James Kerr

(1970-1850)

            Kentucky native James Kerr, the son of a Baptist minister, was reared in Missouri.  Kerr fought in the war of 1812 and was later sheriff of St. Charles County, Missouri.  He married Angelina Caldwell in 1818 and served in the Missouri senate and House of Representatives.  Kerr was appointed surveyor general of the Texas colony of Green DeWitt in 1825.  With his wife, three children and several slaves, he joined Stephen F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” colony in Brazoria.  In August 1825 he set out to select a site for the DeWitt Colony.  Kerr named the community Gonzales in honor of the Governor of Coahuila, Mexico.  By this time, Angelina Kerr and two of the children had passed away.

            Kerr was active in area politics and law enforcement during the formative years of the republic of Texas.  He acted as attorney and surveyor of Benjamin Rush Milam in 1827.  He negotiated for peace before the Fredonian Rebellion, signed a treaty with the Karankawa Indians and fourth other tribes.  He was the Lavaca delegate at the convention at San Felipe De Austin in 1832 and served as a member of the second and third conventions.  Two years later, he married Sarah Fulton.  He became a major in the Texas Ranges in 1835 and in the republic of Texas army in 1836.  He was elected to the third Texas congress in 1838.

            Kerr’s later years were spent practicing medicine in Jackson County.  In 1856, pioneer Joshua Brown gave the land around this site in order that Kerr County be named for his longtime friend, Texas frontiersman and patriot James Kerr.

(2000)

Early Settler of Kerr County

(The Shingle Makers)

            The earliest permanent settlers at this pint on the Guadalupe was Joshua D. Brown (1816-74), a native of Kentucky who came to Texas in 1830 and settled at Gonzales near a fellow Kentuckian, James Kerr, surveyor and resident manager of Green DeWitt’s colony.  Brown did military duty for the republic of Texas.  After marrying Sarah Jane Goss of Gonzales, he sought new opportunities on the frontier.  Learned the art of hand-riving cypress shingles and found here on the Guadalupe headwaters an abundance of giant cypress trees suitable for commercial use.

            In 1846, he led to this site then shingle makers, and built a camp of picket houses in which to work.  Despite Indian raids that sometimes drove the crew to Gonzales for safety, he made a success of the first industry operated at later site of Kerrville.

            Brown bought 2,640 acres of land with frontage on the river when the county was organized in 1856.  He instituted upon having it named or his friend, James Kerr.  He donated the original townsite, including 4 acres of land for public building and streets in Kerrsville (as town was then called), the county seat.  He lived out his lifetime on his ranch near town.  A son, A. P. Brown, was a county commissioner in 1935-36.

(1971)