Lucien H. Kerr one of Peoria’s most promising young men was a son of Samuel N. Kerr, a prominent lawyer of Ohio, who, upon retiring from the active duties of his profession, had located on a farm near Elmwood in Peoria County.

Lucien H. Kerr was born in the town of London, Madison County, Ohio, on May 4, 1831, and died in his forty-third year. He remained at home with his parents studying and working occasionally, until he was eighteen years old, when he came to Illinois. For several years he engaged in the business of buying and shipping livestock at Elmwood. Leaving that pursuit, he came to Peoria, read law and was admitted to the bar about the year 1861, but almost immediately thereafter enlisted in the Eleventh Regiment of Illinois Cavalry commanded by Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, and was Adjutant of that regiment when it was mustered in. He earned the successive ranks of Major and Lieutenant Colonel, and when Colonel Ingersoll, resigned, he took command of the regiment. He served through the war with distinction, and, although he had acted with the Douglas wing of the Democratic party up to the time of his enlistment, his ideas soon underwent a change, and, during the campaign of 1862, when at home on furlough, he made a strong speech at Elmwood severing his connection with the Democratic party. Thereafter he acted with the Republican party, and, upon receiving his discharge, returned to this city and resumed the duties of his profession, at once becoming an acknowledged power in the Republican ranks.

In 1870, he was elected a member of the State Senate from this district, which he ably represented for two years. In the campaign of 1872 he was a candidate for re-election but was unsuccessful. He was then appointed city Attorney for the City of Peoria, which position he held at the time of his death. This was occasioned by a gun-shot wound which he accidentally received while out gunning on the river, the fatal effects of which did not at first seem apparent. When informed of the fatal character of his wound he bore the announcement with heroic courage. He died at the house of Mayor Brotherson, from whose family he had received tokens of the warmest appreciation and friendship.

A meeting of the City Council was called by the Mayor and a series of resolution was adopted by that body testifying to his manly and outspoken life of truth and independence; to his culture as a well-read and accurate lawyer; to the faithfulness with which he had discharged all his duties as a soldier and a citizen; to his fidelity as a friend; to his genial and social qualities; to his everyday conduct as a courteous and high-toned gentleman that, as a State Senator from this district, his general acquaintance with the current events of the day, with the history and legislation of the country, and with the circumstances and wants of his constituents, united with a conscientious faithfulness in the discharge of his duties, had given him a standing and influence with his fellow-members not often acquired by legislators of greater age and experience.

He was a man of rare talent, and had not neglected the cultivation of the gifts that nature had bestowed upon him. Although his occupation, for some years, was among a class of men not always the most refined in manners, but generally open-hearted, frank, generous, honorable and honest, he never forsook the use of the means adapted to the highest culture of his intellect. He was well read, not only in the current literature of the day, but in the best of English classics. Gifted with a rich melodious voice and excellent memory, he was fond of committing and audibly reciting passages from the leading poets, selecting always such as touched nearest the sympathetic chords of nature. He was a natural orator and accustomed to embellish his speeches with quotations from the leading statesmen. Possessed of a pleasing address and courteous manner, he drew friends around him wherever he went. His popularity was bounded only by is acquaintance, and his society was after and appreciated by the most cultivated of the community. He made no public profession of religion, but is reverence for all that was pure and good, high and holy, made him a lover of the sublime in poetry and prose, a man whose natural instincts were reverential. He was a devoted and consistent member of the Masonic Order, under whose rites his body was laid in the tomb, regretted by the whole community.

Lucine H Kerr