John Ker (planter)
| John Ker | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 27, 1789 |
| Died | January 4, 1850 |
Resting place | Linden, Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine |
| Occupation | Surgeon, planter, politician |
| Title | Doctor |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
| Spouse(s) | Mary (Baker) Ker |
| Children |
David Ker Sarah Evelina Ker John Ker Lewis Ker Mary Susan Ker William H. Ker |
| Parent(s) |
David Ker Mary Ker |
| Relatives | Joshua Baker (father-in-law) |
John Ker (1789-1850) was an American surgeon, plantation owner and politician.
Biography
Early life
John Ker was born on June 27, 1789.[1][2][3] His father, David Ker (1758–1805), born in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland but of Scottish ancestry, immigrated to the United States and served as the first President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[4][5] The family moved to the Mississippi Territory after President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) appointed his father to the Supreme Court of Mississippi.[4]
He received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1822.[3][5][6]
Career
He worked as a medical doctor.[7][8] He served as a surgeon in the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813-1814.[4]
He owned the Good Hope Plantation, a cotton plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana.[7] He also patronized Oakland College in Lorman, Mississippi, a college started by Reverend Jeremiah Chamberlain (1794-1851); it closed down during the Civil War.[5]
In the 1830s, he served in the Louisiana State Senate.[3] That same decade, together with other slave owners Isaac Ross (1760-1838), Edward McGehee (1786-1880), Stephen Duncan (1787-1867), and educator Jemeriah Chamberlain (1794-1851), he co-founded the Mississippi Colonization Society, whose aim was to send freedmen to Liberia on the African continent, and served as its Vice President.[3][8][9][10] The organization was modeled after the American Colonization Society, but it focused on freedmen in Mississippi, a large slave state.[9][10] Additionally, he went on to serve as one of the Vice Presidents of the American Colonization Society.[3][11][12][13]
Personal life
He married Mary (Kenard Baker) Ker, the daughter of Joshua Baker (1799–1885), who served as the 22nd Governor of Louisiana in 1868.[3][11] They had four sons and two daughters:
- David Ker (1825-1884).[11]
- Sarah Evelina Ker (1826-1868).[11] She married Richard E. Butler.[11]
- John Ker (1826-1870).[11]
- Lewis Ker (1831-1894).[11]
- Mary Susan Ker (1838-1923).[7][11]
- William H. Ker (1841-1902).[7][11]
He and his family summered at Linden, a mansion in Natchez, Mississippi now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[7] The property was formerly owned by Thomas Buck Reed (1787–1829), a United States Senator from Mississippi who was the son-in-law of Isaac Ross, whom he knew through the Mississippi Colonization Society.
He was a Presbyterian.[8]
Death
He died on January 4, 1850.[1][2] He was buried on the grounds of the Linden mansion in Natchez, Mississippi.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 FindAGrave
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Smithsonian Institution
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 UNC Libraries: Ker Family Papers
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1999, Part 1, p. 521
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Taylor, Michael, CIVIL WAR TREASURES: “What a Price to Pay, for What?”: Four Civil War Letters of Sarah Ker Butler, Civil War Book Review, Issue: Fall 2011
- ↑ General Alumni Society (1922). General Alumni Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania, 1922. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Louisiana State University Libraries: John Ker Papers
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Mosette Broderick, Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age, New York, New York: Random House, 2010, p. 52
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Mary Carol Miller, Lost Mansions of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010, Volume II, pp. 53-56
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dale Edwyna Smith, The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820-1868, Routledge, 2013, pp. 15-21
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 UNC Libraries: Collection Title: Mary Susan Ker Papers, 1785-1958
- ↑ Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, American Colonization Society, 1933, Volumes 16-30, p. 54
- ↑ The African Repository, American Colonization Society, 1842, Volumes 18-19, p. 54