Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 540
HARRY W. KERR

It takes all kinds of people to make this world, and it is just as true that there are some people more valuable to the community than others. Harrison county, Iowa, has no more hustling citizen than Harry W. KERR, who is known throughout the county as 'The Hustler'. Primarily a newspaperman, he has established photo-play houses in Little Sioux and Pisgah, as well as electric lighting plants in both places. His paper, very appropriately called The Hustler, is a weekly newspaper of four pages with seven columns to the page. Unlike many papers in small towns it is not filled with advertisements for patent medicines, but is all home print, and all set up in his own office every week. He established his paper in Little Sioux, March 14, 1901, and has made it one of the active forces for good in this section of the county since that time.

Harry W. KERR was born in Kendall county, Illinois, April 2, 1875, a son of Henry C. and Arabella (HOPKINS) KERR, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively. His parents removed to Hastings, Nebraska, in 1881, and there he completed his high-school education and later a course in a business college.

When he was eighteen years old Mr. KERR came to Harrison county, Iowa, as assistant agent and operator at River Sioux, and worked in this capacity for three years. He was then employed as extra agent until 1887, when he was permanently located in the station at Blencoe, Monona county, Iowa, where he remained until the spring of 1901. In that year he returned to Little Sioux and established his paper, as has been mentioned, and has since then been engaged in the newspaper business. He started with a little printing office at Little Sioux, which amounted to practically nothing, and now has the best equipped printing plant in the county. He established a branch plant at Pisgah and still keeps it in operation. When he came to Little Sioux there was already a paper in that city, one which had been established many years ago by D. W. Butts, one of the veteran newspaper men of the county. Mr. Butts died in December, 1912, and his paper being independent, concluded its earthly career at the same time. In the fall of 1901, the same year in which he established his paper, Mr. KERR established a department in The Hustler for the town of Pisgah and has paid particular attention to the items of interest concerning Pisgah and Little Sioux since that year. In 1908 he erected a cement-block building in Little Sioux especially for the printing business. This was the first block building in the county and in it he installed the first linotype machine between Council Bluffs and Sioux City. But the newspaper business has been only one of the enterprises of Mr. KERR. He has been a prominent factor in furnishing a line of entertainment in both Little Sioux and Pisgah and his photo-play houses which he has established in both towns, have not only proved very satisfactory to the people, but also lucrative to himself. He owns the KERR Opera House in Little Sioux, a neat little building with a ground floor thirty-six by ninety feet and a seating capacity of four hundred.

The Hustler is independent in politics and religion and clearly local in its scope, dealing with the better interests of the county in general, and the west and northwest townships in particular.

Mr. KERR was married September 9, 1896, at Missouri Valley, Iowa, to Amy A. MORGAN, of River Sioux, a daughter of Nels P. and Belle (STUART) MORGAN, natives of New York and Ontario, respectively. Nels P. MORGAN and his family located in River Sioux in the spring of 1884, coming from Crawford county, Iowa. Mr. MORGAN conducted a blacksmith shop in River Sioux for over twenty years, and for several years before his death was engaged in the livery business.

Mr. KERR is not connected with any religious denomination, but gives his support equally to all represented in his community. He is a member of Frontier Lodge No. 382, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and both he and his wife are affiliated with the Little Sioux Chapter Order of the Eastern Star. It is safe to say that Mr. KERR is one of the most valuable men in his community, always standing for its best interests and always willing to do his share towards making the community a better one in which to live.

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