JOSEPH D. KERR
1846 - 1902
"Joseph
D. Kerr died in the Cook county hospital Friday, December 12, where he
was taken. He fell on the streets of Chicago from the effects of a
paralytic stroke on December 3. He remained in the hospital nine days.
He went to Chicago December 1 to attend the stock show, and intended to
leave that city for Toledo either Thursday or Friday. Saturday his
folks here became anxious about him, but it was not until December 8, they succeeded in finding the place where he was sick. He was
unconscious most of the time after the attack of paralysis.
Ed.
Culler and L. E. Griffin went to Chicago the fore part of last week,
returning home Thursday evening. Fillmore Kerr, a brother of the
deceased, left for Chicago Friday morning, but before he arrived, Joseph
D. had died. Pneumonia had set in after the paralytic stroke. Charles
Miller, the undertaker, went to Chicago, and brought the remains home
Saturday night.
Joseph
D. Kerr was born August 2, 1846, in Middletown, Holmes county, Ohio,
and with his parents in 1857, came to Hicksville, where he for a time
attended the public schools. Afterwards he attended the normal school
at Williams Center for two terms and then taught school in this vicinity
for several terms. The objection of his parents hindered his enlisting
during the civil war.
For
six years, commencing with 1867, he conducted a flouring mill at
Lagrange, Ind. In 1873, he came to Hicksville, and was the leading
spirit in organizing the well-known firm of Kerr Bros. & Co.
In
1883, Mr. Kerr retired from this firm and took a two years' law course
in the Union College of Law at Chicago. On his return to this place in
June, 1884, he was elected justice of the peace. In 1885, he took up
the practice of law. In 1889, he formed a law partnership with James E.
Coulter.
In
1857, at the time of the advent of Mr. Kerr, the village contained less
than one hundred inhabitants. The public school had an enrollment from
all the territory then included in the district of less than sixty.
Not a single manufacturing plant run by any other power than the hand
was in Hicksville.
About
that time, Joseph and Wesley Dowell built a saw mill over on the site
of the present Lower-Goller manufacturing plant; subsequently Joseph
Kerr, Sr. rented the mill of these founders and Miles Chapman and Joseph
D. and his brother Thomas became the working force of the mill and
gained his first knowledge of mechanical aid in labor. Industry was the
prominent trait of his character.
From
childhood until death, labor was the duty of every hour. After the
burning of the grist mill at Lagrange, Joseph D., Thomas and Filmore
Kerr succeeded in getting a shelter shed over an old threshing engine, a
bolting saw and a cut off, and the original of the present Kerr Bros.
company plant was ready to lay the foundation of wealth without a dollar
in addition, save mentality and a willingness to work. This was the
beginning with Joseph D. as the mastermind that built one of the
largest handle plants in the world. While Joseph D. did not remain with
the firm of Kerr Bros & Co. through all the years of its growth,
yet its breadth and scope of application was covered by the plan mapped
out for its future by Joseph D. - a manufacturing institution that has
furnished more days labor through all its ramifications than any other
labor center in the village.
Mr.
Kerr was a believer that a practical education consisted in a trained
mentality that could and would furnish to the possessor a support and
competence for old age.. While Mr. Kerr did not escape the army of
critics with their close-drawn blankets and 'better than you' step. No
family in our village was better provided for. No more thoughtful,
painstaking father and husband. No young man ever started in life with
less. Willing hands and an honest intention to succeed was his sole
capital..."
*Joseph D. Kerr was the father of Hicksville's long-time physician, Dr. Paul Kerr. Dr. Kerr's only sibling, Dewitt Kerr, died at a young age and was buried with his parents. His wife was Flora Culler Kerr.
*Joseph D. Kerr was the father of Hicksville's long-time physician, Dr. Paul Kerr. Dr. Kerr's only sibling, Dewitt Kerr, died at a young age and was buried with his parents. His wife was Flora Culler Kerr.
Source: Obituaries: Pioneers of Northwest Ohio, Volume I. Carma Rowe Estate, Johnson Memorial Library. No date. Page 44.
Copies available at the Defiance Public Library and the Sherwood and Hicksville branches.
