David Ker
| David Ker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Presiding Professor of the University of North Carolina | |
| In office 1794–1796 | |
| Succeeded by | Charles Wilson Harris |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 1758 Downpatrick, Ireland |
| Died | January 21, 1805 (aged 46) Natchez, Mississippi |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Ker |
| Children | David Ker John Ker Sarah Ker Eliza Ker Martha Ker |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
| Profession | Educator, Religious Minister |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
David Ker (February 1758 – January 21, 1805) was the first presiding professor (equivalent of a modern-day university president) of the University of North Carolina.
Biography
Early life
David Ker was born in February 1758 in Downpatrick, Ireland.[1] He was of Scottish origin.[2] He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin.[1][2][3][4] He became a Presbyterian minister with the Temple Patrick Presbytery.[1] He emigrated to the United States in the 1780s. Indeed, he was in Orange County, North Carolina by 1789.[1]
Career
In 1791, he served as a Presbyerian minister in Fayetteville, North Carolina.[1] He was a schoolteacher on weekdays and gave sermons in the courthouse on Sundays.[1]
He moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1794, where he served as the first presiding professor (now known as university president) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[1][4] He resigned two years later, in 1796, after arguing with the trustees and students.[1] Indeed, the trustees had tried to demote him to Professor of Languages, but he refused.[1] After it became evident that they wouldn't budge, he decided to leave.[1]
He moved to Lumberton, North Carolina.[1] He served as the first president of an academy founded by John Willis, a Brigadier General in the American Revolutionary War who owned a large plantation in Lumberton, in the 1790s.[1] Meanwhile, he passed the Bar exam.[1]
He moved to Natchez, Mississippi with John Willis in 1800.[1] He established the first public school for women in the Mississippi Territory.[1] His wife and daughters taught at the school.[1] Shortly after, he becae the Sheriff and Clerk of the Court of Adams County, Mississippi.[1] Two years later, in 1802, he was made a Judge of the Mississippi Supreme Court by President Thomas Jefferson.[1][4]
Personal life
He married Mary Ker.[1] They had five children:
- David Ker.[1] He died unmarried at the age of twenty-three.[1]
- John Ker.[1] He married Mary Baker Ker, the daughter of Joshua Baker, the 22nd Governor of Louisiana, and became a surgeon, planter and politician.
- Sarah Ker.[1] She married Mr Cowden.[1]
- Eliza Ker.[1] She married Rush Nutt of the Laurel Hill Plantation.[1]
- Martha Ker.[1] She married married William Terry.[1]
Death
He died on January 21, 1805 in Natchez, Mississippi.[1]
Legacy
His widow burned all his papers.[1] His portrait, however, is preserved at the Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 William S. Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 3, H-K, pp. 353-354
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Robert Haynes, The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier, 1795-1817, Louisville, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2010, p. 54
- ↑ Franklin E. Court, The Scottish Connection: The Rise of English Literary Study in Early America, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2001, p. 100
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Leslie Gale Parr, A Will of Her Own: Sarah Towles Reed and the Pursuit of Democracy in Southern Public Education, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2010, p. 5
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