Joseph Kerr

Kerr (pronounced "car") was born in Kerrtown, Pennsylvania (now Chambersburg), and moved to Ohio in 1792.

He served in a number of positions as clerk, surveyor, judge and justice of the peace in the Northwest Territory.

He served as justice of the peace at Manchester, Adams County, Ohio in 1797. and as a judge of the first quarter session court of Adams County, Northwest Territory, in 1797.

Kerr's son, Joseph Kerr Jr., died in the Battle of the Alamo.{{cite web | last = Groneman | first = Bill | title = KERR, JOSEPH | publisher = Texas State Historical Association | date = June 15, 2010 | url = http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fke71}}

After statehood was declared, Kerr was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1808, 1816, 1818, and 1819. He was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1804 and 1810. He also served as a brigadier general of Ohio Volunteers during the War of 1812, in charge of supplying provisions to the Army of the Northwest.

Kerr was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1814 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Thomas Worthington.{{cite web|url= http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000141|title= KERR, Joseph, (1765 - 1837)|publisher= Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=August 24, 2012}} Kerr served from December 10, 1814, to March 3, 1815,{{cite web|url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/joseph_kerr/406307|title= govtrack.us|publisher= Civic Impulse, LLC.|access-date=August 24, 2012}} and did not seek re-election.

Kerr's extensive farm went bankrupt in 1826, and he moved to Memphis, Tennessee and then to rural Louisiana, where he purchased a homestead near Lake Providence.{{cite web | title = KERR, Joseph, (1765 - 1837) | publisher = Biographical Directory of the United States Congress | url = http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000141 | access-date = March 1, 2014}} He died on August 22, 1837.

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Category:1765 births

Category:1837 deaths

Category:American militia generals

Category:American militiamen in the War of 1812

Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States senators from Ohio

Category:Members of the Ohio House of Representatives

Category:Military personnel from Pennsylvania

Category:Northwest Territory judges

Category:Ohio state senators

Category:People from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Category:People from Lake Providence, Louisiana

Category:19th-century United States senators

Category:19th-century members of the Ohio General Assembly