Robert F. Kerr Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1620-1622 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	ROBERT F. KERR, the able and popular librarian of the State 
Agricultural College of South Dakota, at Brookings, is a native of the 
state of Indiana, having been born at Sugar Grove, Tippecanoe county, on 
the 12th of April, 1850, a son of Andrew J. and Nancy (Sayers) Kerr. His 
father was born in Franklin county, Ohio, and was a son of Samuel Kerr, 
who was a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, being the sixth son of 
John Kerr, who was born in northern Ireland, whence he emigrated to the 
United States in the colonial epoch of our national history, while he 
was a valiant soldier in the Continental line during the war of the 
Revolution, and he was numbered among the sterling pioneers of the old 
Keystone state, the family having been principally engaged in 
agricultural pursuits during the various generations. Andrew J. Kerr 
removed from Ohio to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, in company with an 
elder brother, being a lad of eleven years at the time, and he forthwith 
initiated his independent career and began to depend upon his own 
resources. He continued to work by the month until his marriage to Miss 
Eliza Ward, two children being born of this union,—Jesse, who is a 
resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Josephine, who became the 
wife of John Sprague, her death occurring in Tippecanoe county, Indiana. 
After the death of his first wife Andrew J. Kerr married Miss Nancy 
Sayers; whose father was Robert Sayers, while the maiden name of her 
mother was McMillan. Robert Sayers was a native of Virginia, and the 
family name has been identified with the history of Indiana from the 
early pioneer days. The McMillan family is of Scotch-Irish extraction, 
and representatives of the same were patriot soldiers in the war of the 
Revolution. The mother of the subject died in 1864, and his father 
subsequently consummated a third marriage, having devoted his active 
life to agricultural pursuits in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, while he is 
now living retired in New Richmond, that state, having attained the 
venerable age of eighty-four years, while he still retains possession of 
his old homestead farm, which he purchased in 1848. Of his second 
marriage were born six children, concerning whom we incorporate brief 
record, as follows: Robert F. is the immediate subject of this review; 
Clara is the wife of James D. Thomas, who resides near Wingate, Indiana; 
Martha is the wife of William Bennett, who resides near New Richmond, 
that state; Susan H., who is a maiden, resides in Wingate, Indiana; Mary 
E. is the wife of J. L. Hayes, of Newtown, Indiana; and Emma died in 
early childhood. Of the third marriage were born three children, namely: 
Thomas L., who resides near Otterbein, Indiana; Hattie F., who is the 
wife of Daniel E. Storms, now secretary of state of Indiana; and Nettie, 
who is the wife of John Rust, residing near Otterbein, that state. 

	Robert F. Kerr received his preliminary educational discipline in 
the public schools in the vicinity of his home, continuing his studies 
in this way until he had attained the age of nineteen years, while 
during the summer vacations he gave his attention to farm work. At the 
age noted he began teaching school in Warren county, Indiana, being thus 
engaged during one winter term and then entering Wabash College, at 
Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he continued his studies one term, after 
which he again taught a term in the same school as before. In the spring 
of 1872 he was matriculated in Asbury College, now known as DePauw 
University, at Greencastle, Indiana, while he thereafter continued to 
teach and attend college at intervening periods, depending upon his 
pedagogic efforts for the securing of the funds to defray his college 
expenses. He was a student in the college mentioned during the entire 
sessions of the years 1876-7, completing the classical course and being 
graduated as a member of the class of 1877, with the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. He then secured a position as a teacher in the public schools 
at Kentland, Indiana, and in the spring of 1878 was chosen county 
superintendent of the schools of Newton county, that. state. In April, 
1878, he went to Japan, where he was for eighteen months employed as a 
teacher in the provincial school at Hir Osaki, returning to the United 
States in October, 1880, and during the year 1881 and a part of 1882 he 
was an assistant in the surveying of the route of the Clover Leaf 
Railroad through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, knowing nothing of the 
details of the business at the time he joined the surveying party, but 
so rapidly accumulating technical knowledge that within nine months he 
was placed in charge of a corps of men. Thereafter he was assistant 
principal in schools at Blair, Nebraska, until 1885, when he came to 
Brookings, South Dakota, as principal of the preparatory department and 
teacher of history in the State Agricultural College. The school had 
been organized but one year previously, and he has thus been intimately 
identified with the work and history of this now flourishing and 
important institution, having, known in a personal way every student who 
has been graduated in the college. In 1892 he went out of the 
institution, which was placed under different executive control at the 
time, but in January, 1899, he was recalled, assuming the principalship 
of the preparatory department and also being placed in charge of the 
library of the college, while for the past year he has had the 
supervision of the library and the college extension work. After leaving 
the college in 1892 Professor Kerr was for one year traveling 
representative of a leading book-publishing concern, while in 1894 he 
was elected county superintendent of schools for Brookings county, of 
which position he continued incumbent until he was again called to 
official duty in the college as noted. He received the degree of Master 
of Arts from DePauw University in 1880. In politics he has always given 
an uncompromising allegiance to the Republican party, in whose cause he 
has taken a lively interest. He is a member of the directorate of the 
State Historical Society of South Dakota, and has made valuable 
contributions to the literature pertaining to the annals of the state. 
Professor Kerr is an appreciative member of the Masonic fraternity, with 
which he has been identified since 1874, being identified with the 
lodge, chapter and commandery in Brookings and also with the E1 Riad 
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in 
Sioux Falls. He also holds membership in the local chapter of the Order 
of the Eastern Star, of which he is the past grand patron of the grand 
chapter of the state, while at the present time he is worshipful master 
of Brookings Lodge, No. 24, Free and Accepted Masons. He is now 
preparing to follow through the circle of the Scottish-rite degrees of 
Masonry. He is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and 
was also a member of the Knights of Pythias until the lapse of the lodge 
organization in Brookings, while he is affiliated with the Beta Theta Pi 
college fraternity. His religious faith is that of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and he is a steward of the local congregation and also 
a member of the board of trustees, taking an active interest in the 
various departments of the church work.