FRANKLIN COUNTY OHIO - BIO: KERR, John (published 1880)
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History of Franklin and Pickaway Counties,  Ohio
Pub by Williams Bros.,  1880

JOHN KERR

John M. Kerr,  one of the four proprietors of the original town plat of
Columbus,  was born about the year 1778,  in County Tyrone,  Ireland, 
and was educated at the University of Dublin.  He came to this country
early in the century,  and settled in Franklinton,  about 1810.  His
connection with the company entering into compact with the legislature
in 1812,  has already been given.  Mr. Kerr was appointed, in 1813,  the
first agent of the associates,  and continued until 1815,  when he
declined longer service.  He was also a member of the first board of
councilmen,  elected in 1816,  for the "borough of Columbus."

He died in 1823,  in the same year with Mr. Lucas Sullivant.  Mr. Kerr
left a large fortune,  at his death,  which was soon dissipated.  Mr.
John M. Kerr Jr.,  now nearly sixty-two years old,  is the only son
living;  but a sister  (MRS.  Mary F. Heffner,  now a widow),  resides
in Fremont,  Ohio.  There is also a grandson,  a boy of ten years, 
bearing the family name,  John M. Kerr.

Mr. Kerr was buried in the old North graveyard,  and as a result of the
neglect into which the place has fallen,  the headstone placed at his
grave has been destroyed,  and his children are not able to identify the
grave of their father,  and he a man whose active business life was so
intimately associated with the early history of the city!

The son of Mr. Kerr,  mentioned above,  is now living in Columbus,  with
his wife and child,  the latter a promising boy of about ten years.  Mr.
Kerr is a man of much intelligence and literary culture,  who made many
business ventures with the great wealth which his father left,  but
failed in them all.  And now,  at the advanced age of sixty-one,  he
finds himself in great affliction from the almost total loss of sight by
a painful disease of the eyes,  and from the pinchings of absolute
poverty.


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