Major James Kerr
Was born near Danville, KY on 24 Sep 1790, the son of Baptist minister James Kerr and wife Patience Wells.
He served in the War of 1812 as a Lt. in the company of Capt. Nathan Boone and with Capt. Boone's Rangers in maintenance of security of the area. He was said to be a favorite friend of Nathan's father, Daniel Boone.
He was elected Sheriff of St. Charles County, MO and studied law on his own.
In 1819 he married Angelina Caldwell, the daughter of General James Caldwell from Saint Genevieve, MO, who was speaker of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Missouri.
He was elected twice to the Missouri State legislature and in 1824 to the Senate, but at the close of the session he resigned to go to Texas.
It is said that Kerr resigned and removed to Texas in part because of unpleasant relations with his father-in-law who he had defeated in the election for Missouri Senator.
James Kerr arrived with his wife, three children and black servants, among whom were Shade, Jack and Annis, at the mouth of the Brazos River in Feb 1825. Major James Kerr died in Jackson County on his farm 7 miles north of Edna on Kerr's Creek in the Kerr Cemetery.
Kerr County, Texas was named in his honor.
KERR, JAMES
Prominent among the early pioneers of colonial Texas was the gentleman whose name heads this article, Major James Kerr, whose history, while it presents no extraordinarily distinguishing fact, is full of interesting incidents, and entitles it to a place in this connection.
He was the son of the Rev. James Kerr, a respectable Baptist minister, whose father was an Irishman. The latter resided in Pennsylvania, but in 1780 the father of the subject of this sketch removed and settled two miles from Danville, now Boyle county, Kentucky, where James was born on the 24th September, 1790, and was one of five sons and four daughters. At that day it was impossible to afford the means of acquiring a good education in that new and infested region. To defend the country from savage inroads required all the time and means the settlers had: and hence the children grew up with simply the rudiments of an English education. Their father, however, as well as their mother, possessed a strong mind, well stored with useful knowledge, and by their efforts they were blessed in imparting to their growing family much that was valuable to them in alter life, and to direct their minds in the path of virtue and patriotism. Through their mother, who was a Wells, they were first cousins to the great western orator and statesman, Phillip Doddridge, of Virginia, who died in Congress, in 1832. A portion of the family removed to Missouri, then a part of Spanish Louisiana, in 1797. The parents visited the same distant region in 1799, where the mother died near St. Louis : and in 1808 the remainder removed and settled in St. Charles county. The four surviving sons were just arriving at manhood when the war broke out in 1811-12, and early enrolled themselves in the volunteer service, and acquitted themselves throughout the struggle with much credit. Thomas, the younger brother, was one of the youngest volunteers in the field. He and William were employed in several trying emergencies, and did well. They proved then and in after life to be made of good material; Thomas having, as a citizen, and in various responsible public stations, ever sustained an unimpeachable reputation, went to the grave in peace and honor in January, 1849, in Lawrence county, Missouri. Richard Kerr, than whom a purer man never lived, not only acquired a good name as a soldier and officer in that war. but lerred his fellow-citizens of Missouri, and afterwards of Illinois, in the legislature many years, and the United States government in several capacities with fidelity, and ever enjoyed a rare degree of popular esteem; indeed, he was almost idolized by his friends, and had no enemies. He died on a visit to Texas, December, 1852. William, the only survivor, still resides in Missouri.
Having thus digressed a moment, we will return to James Kerr, the pioneer. During the war of 1812, notwithstanding he was very young, he filled various military stations, and was in several engagements, in which he displayed that cool intrepidity that afterwards sustained him for so many years in the wilds of Texas. In the summer of 1813 he was second in command at Boone's defeat on the Illinois river,, in which they were routed, and hotly pursued for 24 hours. He was awarded great praise for his bearing on that occasion. During the same season he and two other men were ambushed and attacked by 17 Indians, at the mouth of Salt River, in Missouri, in which his horse was three times wounded under him, and finally killed. The party, through his cool daring and a well-contrived ruse, after a chase of six miles, escaped.
After the war he was chosen sheriff of St. Charles county, then extending to Boons-lick, and now comprehending some ten large counties. In this capacity he served four years, and then removed to St. Genevieve county (in 1819-20), where he had married. He had not been long there till he was elected to the House of Representatives, and at the next election to the State Senate, over his father-in-law, Major Caldwell, one of the most popular men in the state. While serving in the legislature he took strong ground in favor of encouraging, by all legitimate means, the Santa Fe trade, then in its infancy, and warmly and prophetically contended that it would become a great source of wealth to Missouri. He had at an early day contracted an intimate friendship with the lamented Gen. Stephen, F. Austin, who had long resided in that portion of Missouri, and was then planting his infant colony in Texas. Austin knew the man, and sought by every means to induce him to relinquish his seat in the Senate, and remove to Texas, and after mature reflection he resolved to do so. He arrived at Brazoria in March, 1825, with his family and servants, when there were but few families in the colony. During the following summer his young and amiable wife and two of his three children sickened and died, thus stamping his entrance into the wilderness with the greatest calamity known to the common lot of man. There was then no American settlement west of the Colorado river; but Green De Witt of Missouri, had just contracted for a colony on the Guadalupe and La Vaca rivers, and solicited Major Kerr to become surveyor-general of it: and until his (De Witt's) final removal with his family, to take charge of the colony. This he consented to do, and in September, 1825, he settled near where Gonzales now stands, on the Guadalupe : built suitable cabins for present use, and commenced a survey of the colony. He had with him, besides his servants, five or six young men, among whom was that remarkable man afterwards so distinguished as a spy, and known as Deaf Smith. Very soon another family settled near him—that of Francis Berry, who died in January, 1853, near Lockhart, Texas.
The country was then occupied by the numerous wandering tribes of Indians, who have since become so famous in Texan history. Parties of these savages frequently visited the little settlement and generally appeared pacifically disposed; but they still showed a lurking opposition to having the country surveyed, a process they little understood, yet to their minds it foreboded no good. Kerr subsisted his party almost exclusively upon wild game and coffee, as it was impossible to procure other supplies. A gentleman of Missouri, looking at the country, and having an introductory letter to him, found him intently drawing maps, without any food on hand excepting a venison ham.
In June 1826, he was called to San Felipe on business with Austin; and while absent, a portion of hi- household started to a dance on the Colorado, some 60 miles, to celebrate the 4th of July. While encamped and asleep on the second night of July, they were attacked by a body of Indians, one of the men badly wounded, their horses taken, and the party routed. Returning next day to Kerr's house, they found it deserted, one man dead and scalped in the yard, the house robbed and partially burned, and other evidences of savage barbarity around. Passing on to Berry's house, they found it deserted, and on the door, written with charcoal, a memoranda, that they were retreating to the Colorado, whither the defeated and weary men and women again started, and reached three days afterwards in suffering condition. This unexpected outbreak of the Indians, and the weakness of the colony, determined Kerr for the present to settle on the La Vaca, nearer the coast, and nearer succor, which he did in October, 1626, but continued the survey of De Witt's colony.
Soon afterwards, De Witt arrived with his family, and they built a little fort on the La Vaca, since known as the " Old Station." Here the germ of the colony remained and made corn in 1827. During the latter year, what was known as the Fredonian war, headed by Edwards, broke out at Nacogdoches, the avowed object of which was to establish an independent republic. The far-seeing Austin and his colonists, in their weak condition, looked upon (he step as most suicidal, and bitterly opposed it. A commission of five discreet persons, headed by Major Kerr, were sent on to Nacogdoches to negotiate and remonstrate with the leaders there, and greatly to the satisfaction of their constituents, succeeded in their mission. Though Kerr continued his connection with De Witt's colony for several years, he remained permanently on the La Vaca, then in the municipality of Matagorda. He was commissioned by the governor, Gonzales, to lay out and name the capital of the colony, embracing in the tract four leagues or six miles square of land. In honor of the governor, be named the place Gonzales.
He afterwards became surveyor of De Leon's colony, and surveyed most of its lands. When De Witt removed hi) settlers from the " Old Station" to Gonzales, Kerr was left alone, and for some time remained without a neighbor nearer than 50 miles ; but by prudence managed to retain the friendship of the Indians in the immediate vicinity. No man, without having experienced something of the kind, can form an adequate idea of the dangers and trials, the fluctuations of fear and hone, through which persons thus situated hare to pass. It would require a volume to relate the thousand and one interesting incidents and " hair-breadth "scapes" connected with this period of Major Kerr's life. In 1829-'30, however, a few families settled within fifteen miles, and ere long several others, till a nucleus was formed, around which a good population gradually gathered. Among those who first settled were the numerous family of the Sutherlands, Whites, and Menefees, from Alabama, embracing a high degree of respectability and intelligence, and who proved to be valuable auxiliaries. In 1827 Major Kerr made a tour into Mexico, with the view of extending his knowledge of their laws and customs, and derived much benefit from it.
In 1832 a convention of delegates was called to frame a state constitution, to be sent on to the supreme government for approval, and Major Kerr was elected a member of that body; and again, in 1833, when a similar body was demanded for the same purpose, (the first having failed of success,) he was almost unanimously chosen as a delegate a second time. For bearing the constitution adopted by the latter body, Austin was imprisoned in the city of Mexico. When the revolution broke out in 1835, Kerr was early on the frontier, and participated in the battle of Lipantitlan on the 4th of November. He was elected a member of the first consultation, but did not leave the army in time to take his seat; being, however, immediately chosen a member of the General Council of the Provisional Government, he at once entered upon the discharge of his duties, and did much that winter to aid the government and the troops in the field. While in the council, he was elected a member of the convention which declared Texas independent; but from the imminent danger of his family, on the approach of Santa Anna, he was compelled to postpone taking his seat; and before he could leave them in a safe position, the convention adjourned from necessity. In the organization of the republic in March, 1836, he was appointed by President Burnet major in the army, and as a necessary precaution to enable him to devote his entire time to the public good, he sent his family to Missouri, where they remained some time. In the spring of 1837 he also visited his old home in that state, and received many flattering marks of respect from his former friends, and the people wherever he was known.
In 1838 he was elected to the Texan Congress, in which body he rendered invaluable service to the exposed frontier, in securing the passage of the first anti-dueling law, and the removal of the seat of government from Houston to Austin; a measure of cherished policy on the part of the western half of the republic. No man exerted more salutary influence in that body; nor was any one better qualified by long residence,patient investigation, and intimate acquaintance with the land laws and system of Mexico, to propose wise legislation in regard to the land titles of the country which he had adopted.
Soon after this, Major Kerr, long having devoted himself to the public interests, sought retirement, with the view of settling up his long-neglected private affairs, and devoting himself to the pursuits of agriculture and to the education of his children, (having married a second time in 1833.) Still, much of his time was given to the public, rendered valuable as his information was in regard to the history of the country and the rights of property; and after our annexation to the mother country, he served as one of the United States marshals. Like his distinguished relative, Philip Doddridge, Major Kerr possessed a remarkable memory that never failed him: a discriminating knowledge of men and things; a strong and well-balanced mind; and a nobleness of heart that ever made him a favorite with his friends—a high- toned and honorable gentleman, long to be remembered with grateful affection by those who knew him.
Though well advanced in life, and having for nearly fifty years lived through continued trials and hardships, incident to his residence in new and dangerous frontiers, he enjoyed good health and an unabated flow of good spirits, till the brief illness which closed his life. He died suddenly, of pneumonia, at his old residence on the La Vaca, on the 23d of December, 1850, aged sixty years and three months. He chose to be interred on his own premises; and in presence of a large concourse of friends his remains were deposited in the spot selected by himself. A handsome marble tomb, with an appropriate inscription, marks the spot. Long will he be remembered as one of the noble pioneers of Western Texas. [Source: DeBow's Review, 1853]
Was born near Danville, KY on 24 Sep 1790, the son of Baptist minister James Kerr and wife Patience Wells.
He served in the War of 1812 as a Lt. in the company of Capt. Nathan Boone and with Capt. Boone's Rangers in maintenance of security of the area. He was said to be a favorite friend of Nathan's father, Daniel Boone.
He was elected Sheriff of St. Charles County, MO and studied law on his own.
In 1819 he married Angelina Caldwell, the daughter of General James Caldwell from Saint Genevieve, MO, who was speaker of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Missouri.
He was elected twice to the Missouri State legislature and in 1824 to the Senate, but at the close of the session he resigned to go to Texas.
It is said that Kerr resigned and removed to Texas in part because of unpleasant relations with his father-in-law who he had defeated in the election for Missouri Senator.
James Kerr arrived with his wife, three children and black servants, among whom were Shade, Jack and Annis, at the mouth of the Brazos River in Feb 1825. Major James Kerr died in Jackson County on his farm 7 miles north of Edna on Kerr's Creek in the Kerr Cemetery.
Kerr County, Texas was named in his honor.
KERR, JAMES
Prominent among the early pioneers of colonial Texas was the gentleman whose name heads this article, Major James Kerr, whose history, while it presents no extraordinarily distinguishing fact, is full of interesting incidents, and entitles it to a place in this connection.
He was the son of the Rev. James Kerr, a respectable Baptist minister, whose father was an Irishman. The latter resided in Pennsylvania, but in 1780 the father of the subject of this sketch removed and settled two miles from Danville, now Boyle county, Kentucky, where James was born on the 24th September, 1790, and was one of five sons and four daughters. At that day it was impossible to afford the means of acquiring a good education in that new and infested region. To defend the country from savage inroads required all the time and means the settlers had: and hence the children grew up with simply the rudiments of an English education. Their father, however, as well as their mother, possessed a strong mind, well stored with useful knowledge, and by their efforts they were blessed in imparting to their growing family much that was valuable to them in alter life, and to direct their minds in the path of virtue and patriotism. Through their mother, who was a Wells, they were first cousins to the great western orator and statesman, Phillip Doddridge, of Virginia, who died in Congress, in 1832. A portion of the family removed to Missouri, then a part of Spanish Louisiana, in 1797. The parents visited the same distant region in 1799, where the mother died near St. Louis : and in 1808 the remainder removed and settled in St. Charles county. The four surviving sons were just arriving at manhood when the war broke out in 1811-12, and early enrolled themselves in the volunteer service, and acquitted themselves throughout the struggle with much credit. Thomas, the younger brother, was one of the youngest volunteers in the field. He and William were employed in several trying emergencies, and did well. They proved then and in after life to be made of good material; Thomas having, as a citizen, and in various responsible public stations, ever sustained an unimpeachable reputation, went to the grave in peace and honor in January, 1849, in Lawrence county, Missouri. Richard Kerr, than whom a purer man never lived, not only acquired a good name as a soldier and officer in that war. but lerred his fellow-citizens of Missouri, and afterwards of Illinois, in the legislature many years, and the United States government in several capacities with fidelity, and ever enjoyed a rare degree of popular esteem; indeed, he was almost idolized by his friends, and had no enemies. He died on a visit to Texas, December, 1852. William, the only survivor, still resides in Missouri.
Having thus digressed a moment, we will return to James Kerr, the pioneer. During the war of 1812, notwithstanding he was very young, he filled various military stations, and was in several engagements, in which he displayed that cool intrepidity that afterwards sustained him for so many years in the wilds of Texas. In the summer of 1813 he was second in command at Boone's defeat on the Illinois river,, in which they were routed, and hotly pursued for 24 hours. He was awarded great praise for his bearing on that occasion. During the same season he and two other men were ambushed and attacked by 17 Indians, at the mouth of Salt River, in Missouri, in which his horse was three times wounded under him, and finally killed. The party, through his cool daring and a well-contrived ruse, after a chase of six miles, escaped.
After the war he was chosen sheriff of St. Charles county, then extending to Boons-lick, and now comprehending some ten large counties. In this capacity he served four years, and then removed to St. Genevieve county (in 1819-20), where he had married. He had not been long there till he was elected to the House of Representatives, and at the next election to the State Senate, over his father-in-law, Major Caldwell, one of the most popular men in the state. While serving in the legislature he took strong ground in favor of encouraging, by all legitimate means, the Santa Fe trade, then in its infancy, and warmly and prophetically contended that it would become a great source of wealth to Missouri. He had at an early day contracted an intimate friendship with the lamented Gen. Stephen, F. Austin, who had long resided in that portion of Missouri, and was then planting his infant colony in Texas. Austin knew the man, and sought by every means to induce him to relinquish his seat in the Senate, and remove to Texas, and after mature reflection he resolved to do so. He arrived at Brazoria in March, 1825, with his family and servants, when there were but few families in the colony. During the following summer his young and amiable wife and two of his three children sickened and died, thus stamping his entrance into the wilderness with the greatest calamity known to the common lot of man. There was then no American settlement west of the Colorado river; but Green De Witt of Missouri, had just contracted for a colony on the Guadalupe and La Vaca rivers, and solicited Major Kerr to become surveyor-general of it: and until his (De Witt's) final removal with his family, to take charge of the colony. This he consented to do, and in September, 1825, he settled near where Gonzales now stands, on the Guadalupe : built suitable cabins for present use, and commenced a survey of the colony. He had with him, besides his servants, five or six young men, among whom was that remarkable man afterwards so distinguished as a spy, and known as Deaf Smith. Very soon another family settled near him—that of Francis Berry, who died in January, 1853, near Lockhart, Texas.
The country was then occupied by the numerous wandering tribes of Indians, who have since become so famous in Texan history. Parties of these savages frequently visited the little settlement and generally appeared pacifically disposed; but they still showed a lurking opposition to having the country surveyed, a process they little understood, yet to their minds it foreboded no good. Kerr subsisted his party almost exclusively upon wild game and coffee, as it was impossible to procure other supplies. A gentleman of Missouri, looking at the country, and having an introductory letter to him, found him intently drawing maps, without any food on hand excepting a venison ham.
In June 1826, he was called to San Felipe on business with Austin; and while absent, a portion of hi- household started to a dance on the Colorado, some 60 miles, to celebrate the 4th of July. While encamped and asleep on the second night of July, they were attacked by a body of Indians, one of the men badly wounded, their horses taken, and the party routed. Returning next day to Kerr's house, they found it deserted, one man dead and scalped in the yard, the house robbed and partially burned, and other evidences of savage barbarity around. Passing on to Berry's house, they found it deserted, and on the door, written with charcoal, a memoranda, that they were retreating to the Colorado, whither the defeated and weary men and women again started, and reached three days afterwards in suffering condition. This unexpected outbreak of the Indians, and the weakness of the colony, determined Kerr for the present to settle on the La Vaca, nearer the coast, and nearer succor, which he did in October, 1626, but continued the survey of De Witt's colony.
Soon afterwards, De Witt arrived with his family, and they built a little fort on the La Vaca, since known as the " Old Station." Here the germ of the colony remained and made corn in 1827. During the latter year, what was known as the Fredonian war, headed by Edwards, broke out at Nacogdoches, the avowed object of which was to establish an independent republic. The far-seeing Austin and his colonists, in their weak condition, looked upon (he step as most suicidal, and bitterly opposed it. A commission of five discreet persons, headed by Major Kerr, were sent on to Nacogdoches to negotiate and remonstrate with the leaders there, and greatly to the satisfaction of their constituents, succeeded in their mission. Though Kerr continued his connection with De Witt's colony for several years, he remained permanently on the La Vaca, then in the municipality of Matagorda. He was commissioned by the governor, Gonzales, to lay out and name the capital of the colony, embracing in the tract four leagues or six miles square of land. In honor of the governor, be named the place Gonzales.
He afterwards became surveyor of De Leon's colony, and surveyed most of its lands. When De Witt removed hi) settlers from the " Old Station" to Gonzales, Kerr was left alone, and for some time remained without a neighbor nearer than 50 miles ; but by prudence managed to retain the friendship of the Indians in the immediate vicinity. No man, without having experienced something of the kind, can form an adequate idea of the dangers and trials, the fluctuations of fear and hone, through which persons thus situated hare to pass. It would require a volume to relate the thousand and one interesting incidents and " hair-breadth "scapes" connected with this period of Major Kerr's life. In 1829-'30, however, a few families settled within fifteen miles, and ere long several others, till a nucleus was formed, around which a good population gradually gathered. Among those who first settled were the numerous family of the Sutherlands, Whites, and Menefees, from Alabama, embracing a high degree of respectability and intelligence, and who proved to be valuable auxiliaries. In 1827 Major Kerr made a tour into Mexico, with the view of extending his knowledge of their laws and customs, and derived much benefit from it.
In 1832 a convention of delegates was called to frame a state constitution, to be sent on to the supreme government for approval, and Major Kerr was elected a member of that body; and again, in 1833, when a similar body was demanded for the same purpose, (the first having failed of success,) he was almost unanimously chosen as a delegate a second time. For bearing the constitution adopted by the latter body, Austin was imprisoned in the city of Mexico. When the revolution broke out in 1835, Kerr was early on the frontier, and participated in the battle of Lipantitlan on the 4th of November. He was elected a member of the first consultation, but did not leave the army in time to take his seat; being, however, immediately chosen a member of the General Council of the Provisional Government, he at once entered upon the discharge of his duties, and did much that winter to aid the government and the troops in the field. While in the council, he was elected a member of the convention which declared Texas independent; but from the imminent danger of his family, on the approach of Santa Anna, he was compelled to postpone taking his seat; and before he could leave them in a safe position, the convention adjourned from necessity. In the organization of the republic in March, 1836, he was appointed by President Burnet major in the army, and as a necessary precaution to enable him to devote his entire time to the public good, he sent his family to Missouri, where they remained some time. In the spring of 1837 he also visited his old home in that state, and received many flattering marks of respect from his former friends, and the people wherever he was known.
In 1838 he was elected to the Texan Congress, in which body he rendered invaluable service to the exposed frontier, in securing the passage of the first anti-dueling law, and the removal of the seat of government from Houston to Austin; a measure of cherished policy on the part of the western half of the republic. No man exerted more salutary influence in that body; nor was any one better qualified by long residence,patient investigation, and intimate acquaintance with the land laws and system of Mexico, to propose wise legislation in regard to the land titles of the country which he had adopted.
Soon after this, Major Kerr, long having devoted himself to the public interests, sought retirement, with the view of settling up his long-neglected private affairs, and devoting himself to the pursuits of agriculture and to the education of his children, (having married a second time in 1833.) Still, much of his time was given to the public, rendered valuable as his information was in regard to the history of the country and the rights of property; and after our annexation to the mother country, he served as one of the United States marshals. Like his distinguished relative, Philip Doddridge, Major Kerr possessed a remarkable memory that never failed him: a discriminating knowledge of men and things; a strong and well-balanced mind; and a nobleness of heart that ever made him a favorite with his friends—a high- toned and honorable gentleman, long to be remembered with grateful affection by those who knew him.
Though well advanced in life, and having for nearly fifty years lived through continued trials and hardships, incident to his residence in new and dangerous frontiers, he enjoyed good health and an unabated flow of good spirits, till the brief illness which closed his life. He died suddenly, of pneumonia, at his old residence on the La Vaca, on the 23d of December, 1850, aged sixty years and three months. He chose to be interred on his own premises; and in presence of a large concourse of friends his remains were deposited in the spot selected by himself. A handsome marble tomb, with an appropriate inscription, marks the spot. Long will he be remembered as one of the noble pioneers of Western Texas. [Source: DeBow's Review, 1853]
Major James Kerr
Was born near Danville, KY on 24 Sep 1790, the son of Baptist minister James Kerr and wife Patience Wells.
He served in the War of 1812 as a Lt. in the company of Capt. Nathan Boone and with Capt. Boone's Rangers in maintenance of security of the area. He was said to be a favorite friend of Nathan's father, Daniel Boone.
He was elected Sheriff of St. Charles County, MO and studied law on his own.
In 1819 he married Angelina Caldwell, the daughter of General James Caldwell from Saint Genevieve, MO, who was speaker of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Missouri.
He was elected twice to the Missouri State legislature and in 1824 to the Senate, but at the close of the session he resigned to go to Texas.
It is said that Kerr resigned and removed to Texas in part because of unpleasant relations with his father-in-law who he had defeated in the election for Missouri Senator.
James Kerr arrived with his wife, three children and black servants, among whom were Shade, Jack and Annis, at the mouth of the Brazos River in Feb 1825. Major James Kerr died in Jackson County on his farm 7 miles north of Edna on Kerr's Creek in the Kerr Cemetery.
Kerr County, Texas was named in his honor.
KERR, JAMES
Prominent among the early pioneers of colonial Texas was the gentleman whose name heads this article, Major James Kerr, whose history, while it presents no extraordinarily distinguishing fact, is full of interesting incidents, and entitles it to a place in this connection.
He was the son of the Rev. James Kerr, a respectable Baptist minister, whose father was an Irishman. The latter resided in Pennsylvania, but in 1780 the father of the subject of this sketch removed and settled two miles from Danville, now Boyle county, Kentucky, where James was born on the 24th September, 1790, and was one of five sons and four daughters. At that day it was impossible to afford the means of acquiring a good education in that new and infested region. To defend the country from savage inroads required all the time and means the settlers had: and hence the children grew up with simply the rudiments of an English education. Their father, however, as well as their mother, possessed a strong mind, well stored with useful knowledge, and by their efforts they were blessed in imparting to their growing family much that was valuable to them in alter life, and to direct their minds in the path of virtue and patriotism. Through their mother, who was a Wells, they were first cousins to the great western orator and statesman, Phillip Doddridge, of Virginia, who died in Congress, in 1832. A portion of the family removed to Missouri, then a part of Spanish Louisiana, in 1797. The parents visited the same distant region in 1799, where the mother died near St. Louis : and in 1808 the remainder removed and settled in St. Charles county. The four surviving sons were just arriving at manhood when the war broke out in 1811-12, and early enrolled themselves in the volunteer service, and acquitted themselves throughout the struggle with much credit. Thomas, the younger brother, was one of the youngest volunteers in the field. He and William were employed in several trying emergencies, and did well. They proved then and in after life to be made of good material; Thomas having, as a citizen, and in various responsible public stations, ever sustained an unimpeachable reputation, went to the grave in peace and honor in January, 1849, in Lawrence county, Missouri. Richard Kerr, than whom a purer man never lived, not only acquired a good name as a soldier and officer in that war. but lerred his fellow-citizens of Missouri, and afterwards of Illinois, in the legislature many years, and the United States government in several capacities with fidelity, and ever enjoyed a rare degree of popular esteem; indeed, he was almost idolized by his friends, and had no enemies. He died on a visit to Texas, December, 1852. William, the only survivor, still resides in Missouri.
Having thus digressed a moment, we will return to James Kerr, the pioneer. During the war of 1812, notwithstanding he was very young, he filled various military stations, and was in several engagements, in which he displayed that cool intrepidity that afterwards sustained him for so many years in the wilds of Texas. In the summer of 1813 he was second in command at Boone's defeat on the Illinois river,, in which they were routed, and hotly pursued for 24 hours. He was awarded great praise for his bearing on that occasion. During the same season he and two other men were ambushed and attacked by 17 Indians, at the mouth of Salt River, in Missouri, in which his horse was three times wounded under him, and finally killed. The party, through his cool daring and a well-contrived ruse, after a chase of six miles, escaped.
After the war he was chosen sheriff of St. Charles county, then extending to Boons-lick, and now comprehending some ten large counties. In this capacity he served four years, and then removed to St. Genevieve county (in 1819-20), where he had married. He had not been long there till he was elected to the House of Representatives, and at the next election to the State Senate, over his father-in-law, Major Caldwell, one of the most popular men in the state. While serving in the legislature he took strong ground in favor of encouraging, by all legitimate means, the Santa Fe trade, then in its infancy, and warmly and prophetically contended that it would become a great source of wealth to Missouri. He had at an early day contracted an intimate friendship with the lamented Gen. Stephen, F. Austin, who had long resided in that portion of Missouri, and was then planting his infant colony in Texas. Austin knew the man, and sought by every means to induce him to relinquish his seat in the Senate, and remove to Texas, and after mature reflection he resolved to do so. He arrived at Brazoria in March, 1825, with his family and servants, when there were but few families in the colony. During the following summer his young and amiable wife and two of his three children sickened and died, thus stamping his entrance into the wilderness with the greatest calamity known to the common lot of man. There was then no American settlement west of the Colorado river; but Green De Witt of Missouri, had just contracted for a colony on the Guadalupe and La Vaca rivers, and solicited Major Kerr to become surveyor-general of it: and until his (De Witt's) final removal with his family, to take charge of the colony. This he consented to do, and in September, 1825, he settled near where Gonzales now stands, on the Guadalupe : built suitable cabins for present use, and commenced a survey of the colony. He had with him, besides his servants, five or six young men, among whom was that remarkable man afterwards so distinguished as a spy, and known as Deaf Smith. Very soon another family settled near him—that of Francis Berry, who died in January, 1853, near Lockhart, Texas.
The country was then occupied by the numerous wandering tribes of Indians, who have since become so famous in Texan history. Parties of these savages frequently visited the little settlement and generally appeared pacifically disposed; but they still showed a lurking opposition to having the country surveyed, a process they little understood, yet to their minds it foreboded no good. Kerr subsisted his party almost exclusively upon wild game and coffee, as it was impossible to procure other supplies. A gentleman of Missouri, looking at the country, and having an introductory letter to him, found him intently drawing maps, without any food on hand excepting a venison ham.
In June 1826, he was called to San Felipe on business with Austin; and while absent, a portion of hi- household started to a dance on the Colorado, some 60 miles, to celebrate the 4th of July. While encamped and asleep on the second night of July, they were attacked by a body of Indians, one of the men badly wounded, their horses taken, and the party routed. Returning next day to Kerr's house, they found it deserted, one man dead and scalped in the yard, the house robbed and partially burned, and other evidences of savage barbarity around. Passing on to Berry's house, they found it deserted, and on the door, written with charcoal, a memoranda, that they were retreating to the Colorado, whither the defeated and weary men and women again started, and reached three days afterwards in suffering condition. This unexpected outbreak of the Indians, and the weakness of the colony, determined Kerr for the present to settle on the La Vaca, nearer the coast, and nearer succor, which he did in October, 1626, but continued the survey of De Witt's colony.
Soon afterwards, De Witt arrived with his family, and they built a little fort on the La Vaca, since known as the " Old Station." Here the germ of the colony remained and made corn in 1827. During the latter year, what was known as the Fredonian war, headed by Edwards, broke out at Nacogdoches, the avowed object of which was to establish an independent republic. The far-seeing Austin and his colonists, in their weak condition, looked upon (he step as most suicidal, and bitterly opposed it. A commission of five discreet persons, headed by Major Kerr, were sent on to Nacogdoches to negotiate and remonstrate with the leaders there, and greatly to the satisfaction of their constituents, succeeded in their mission. Though Kerr continued his connection with De Witt's colony for several years, he remained permanently on the La Vaca, then in the municipality of Matagorda. He was commissioned by the governor, Gonzales, to lay out and name the capital of the colony, embracing in the tract four leagues or six miles square of land. In honor of the governor, be named the place Gonzales.
He afterwards became surveyor of De Leon's colony, and surveyed most of its lands. When De Witt removed hi) settlers from the " Old Station" to Gonzales, Kerr was left alone, and for some time remained without a neighbor nearer than 50 miles ; but by prudence managed to retain the friendship of the Indians in the immediate vicinity. No man, without having experienced something of the kind, can form an adequate idea of the dangers and trials, the fluctuations of fear and hone, through which persons thus situated hare to pass. It would require a volume to relate the thousand and one interesting incidents and " hair-breadth "scapes" connected with this period of Major Kerr's life. In 1829-'30, however, a few families settled within fifteen miles, and ere long several others, till a nucleus was formed, around which a good population gradually gathered. Among those who first settled were the numerous family of the Sutherlands, Whites, and Menefees, from Alabama, embracing a high degree of respectability and intelligence, and who proved to be valuable auxiliaries. In 1827 Major Kerr made a tour into Mexico, with the view of extending his knowledge of their laws and customs, and derived much benefit from it.
In 1832 a convention of delegates was called to frame a state constitution, to be sent on to the supreme government for approval, and Major Kerr was elected a member of that body; and again, in 1833, when a similar body was demanded for the same purpose, (the first having failed of success,) he was almost unanimously chosen as a delegate a second time. For bearing the constitution adopted by the latter body, Austin was imprisoned in the city of Mexico. When the revolution broke out in 1835, Kerr was early on the frontier, and participated in the battle of Lipantitlan on the 4th of November. He was elected a member of the first consultation, but did not leave the army in time to take his seat; being, however, immediately chosen a member of the General Council of the Provisional Government, he at once entered upon the discharge of his duties, and did much that winter to aid the government and the troops in the field. While in the council, he was elected a member of the convention which declared Texas independent; but from the imminent danger of his family, on the approach of Santa Anna, he was compelled to postpone taking his seat; and before he could leave them in a safe position, the convention adjourned from necessity. In the organization of the republic in March, 1836, he was appointed by President Burnet major in the army, and as a necessary precaution to enable him to devote his entire time to the public good, he sent his family to Missouri, where they remained some time. In the spring of 1837 he also visited his old home in that state, and received many flattering marks of respect from his former friends, and the people wherever he was known.
In 1838 he was elected to the Texan Congress, in which body he rendered invaluable service to the exposed frontier, in securing the passage of the first anti-dueling law, and the removal of the seat of government from Houston to Austin; a measure of cherished policy on the part of the western half of the republic. No man exerted more salutary influence in that body; nor was any one better qualified by long residence,patient investigation, and intimate acquaintance with the land laws and system of Mexico, to propose wise legislation in regard to the land titles of the country which he had adopted.
Soon after this, Major Kerr, long having devoted himself to the public interests, sought retirement, with the view of settling up his long-neglected private affairs, and devoting himself to the pursuits of agriculture and to the education of his children, (having married a second time in 1833.) Still, much of his time was given to the public, rendered valuable as his information was in regard to the history of the country and the rights of property; and after our annexation to the mother country, he served as one of the United States marshals. Like his distinguished relative, Philip Doddridge, Major Kerr possessed a remarkable memory that never failed him: a discriminating knowledge of men and things; a strong and well-balanced mind; and a nobleness of heart that ever made him a favorite with his friends—a high- toned and honorable gentleman, long to be remembered with grateful affection by those who knew him.
Though well advanced in life, and having for nearly fifty years lived through continued trials and hardships, incident to his residence in new and dangerous frontiers, he enjoyed good health and an unabated flow of good spirits, till the brief illness which closed his life. He died suddenly, of pneumonia, at his old residence on the La Vaca, on the 23d of December, 1850, aged sixty years and three months. He chose to be interred on his own premises; and in presence of a large concourse of friends his remains were deposited in the spot selected by himself. A handsome marble tomb, with an appropriate inscription, marks the spot. Long will he be remembered as one of the noble pioneers of Western Texas. [Source: DeBow's Review, 1853]
Was born near Danville, KY on 24 Sep 1790, the son of Baptist minister James Kerr and wife Patience Wells.
He served in the War of 1812 as a Lt. in the company of Capt. Nathan Boone and with Capt. Boone's Rangers in maintenance of security of the area. He was said to be a favorite friend of Nathan's father, Daniel Boone.
He was elected Sheriff of St. Charles County, MO and studied law on his own.
In 1819 he married Angelina Caldwell, the daughter of General James Caldwell from Saint Genevieve, MO, who was speaker of the House of Representatives of the Territory of Missouri.
He was elected twice to the Missouri State legislature and in 1824 to the Senate, but at the close of the session he resigned to go to Texas.
It is said that Kerr resigned and removed to Texas in part because of unpleasant relations with his father-in-law who he had defeated in the election for Missouri Senator.
James Kerr arrived with his wife, three children and black servants, among whom were Shade, Jack and Annis, at the mouth of the Brazos River in Feb 1825. Major James Kerr died in Jackson County on his farm 7 miles north of Edna on Kerr's Creek in the Kerr Cemetery.
Kerr County, Texas was named in his honor.
KERR, JAMES
Prominent among the early pioneers of colonial Texas was the gentleman whose name heads this article, Major James Kerr, whose history, while it presents no extraordinarily distinguishing fact, is full of interesting incidents, and entitles it to a place in this connection.
He was the son of the Rev. James Kerr, a respectable Baptist minister, whose father was an Irishman. The latter resided in Pennsylvania, but in 1780 the father of the subject of this sketch removed and settled two miles from Danville, now Boyle county, Kentucky, where James was born on the 24th September, 1790, and was one of five sons and four daughters. At that day it was impossible to afford the means of acquiring a good education in that new and infested region. To defend the country from savage inroads required all the time and means the settlers had: and hence the children grew up with simply the rudiments of an English education. Their father, however, as well as their mother, possessed a strong mind, well stored with useful knowledge, and by their efforts they were blessed in imparting to their growing family much that was valuable to them in alter life, and to direct their minds in the path of virtue and patriotism. Through their mother, who was a Wells, they were first cousins to the great western orator and statesman, Phillip Doddridge, of Virginia, who died in Congress, in 1832. A portion of the family removed to Missouri, then a part of Spanish Louisiana, in 1797. The parents visited the same distant region in 1799, where the mother died near St. Louis : and in 1808 the remainder removed and settled in St. Charles county. The four surviving sons were just arriving at manhood when the war broke out in 1811-12, and early enrolled themselves in the volunteer service, and acquitted themselves throughout the struggle with much credit. Thomas, the younger brother, was one of the youngest volunteers in the field. He and William were employed in several trying emergencies, and did well. They proved then and in after life to be made of good material; Thomas having, as a citizen, and in various responsible public stations, ever sustained an unimpeachable reputation, went to the grave in peace and honor in January, 1849, in Lawrence county, Missouri. Richard Kerr, than whom a purer man never lived, not only acquired a good name as a soldier and officer in that war. but lerred his fellow-citizens of Missouri, and afterwards of Illinois, in the legislature many years, and the United States government in several capacities with fidelity, and ever enjoyed a rare degree of popular esteem; indeed, he was almost idolized by his friends, and had no enemies. He died on a visit to Texas, December, 1852. William, the only survivor, still resides in Missouri.
Having thus digressed a moment, we will return to James Kerr, the pioneer. During the war of 1812, notwithstanding he was very young, he filled various military stations, and was in several engagements, in which he displayed that cool intrepidity that afterwards sustained him for so many years in the wilds of Texas. In the summer of 1813 he was second in command at Boone's defeat on the Illinois river,, in which they were routed, and hotly pursued for 24 hours. He was awarded great praise for his bearing on that occasion. During the same season he and two other men were ambushed and attacked by 17 Indians, at the mouth of Salt River, in Missouri, in which his horse was three times wounded under him, and finally killed. The party, through his cool daring and a well-contrived ruse, after a chase of six miles, escaped.
After the war he was chosen sheriff of St. Charles county, then extending to Boons-lick, and now comprehending some ten large counties. In this capacity he served four years, and then removed to St. Genevieve county (in 1819-20), where he had married. He had not been long there till he was elected to the House of Representatives, and at the next election to the State Senate, over his father-in-law, Major Caldwell, one of the most popular men in the state. While serving in the legislature he took strong ground in favor of encouraging, by all legitimate means, the Santa Fe trade, then in its infancy, and warmly and prophetically contended that it would become a great source of wealth to Missouri. He had at an early day contracted an intimate friendship with the lamented Gen. Stephen, F. Austin, who had long resided in that portion of Missouri, and was then planting his infant colony in Texas. Austin knew the man, and sought by every means to induce him to relinquish his seat in the Senate, and remove to Texas, and after mature reflection he resolved to do so. He arrived at Brazoria in March, 1825, with his family and servants, when there were but few families in the colony. During the following summer his young and amiable wife and two of his three children sickened and died, thus stamping his entrance into the wilderness with the greatest calamity known to the common lot of man. There was then no American settlement west of the Colorado river; but Green De Witt of Missouri, had just contracted for a colony on the Guadalupe and La Vaca rivers, and solicited Major Kerr to become surveyor-general of it: and until his (De Witt's) final removal with his family, to take charge of the colony. This he consented to do, and in September, 1825, he settled near where Gonzales now stands, on the Guadalupe : built suitable cabins for present use, and commenced a survey of the colony. He had with him, besides his servants, five or six young men, among whom was that remarkable man afterwards so distinguished as a spy, and known as Deaf Smith. Very soon another family settled near him—that of Francis Berry, who died in January, 1853, near Lockhart, Texas.
The country was then occupied by the numerous wandering tribes of Indians, who have since become so famous in Texan history. Parties of these savages frequently visited the little settlement and generally appeared pacifically disposed; but they still showed a lurking opposition to having the country surveyed, a process they little understood, yet to their minds it foreboded no good. Kerr subsisted his party almost exclusively upon wild game and coffee, as it was impossible to procure other supplies. A gentleman of Missouri, looking at the country, and having an introductory letter to him, found him intently drawing maps, without any food on hand excepting a venison ham.
In June 1826, he was called to San Felipe on business with Austin; and while absent, a portion of hi- household started to a dance on the Colorado, some 60 miles, to celebrate the 4th of July. While encamped and asleep on the second night of July, they were attacked by a body of Indians, one of the men badly wounded, their horses taken, and the party routed. Returning next day to Kerr's house, they found it deserted, one man dead and scalped in the yard, the house robbed and partially burned, and other evidences of savage barbarity around. Passing on to Berry's house, they found it deserted, and on the door, written with charcoal, a memoranda, that they were retreating to the Colorado, whither the defeated and weary men and women again started, and reached three days afterwards in suffering condition. This unexpected outbreak of the Indians, and the weakness of the colony, determined Kerr for the present to settle on the La Vaca, nearer the coast, and nearer succor, which he did in October, 1626, but continued the survey of De Witt's colony.
Soon afterwards, De Witt arrived with his family, and they built a little fort on the La Vaca, since known as the " Old Station." Here the germ of the colony remained and made corn in 1827. During the latter year, what was known as the Fredonian war, headed by Edwards, broke out at Nacogdoches, the avowed object of which was to establish an independent republic. The far-seeing Austin and his colonists, in their weak condition, looked upon (he step as most suicidal, and bitterly opposed it. A commission of five discreet persons, headed by Major Kerr, were sent on to Nacogdoches to negotiate and remonstrate with the leaders there, and greatly to the satisfaction of their constituents, succeeded in their mission. Though Kerr continued his connection with De Witt's colony for several years, he remained permanently on the La Vaca, then in the municipality of Matagorda. He was commissioned by the governor, Gonzales, to lay out and name the capital of the colony, embracing in the tract four leagues or six miles square of land. In honor of the governor, be named the place Gonzales.
He afterwards became surveyor of De Leon's colony, and surveyed most of its lands. When De Witt removed hi) settlers from the " Old Station" to Gonzales, Kerr was left alone, and for some time remained without a neighbor nearer than 50 miles ; but by prudence managed to retain the friendship of the Indians in the immediate vicinity. No man, without having experienced something of the kind, can form an adequate idea of the dangers and trials, the fluctuations of fear and hone, through which persons thus situated hare to pass. It would require a volume to relate the thousand and one interesting incidents and " hair-breadth "scapes" connected with this period of Major Kerr's life. In 1829-'30, however, a few families settled within fifteen miles, and ere long several others, till a nucleus was formed, around which a good population gradually gathered. Among those who first settled were the numerous family of the Sutherlands, Whites, and Menefees, from Alabama, embracing a high degree of respectability and intelligence, and who proved to be valuable auxiliaries. In 1827 Major Kerr made a tour into Mexico, with the view of extending his knowledge of their laws and customs, and derived much benefit from it.
In 1832 a convention of delegates was called to frame a state constitution, to be sent on to the supreme government for approval, and Major Kerr was elected a member of that body; and again, in 1833, when a similar body was demanded for the same purpose, (the first having failed of success,) he was almost unanimously chosen as a delegate a second time. For bearing the constitution adopted by the latter body, Austin was imprisoned in the city of Mexico. When the revolution broke out in 1835, Kerr was early on the frontier, and participated in the battle of Lipantitlan on the 4th of November. He was elected a member of the first consultation, but did not leave the army in time to take his seat; being, however, immediately chosen a member of the General Council of the Provisional Government, he at once entered upon the discharge of his duties, and did much that winter to aid the government and the troops in the field. While in the council, he was elected a member of the convention which declared Texas independent; but from the imminent danger of his family, on the approach of Santa Anna, he was compelled to postpone taking his seat; and before he could leave them in a safe position, the convention adjourned from necessity. In the organization of the republic in March, 1836, he was appointed by President Burnet major in the army, and as a necessary precaution to enable him to devote his entire time to the public good, he sent his family to Missouri, where they remained some time. In the spring of 1837 he also visited his old home in that state, and received many flattering marks of respect from his former friends, and the people wherever he was known.
In 1838 he was elected to the Texan Congress, in which body he rendered invaluable service to the exposed frontier, in securing the passage of the first anti-dueling law, and the removal of the seat of government from Houston to Austin; a measure of cherished policy on the part of the western half of the republic. No man exerted more salutary influence in that body; nor was any one better qualified by long residence,patient investigation, and intimate acquaintance with the land laws and system of Mexico, to propose wise legislation in regard to the land titles of the country which he had adopted.
Soon after this, Major Kerr, long having devoted himself to the public interests, sought retirement, with the view of settling up his long-neglected private affairs, and devoting himself to the pursuits of agriculture and to the education of his children, (having married a second time in 1833.) Still, much of his time was given to the public, rendered valuable as his information was in regard to the history of the country and the rights of property; and after our annexation to the mother country, he served as one of the United States marshals. Like his distinguished relative, Philip Doddridge, Major Kerr possessed a remarkable memory that never failed him: a discriminating knowledge of men and things; a strong and well-balanced mind; and a nobleness of heart that ever made him a favorite with his friends—a high- toned and honorable gentleman, long to be remembered with grateful affection by those who knew him.
Though well advanced in life, and having for nearly fifty years lived through continued trials and hardships, incident to his residence in new and dangerous frontiers, he enjoyed good health and an unabated flow of good spirits, till the brief illness which closed his life. He died suddenly, of pneumonia, at his old residence on the La Vaca, on the 23d of December, 1850, aged sixty years and three months. He chose to be interred on his own premises; and in presence of a large concourse of friends his remains were deposited in the spot selected by himself. A handsome marble tomb, with an appropriate inscription, marks the spot. Long will he be remembered as one of the noble pioneers of Western Texas. [Source: DeBow's Review, 1853]
Family Members
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
