ABRAHAM KERN was born in Wilmington Delaware on May 17, 1881. Of his early life little else is known. He does not appear in the 1895 New Jersey State Census, however by the the time the 1898 City Directory was compiled, Abraham Kern had come to Camden, New Jersey. The City Directory for that year shows him working as a laborer and living at 223 Berkley Street. The 1900 Census shows that he was working for and living with William D. Vanneman, a produce dealer at 566 Chestnut Street. Abraham Kern worked as a wagon driver, a trade he would follow through the mid 1910s.

Abraham Kern married around 1902. When the Census was taken in 1910 he was living with his wife Carrie May and sons David A. and Charles J. Kern at 10 York Street in North Camden. He was then working as a driver for Frank Lee Dickinson & Company, a wholesale grocery firm at York and Beach Streets, as was a neighbor at 18 York Street, Charles E. Watkin. Both men would go on to have long careers with the Camden Fire Department. 

By 1914 the Kern family had moved to 40 York Street in North Camden. Abraham Kern and Charles E. Watkin were both appointed to the Camden Fire Department not long after the 1914 Camden City Directory was compiled. Abraham Kern was working as a Camden fire fighter and still living at 40 York Street when he registered for the draft on September 12, 1918.

The 1924 City Directory shows Abraham and Carrie May Kern had moved to 298 Vine Street in North Camden, a few doors away from Engine Company 4, at 320 Vine Street. The 1930 Census shows them and their son Charles were still living at 298 Vine Street. Older son David had married and was living with his wife and children in Collingswood, New Jersey.

Abraham Kern was most likely serving with Engine Company 4 at the time of the census. This company was disbanded on January 1, 1933 for economic reasons, as Camden and the rest of the country were in the throes of the Great Depression. Abraham Kern was reassigned to another company, and continued to served with the Camden Fire Department as late as the spring of 1942, when he again registered for the draft. Abraham and Carrie May Kern were then still living at 298 Vine Street. By the end of 1946 they had moved to 227 Vine Street, where they would live out their lives.  Carrie May Kern died in 1956. 

Abraham Kern died at his Vine Street. home on February 20, 1961 and was buried at Harleigh Cemetery.