the highway which leaves Guilder Hollow for Mount Washington.

The children of Andrew Karner were Felix, who lived at Mount Washington, but afterward removed to Pennsylvania; Nicholas, who married Sabra Kellogg, and died in the Revolutionary army, and who left three sons, Samuel, Levi and Felix, to whom their grandfather deeded each eighty-five acres of land in 1780.  Samuel, son of Andrew Karner, died at Sharon, [Litchfield Co.,] Conn.  Andrew, jr. died in this town.  Levi died in 1818, aged 67.  He married in early life, Polly Kellogg, who died October 11th, 1828, aged 60.  Prudence married a Quimby, and remove [sic] to Utica, [Oneida Co.,] N.Y.  Anna married a Buckman.  Roseannah married John Van Guilder, jr., and died at Stockbridge, November, 1764, or February, 1765, leaving besides other children, a daughter, Roseannah, who married Israel Humphrey, of Mount Washington, about 1785.

In 1780, Andrew Karner, 1st, conveyed to his daughter, Mary, wife of Lieutenant Michael Loomis, eighty acres of the Indian land, bounded north on the north line of the Indian land, east on the land he gave to Magdalen, wife of Joseph Winchell, south on the dividing line of the Indian land, and west on Daniel Loomis’ land.  The same year Mr. Karner gave to his daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Daniel Loomis, thirty-seven acres in the northwest part of the Indian land.

Andrew Karner died in 1781, aged 81.  In his will, drawn by Rev. Eliphalet Steele, he gave all his land then leased out, to the descendants of Roseannah, wife of John Van Guilder, jr.  These leases expired about 1832, but the heirs were not able to enforce their claims.

Jacob Karner, son of Lodowick Karner, resided in Guilder Hollow.  The ruins of his house [in 1885] may be seen in the southeast corner of the highway, near where the dwelling of Andrew Karner stood.  Jacob was town collector in 1787.  He died February 8th, 1817, aged 84.  Lucy, his wife, died February 28th, 1817, aged 76.  They are buried on Town Hill.  Their children were:  Lodowick, 2d, Silas, Stephen, Plyna, and Parmelia.

The children of Levi and Polly Karner, and grand­children of Andrew Karner, 1st, were:  Dimmus, born 1796; Sir Lanstel, 1799; Sabra, 1802; Andrew, 3d, 1804; Sophronia, 1806, died 1849; Levi, jr. 1809, died 1866; Zadock, 1811.

That part of the reservation called Guilder Hollow derives its name from John Van Guilder, sen., who dwelt in or near there, and who was one of the parties to the deed given by the Indians to the committee in 1724.  It is traditional that he was an Indian, who, when a boy, wandered from his tribe and was brought up by and named after John Van Guilder, a Dutch farmer.  He was brother-in-law to Andrew Karner, and in this way the Van Guilders became half-breeds.  The family from 1740 until after the Revolutionary war were large owners of land, and being considered wealthy the sons and daughters of Van Guilder united in marriage with the descendants of the early settlers of this town.  John Van Guilder appears to have died previous to 1760, as April 14th of that year his wife, Mary, sold certain lands to Jonathan Root, and in 1764, other lands to her grandsons, Elikim and Hezekiah Winchell.  As these lands were claimed by Robert Livingston, the Van Guilders, with others, had frequent skirmishes with Livingston and his men, and as a result Van Guilder and son were imprisoned, but were soon released by orders of Governor Hardy, of New York.  The Van Guilder families appear on the tax lists of the town in 1761.

In 1775 Andrew Van Guilder sold Elnathan Bush forty acres of the Indian land.  In 1790 this Van Guilder removed to Georgia, [Franklin Co.,] Vt., where, in 1819, he conveyed to Avery Ainsworth, and Origen D. Richardson of Milton, [now in Chittenden Co.,] Vt., one third part of that piece of land in Egremont which his father leased for 99 years.

In 1807, Nicholas Van Guilder, son of John Van Guilder, jr., quit claimed to Stephen Root, of Enfield, [now in Hartford Co.,] Conn., all his titles to the Indian reservation.  The last of the name in this town was Daniel Van Guilder, who removed to Vermont many years ago.  His children were David, Philander, Dyer, Lucy and Ann.

The following is copied from an enclosure sent with the letter dated 7 Nov 1982, to Mrs. Dorothy (Bunce) Lundbom, from Virginia L. Siter, Historian, Town of Egremont, Massachusetts.

EGREMONT — KARNER

How scattered families do get through the generations.  This is an account of just a small part of the Karner family descendants and their wanderings.

Two brothers, Andrew (Andreas) and Lodowick (Ludwig) Karner and their sister Mary, were early settlers in what is now known as Egremont; in the Housatonic area, then known as Westenhook.  I am descended from Andrew, and this is about descendants of his brother Lodowick.

In the Documentary History of State of New York — 1850, Vol. III, published by Weed, Parsons & Co., Public Printers; I have found what I think are the parents of these two men and their sister, listed as Niclaus Kerner as head of the family, in one of the Palatin [sic] camps on the west side of the Hudson River.  Niclaus Kerner is also mentioned in the militia list of Livingstone Manor 1710/11.  The list in the Documentary History is dated 1710.  These three, Andrew, Lodowick and Mary, came to the Westenhook area early; for in 1726, when Andrew married Elizabeth Stuywer, they gave their location as “From HOOGDUY TSCHLANT and living in Westenhook” as recorded by the Linlithgo Church records of Living­stone, N.Y.  I am trying to find the record of the bap­tism of Mary, the sister, which apparently was performed in Rhinebeck.

Lodowick and his wife, Katherine, had eight child­ren, the oldest being Jacob, who was born 1733 who married Lucy Kellogg, born 1741. They had eight or nine children.  The following is some of the infor­mation which has come to light with regard to two of the sons of Jacob and Lucy. (Jacob and Lucy are bur­ied in the Town House Hill Cemetery in Egremont.)

Silas, born 1771, son of Jacob and Lucy, mar­ried Lydia Morgan, born 1775 of Cheshire, Conn., in 1794, at Poultry, Vt.  (I think this should be Poultney.)

Lodowick 2nd, born — date unknown — went to Sheshequin, Penna. on or before 1798.  He was a very ingenious man and a miller for General Spalding.  At this time the name was changed to “Carner” on account of the two brothers being in the same business.

Luther, son of Lodowick 2nd, married a daughter of Col. John Spalding (any relation to General Spalding?).  They had eight children.  After the death of his wife in 1833, Luther left Pennsylvania and settled in Ohio.

Henry W. Carner, son of Luther, was born 1824 and at the age of 23 was commissioned a 1st lieutenant of the Monroe Rifle Company, a militia of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  He married in 1849 and began keeping house in Monroetown (Penna.) where they lived nearly a year, then moved to Macedonia, and in 1851 removed to Ohio where they stayed for nearly a year.  In 1852 Henry and his brother, John S., made an agreement with Samuel Hinchcliff to transport him to California for $300.00.  Mrs. Henry Carner returned to Macedonia.  John S. separated from Henry and Samuel at Placerville (Calif.?) taking another direction to go prospecting; where he went and what became of him is unknown.

In 1849, Charles Carner, a brother of John and Henry, went to California, liked the country and returned to Ohio for his family and had started back 17 days ahead of Henry, John and Hinchcliff.

When Henry reached the plains of Nebraska much to his surprise he found the grave of his brother, Charles, who had been taken sick with cholera and lived only 12 hours.  Charles had started with 18 yoke of cattle and 15 men.  After his burial the wife and children, both girls about 8 and 10 years of age, continued on their journey and reached California after 4 months and 16 days, not seeing a residence in all that distance except Fort Laramie in Nebraska.  On arrival in California the widow disposed of her ox teams at a good price and went into the laundry business which proved a success.

Henry also was accompanied by 3 men who paid their transportation with 3 cows and 2 ox teams.  In addition to their provisions they carried 2 bags of parched corn meal.  Becoming short of provisions they lived on corn meal and water for 12 days.  Arriving at Carson Valley they bought wheat flour at $1.00 per pound and beef at $.50 a pound.  At this time they sold their oxen and purchased ponies to carry them over the mountains.  In California, Henry took up a mining claim and worked it about a year, and although he had gone to considerable expense to dig a ditch two miles long to supply water to the mine, it gave him a good income.

Returning to Pennsylvania to see his family and then on to Kansas to do mechanical work for about a year, he finally returned to the East to stay and to take up carpentry work.  In 1862 he was drafted into Company D, 171st regiment and served nine months as sargeant [sic].  When the company was mustered out of service early in 1863, he returned home for a short time and then enlisted as a volunteer in Com­pany B, 2nd Pennsylvania heavy artillery and served about a year.  He brought his kit and chest of tools home with him.  These were used by him, and then by his son George until 1901.  Finally it fell into the hands of his grandson, Lawrence.

Virginia L. Siter
Town of Egremont, Mass.

Back Bunce Genealogy and History, Part 1