My Kerr Family History
Links
William Samuel Kerr
William Samuel Kerr was born January 13, 1868 near Bakersfield Missouri, and was mostly raised by his aunt and uncle due to circumstances which you can read about here.
W. S. was raised in the Ozark country in Arkansas and was teaching school in Viola, Arkansas by the time he was 17. When he was 19 he moved to Milford, Texas. He graduated from Southwestern Normal College in Italy, Texas.
He was working picking cotton when he met his future wife, Margaret Churchel Wright. The story goes that Margaret was picking cotton to get money to go to the fair in Dallas, and W. S. was working in order to get money to go to school. (Margaret said she felt this was an early indication of the difference between them - he was working toward an education, she was working so she could have fun.) They married on Dec. 14, 1893 in Ellis County, Texas. They relocated to Ada, Oklahoma in February 1895.
W. S. was in and out of a number of businesses, he taught school, did some farming, was a bookkeeper for the First National Bank, helped establish the Pioneer Telephone Company, was a member of Ada's first school board, and helped build the first permanent school building in Ada. He helped pay for the first bridge in Pontotoc County OK, became the first City Treasurer of Ada, and in 1907 became the first county clerk of Pontotoc County. He was also instrumental in getting East Central College located in Ada.
All the while he and his wife, Margaret, had given birth to and were in the process of rearing their six children, Lois Frances, Robert Samuel, Mildred Margaret, Aubrey Moke, Travis Mitchell, and Billy Bryan Kerr. There was one other, the youngest, William Samuel Jr., who tragically died in an accident when he was about two years old. To their credit, with no more money than they had, each of their children earned college degrees and three of them earned advanced degrees.