Bern

The town of Bern was first settled in 1873 by John Kunz Il, his wife Rosinia Knutti, and their ten children. This family came to America from Menigriend, Diemtigen, Switzerland, in 1870. They named the community after the capital of their homeland. They came here at the request of Brigham Young, who charged them with beginning to produce cheese for the people in the Bear Lake Valley. They did this for 100 years.

They came without equipment. They only had teams and wagons, which they obtained in Logan. They started making cheese in a kettle that the Danish residents of Ovid had used for making soap. In or about 1872, Apostle Charles C. Rich asked John Kunz II and three of his brothers to build a house on Aspen Creek, which is located about a half mile east of the town of Bern. Rich owned a ranch there where the Kunz family assisted in putting up the hay. John Kunz Ill and his family moved into this home and fed and cared for the cattle.

They bought some land from Bishop Edlefson of Ovid and Charles C. Rich of Paris and began the town of Bern. At a later time, there was a dispute over who owned this land. The county surveyor and stake president, Joseph R. Shepherd, recommended that the town of Bern be moved. The church was moved to the present location, and a school was built across the street. Bern was then developed at its present site.

The first year that John Kunz II made cheese in Bern, four of his sons assisted him. They were David, Jacob, William, and Robert. In order to make a living and make cheese as they were asked to do, they rented cows from other people and trailed them to summer ranges in Williamsburg, Idaho, on Lane's Creek. In the fall, they would drive the cows back to Bern, deliver them to their owners, and give them the rent or shares in cheese. They milked from 100 to 150 cows by hand at each dairy. Other townspeople added their milk also. The cheese was hauled in wagons to towns in southern Idaho from Soda Springs to Blackfoot and also Cache Valley, Ogden and Salt Lake City in Utah.

John Kunz II was the presiding elder, in 1890 he was made bishop. He served in this position for 27 years until he died in 1918. There is a monument erected to John Kunz and the founding of the town of Bern, where the first cabin was located.

Ephraim Jones was hired by John Kunz II to teach school in John's home. They realized that their children needed to speak English. The children were taught privately in their own homes at first. A community building used for church and school was built. Other teachers followed, Louise Kunz, Edith Porter Kunz and Mary Jacobson Rich. The last school, built in the 1950s, stands vacant. Alvin Rich was the first public school teacher.

Other early families joined the Kunz family, some of them were George Alleman, John and Rosina Bischoff, John and Christian Buhler, Rudolph Beinz, and Gottlieb Dubach.

In July of 1911, Christian Kunz discovered a bone of a mastodon while cutting a canal. Paleontologists from the University of Utah located the bones of most of this animal, with teeth weighing over four pounds each. They carefully wrapped and took them to Utah for reconstruction. It is estimated to have stood between 14 and 20 feet tall with tusks that reached 13 feet long.

The men from Bern built the road called German Dugway. In 1906 Christian Kunz took a contract to build a road from Paris Flat to Franklin. They named the project "Thunder Mountain Road."

In 1962 a large number of the Kunz family traveled to Switzerland to visit the old home of their ancestor. They came back with wonderful experiences and gifts from the Swiss people. They found some cousins still living there and brought back several family gifts. A bell, a key and a pike can be seen in the Rails and Trails Museum in Montpelier. The old, very crude cheese making equipment from Bern is also located today in the Rails and Trails.

The people in Bern started branching out in other businesses. Robert Schmid had a business curing meat. People from other parts of the valley brought their meat to him to be cured. The Schmid family also had a machine shop in Bern. The people of Bern no longer make cheese, but they have cattle and well-kept farms where they grow hay and wheat.

1. J. P. Wilde, "Treasured Tid Bits of Time" Vol. 1, owned by the DUP
2. "History of Bern, Idaho" by Janet Michaelson, unpublished, spiral bound.