Kerr (pronounced "car") was born in Kerrtown, Pennsylvania (now Chambersburg), and moved to Ohio in 1792.
He served in a number of positions as clerk, surveyor, judge and justice of the peace in the Northwest Territory.
He served as justice of the peace at Manchester, Adams County, Ohio in 1797. and as a judge of the first quarter session court of Adams County, Northwest Territory, in 1797.
Kerr was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1814 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Thomas Worthington.[2] Kerr served from December 10, 1814, to March 3, 1815,[3] and did not seek re-election.
Death
Kerr's extensive farm went bankrupt in 1826, and he moved to Memphis, Tennessee and then to rural Louisiana, where he purchased a homestead near Lake Providence.[4] He died on August 22, 1837.
References
^Groneman, Bill (June 15, 2010). "KERR, JOSEPH". Texas State Historical Association.