Location Lenoir, North Carolina, United States Regions East Coast, Southern US Gender Male
America was beginning to take shape in 1860 when the Bernhardt family moved to the western North Carolina town of Lenoir. John Mathias Bernhardt's rural lifestyle became even more challenging at age 13 when both of his parents died within 60 days of each other. Left to face life as orphans, John and his older brother, Lynn, eventually went to
work at a local general store. But unlike his brother, who stayed in the retail trade, John was destined for adventures out west in territory that became the state of Oregon. He secured a job as a government surveyor assisting settlers in the wild frontier, a post that nearly claimed his life. Had it not been for an Indian guide who saved him from a winter bout of pneumonia, J.M . Bernhardt and Bernhardt Furniture Company would not be known to us today.
