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Below is a family biography included in The History of Hickory County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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E. M. Kerr, one of the worthy residents of Hickory County, Mo., and a successful farmer and stock-raiser, is a native of Marion County, Ohio, born in 1841, and is a son of E. and Jane (Madden) Kerr, who were born in Pennsylvania and Virginia, in 1807 and 1806, respectively. The father was reared to manhood in his native State, but was married in Ohio, and soon after located in Indiana, and, after residing successively in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana, died in the latter State in 1870, having been a faithful soldier in the Federal Army in Company G, Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry, and was also promoted to hospital steward. His wife died in 1869, also in Indiana. The paternal grandfather was an Englishman who came to America prior to the Revolution, and took an active part in that struggle. He died in Pennsylvania. The maternal grandfather was born and spent his life in Virginia. E. M. Kerr is the only one of his parents’ four children who is living. He attained manhood in Indiana, and received his education in the common schools. He was married there to Miss S. Elmira Keen, who was a native of the State, born in 1845, and was engaged in farming in that State until 1870, when he sold out and came to Missouri, purchasing his present farm in Hickory County in 1883. During the war he joined Company B, Fifty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under W. Q. Gresham, as a private, but was promoted to second lieutenant in the same company, and participated in the siege of Corinth, siege of Vicksburg, Atlanta, in which battle he saw Gresham immediately after he was wounded, and saw McPherson fifteen minutes before he was killed; siege of Savannah, being with Sherman on his march to the sea, and was discharged at Louisville, Ky., and mustered out of service at Indianapolis, Ind. He has ever since been a strong Republican, and is a member of the G. A. R. He belongs to the Agricultural Wheel.

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This family biography is one of 53 biographies included in The History of Hickory County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Hickory County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Hickory County, Missouri family biographies here: Hickory County, Missouri

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