Kerr, James B.

KERR, CUNNINGHAM, MCELROY, BEATTY, HOPKINS, PARROTT, YOUNG

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/13/2009 at 07:07:29

James B. Kerr, a successful general farmer and stock-raiser of Jasper County, and the owner of a finely improved farm in Malaka Township, is a native of Ohio, having been born in Ross County, on the 10th of May 1850. His paternal grandparents, James and Nancy (Cunningham) Kerr, were born in Pennsylvania, whence in an early day they removed to Ohio, and in Ross County entered a tract of land from the Government, establishing their home in the midst of a surrounding wilderness. They had a family of thirteen children, of whom the following named survive: Robert and the Rev. Samuel Kerr, residents of Ross County; Jerry, who is Postmaster at Greenfield, Ohio; Esther, Mrs. Mc Elroy, of Ottumwa, Iowa, a widow, whose husband was killed in the Lee Creek disaster in 1865; Elizabeth, the wife of J. P. Beatty, of Newton Township, Jasper County; and Mrs. Catherine Hopkins, a resident of Washington C. H., Ohio. Grandfather Kerr died in 1870.

The father of our subject, Robert Kerr, was born in Ross County, Ohio, May 3, 1819, and was reared to manhood upon the home farm, alternating agricultural work with attendance at the pioneer schools of the vicinity. These primitive structures contained few furnishings, and the method of instruction was as crude as the building itself. A constant resident of the Buckeye State through all the years of his life, Robert Kerr still lives within a mile of his birthplace. Throughout Ross County he is well and favorably known, and occupies a high place among the citizens of his community. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret McElroy, was a native of Fayette County, Ohio, of which her parents were early settlers; her father was killed during a forest fire by a tree falling upon him.

In the family of Robert and Margaret Kerr there were five children, one of whom, Emma, died in 1883. The others are: Mrs. Elizabeth Parrott, a resident of Ross County, Ohio; James B., of this sketch; Mrs. Martha Parrott, who lives in Washington C. H., Ohio; and Thomas C., of Ross County. Now (1893) a man of seventy-four years, Mr. Kerr still retains the vigor of former years, and is hale and hearty notwithstanding his advanced age. As a citizen he has ever been public-spirited and interested in every measure calculated to advance the material welfare of his county. He has been prospered financially, and has aided his children upon starting in business for themselves. In politics, he is a stanch adherent to the principles of the Republican Party. He and his wife have for many years been identified with the Presbyterian Church.

In his boyhood the subject of this sketch conducted his literary studies in the common schools of the district, and early becoming familiar with agriculture, he naturally chose that as his life occupation. At the age of twenty years, his father gave him eighty acres of land in Jasper County, upon which few improvements had been placed. Locating here, he has since engaged in the raising of cereals, and has also been successful in his stock-raising enterprises. He married Miss Fannie, daughter of James Young, of Ross County, Ohio, and they have had two children: Ethel, who died at the age of twenty months; and Robert, who was born June 28, 1886.

Politically, Mr. Kerr gives his support to the principles of the Republican Party. He has never been active in his partisanship, and has never been an office-seeker, although at various times he has served in the minor township offices. In his religious belief he is a Congregationalist and his wife is also a member of that denomination, both being active workers in all religious and benevolent enterprises. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 362.