| Joseph Kerr | |
| Jr/Sr1: | United States Senator |
| State1: | Ohio |
| Term Start1: | December 10, 1814 |
| Term End1: | March 3, 1815 |
| Predecessor1: | Thomas Worthington |
| Successor1: | Benjamin Ruggles |
| Office2: | Member of the Ohio Senate from Ross and Franklin counties |
| Term Start2: | 1804 |
| Term End2: | 1806 |
| Preceded2: | Abraham Claypool Nathaniel Massie |
| Succeeded2: | Abraham Claypool Duncan MacArthur |
| Office3: | Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Ross County |
| Term Start3: | 1818 |
| Term End3: | 1820 |
| Preceded3: | Duncan McArthur James Manary William Vance |
| Succeeded3: | John Bailhache John Entrekin William Vance |
| Office4: | Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Ross County |
| Term Start4: | 1808 |
| Term End4: | 1809 |
| Preceded4: | New district |
| Succeeded4: | James Dunlap Joseph Gardner Nathaniel Massie David Shelby Edward Tiffin |
| Birth Date: | 1765 |
| Birth Place: | Chambersburg, Pennsylvania |
| Death Date: | August 22, |
| Death Place: | East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, US |
| Party: | Democratic-Republican |
Joseph Kerr (1765August 22, 1837) was a Democratic-Republican politician from Ohio who served in the United States Senate.
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's son, Joseph Kerr Jr., died in the Battle of the Alamo.[1]
After statehood was declared, Kerr was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1808, 1816, 1818, and 1819. He was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1804 and 1810. He also served as a brigadier general of Ohio Volunteers during the War of 1812, in charge of supplying provisions to the Army of the Northwest.
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.
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.