Kerr, Joseph, D.D., a prominent minister of the Associate Reformed Church, was born in Antrim County, Ireland, in 1778 ; educated at the University of Glas- gow, and, with a view of entering the ministry, ptirsued theological studies under the direction of the Associate Presbytery of Derry. He came to this country in 1801, and Avas licensed by the Second Presbyterj- of Pennsyl- vania shorth^ after. His appointment lay over a vast area of country west of the Alleghanies, a work for which he seemed to have been endowed by nature. In 1804 he was called to Slifflin and St. Clair as regular pas- tor, and, accepting, was installed October 17. When the Presbyteiy decided to establish a thcologicd school at Pittsburg, they looked to him for its head, and felt con- strained to urge his removal to that place, and ajipointcd him professor of theology, a post which he successfully filled until he died, Nov.* 15, 1829. "The death of Dr. Kerr shed a gloom not only over the large circle of his friends and acquaintances, and the families of his pas- toral charge, but over the entire Synod of the West, as it seemed at once to dash the brightening prospects of the infant theological seminary intrusted to his super- vision. . . . With an athletic physical constitution, of more than ordinarily prepossessing appearance, he was endoAvcd with intellectual powers of the first order, high- ly cultivated, and possessed of all the essential elements of a natural orator. With undoubted yet unostenta- tious piety, mild, kind, aftalile, affectionate, benevolent, liberal, and hos]iitablc almost to a faidt, he at once won the friendship and affections of his acquaintances, and the confidence of the congregations to whom he minis- tered, and, without assuming it, or even being aiijiarcnt- ly conscious of it, he occupied from the commencement of his ministry tlie position of a master si)irit. which was accorded to him witliout envy and without ojiposition by his co-presbyters." — (A\'ilson, Pn\<b. Jlistoriad A Imanuc, 1863, p. 372 sq.
Kerr, Joseph R., son of the preceding, and also a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, was born in St. Clair ti>wnsliip, Alleghany Co., Pa., Jan. 18, 1807, and was educated at the Western University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1826 with the highest honors of his class. In the fall of 1827 he en- tered the theological seminar^' at Pittsburg, founded then only a short time, over which his father presided.
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and was licensed Sept. 2, 1829, Only two and a half montlis later his father died, and young Kerr was called to liU his place in the pastorate, and, accepting the prof- fered place, was ordained July 29, 1830. " Thus called by Providence to till the pulpit of such a man as his fa- ther, he succeeded, from the very first, in giving entire satisfaction to his people, and soon became one of the most, if he was not altogether the most, popidar of the preachers in the city, but it was at the expense of such exliausting toil as contributed slowly but surely to un- dermine a constitution at best but deUcate. From being a student of divinity, and without any experience, he entered at once on the pastoral oversight of a large con- gregation, and all the duties connected with the office of the Christian ministry. In his preparation for the pul- pit he was a close, unwearying student. lie was ambi- tious of excellence in whatever he attempted connected with his office, and became a workman that needeth not to be ashamed" (Sprague, Annals [Associate lief. Presb. Church ], ix, 162. His health, however, failed him, and in 1832 he was obliged to take an assistant, Moses Kerr (q. v.),a younger brother. His liealth, notwithstand- ing this timely precaution, continued to fail, and he died June 14, 1843. Kerr published an address, Responsihil- iti) of Literary Men (183G), and a sermon on Duelling (1838). (J.li.W.)
Kerr, Moses, a minister of the Associate Ecformed Presbyterian Church, third son of Dr. Joseph Kerr (q. v.), was born in St. Clair, Pa., June 30, 1811. Naturally of a serious and thoughtful cast of mind, and manifest- ing in very early life decided liiety, his education was directed from the first with a view to iiualifying him for the sacred ministry. Signs of failing health, however, induced him to devote himself to mercantile life, but it soon proved as unfavorable to his health as his ajiplica- tion to study, and he engaged in farm-work. His health becoming restored, he entered the Western University of Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1828. In the fall of the same year hebegan the study of theology ia the seminary then under the care of his fiitlver ; was licensed to preach on the 28th of April, 1831, and shortly after was called as pastor to ^Vlleghany. But when the Presbytery met to or- dain and install him, he returned the call on account of a hemorrhage of the lungs. The Prcsb3'tery, however, pro- ceeded with his ordination to the office of the ministrj-. This was on the 9th of October, 1832. Shortly after he sailed for Europe, and on his return, with every appear- ance of restored and established health, resumed preach- ing, and finally accepted a call by the large and influen- tial congregation of Robinson's Eun, in the vicinity of Pittsburg, September 2, 1834. But a little more than six months later he was again attacked with hemorrhage of the lungs, and demitted his pastoral charge. During a vacancy he discharged for a time the duties of pro- fessor of languages in the Western University of Penn- sylvania; afterwards of Biblical literature and criticism in the theological seminary, Alleghany. But his tastes and talents were for the pulpit, and he again accepted a call as a preaclier, this time from the Third Church, Pittsburg, 18th of October, 1S37. Witli that congrega- tion he closed his life on the 2Gth of January, 1840. Moses Kerr " was a student from tlie love of study, and a careful reader of the best writings not only in theolo- gy, but in literature generall}'. With a becoming ap- preciation of the demands of his profession, he aimed to store his mind not only with the matter of text-books of theology and the works of past ages, but the fresh discussions of living divines, and at the same time keep up with the general advance of literature and science in the world. As a preacher he had capabilities which, with ordinary health and an ordinary length of life, must have rendered him eminent in his profession." — Sprague, A nnals, ix, 16(3.