Joseph Kerr, businessman and politician, was born in 1765 in Kerrtown (now Chambersburg), Franklin County, Pennsylvania. In 1792—several years after marrying Nancy Daugherty (d. 1833)—he moved to Ohio, where he worked as a military contractor, surveyor, justice of the peace, judge, farmer, businessman, and innkeeper. His political career included several stints in the Ohio legislature and a brief term as a U.S. senator (1814–15). Kerr also served as a brigadier general of Ohio Volunteers during the War of 1812.