Kind and Generous: The Christian Legacy of Sarah Harrison Kerr

This article is part of the 52 Ancestor Challenge. Each week in 2023, I will attempt to spotlight one ancestor from my family tree and provide some details about his or her life.

Week Two

Kind and Generous: The Christian Legacy of Sarah Harrison Kerr
By Clint Alley

The Surprise

The week before my wedding I made a remarkable discovery.

My wife and I could think of no better way to symbolize the seriousness of our commitment than by signing our names to the 'Marriages' page of one of our oldest and most treasured family Bibles. It fit in so many ways; the solemnity of our promise before God by incorporating His Word, the permanence of our commitment in the pages of a treasured family relic, and the added bonus of incorporating my love of genealogy in the ceremony.

Aunt Sadie Foster's Bible

My Grandmother allowed us to use the Bible of my great-grandaunt, Sadie Kerr Foster in our wedding ceremony. Sadie Kerr Foster, born in 1869, was my great-grandfather Harvey Kerr's sister. She lived a remarkable life; traveling from place to place and living in great hotels. Although she had no children of her own and died a widow, she shared her wisdom and love with her nieces and nephews in hundreds of letters, many of which still exist today.

Sadie Kerr Foster
From the collection of
Melanie Buffaloe Ginn

When she died, my grandfather inherited a trunk of her belongings, including her well-worn Bible.

In the center of the Bible, Aunt Sadie had fastidiously recorded the birth, marriage, and death dates of her parents, herself, and some of her siblings. On our wedding day, Christy and I added our signatures to this page.

As we prepared for the big day, I decided to leaf through the pages to ensure that nothing lay tucked there which might come loose during the ceremony. 

I am very glad that I did.

There, between the pages of the Bible, was a tiny, faded scrap of paper that was more than 130 years old; a one-of-a-kind relic of my family history.

It was the missing obituary of my great-great grandmother, Sarah Harrison Kerr. An obituary that--thanks to the unavailability of local newspaper records from the year of her death--probably exists in no other form anywhere on earth, and which offers one of the only surviving glimpses of who she was; a virtuous woman whose life was cut short far before her time.

Obituary of Sarah Harrison Kerr
Found in the pages of Sadie Kerr Foster's Bible

The Fountain which Never Runs Dry

Sarah Elizabeth Harrison was born on May 13, 1839 in Buckingham County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Benjamin Harrison (1805-1885) and Mary Beth Vawter (1808-1877). Sarah and her family moved to Columbia, Tennessee in 1846, when Sarah was seven years old.

Sarah's obituary records that "at the tender age of 12 she gave her heart to the Savior, and shortly thereafter united herself with the Baptist church, of which she has been a devoted, consistent member; and exhibited throughout her entire life that confidence and trust in Jesus, which is characteristic of a pure Christian." 

Not only did Sarah unite with the Baptist church; she--along with her father and sister--became one of thirteen original members of First Baptist Church of Columbia. The church was founded in 1856, some five years after Sarah's conversion. 

A 1908 obituary for Sarah's older sister Emma Harrison Sheppard published in the Baptist and Reflector says that Emma came to faith in Christ at "the memorable Philips Neely revival in the [Methodist] church" in about 1849, but joined the Baptist church along with Sarah and their father in 1856. Sarah's faith journey probably took a similar--if not identical--course. 

We can't be sure if Rev. Neely was the one who lead Sarah to faith also. But we do know the content of some of Rev. Neely's sermons, thanks to his wife's timely publication of them shortly after his death. One, in particular, was designed to get the attention of young people like Sarah and Emma. In his sermon The Need of Religion, Rev. Neely said, 

O that I could persuade you to draw your happiness in the morning of life from that fountain which never runs dry! O that I could influence you to put away that infatuation which tells you to postpone your return to God until your earthly hopes are dead, and age, with its infirmities, is upon you!

Down to the River to Pray

That same Baptist and Reflector obituary records that Sarah and Emma "were baptized by Dr. J.R. Graves in Duck river in the presence of a large assemblage of people." 

An article from the Tennessee Baptist describing 
the baptismal service where 
Sarah and Emma Harrison were baptized
on July 13, 1856

Dr. J.R. Graves was a prolific Baptist preacher who lived in Nashville. He published various Baptist newspapers from 1855 until his death. He also became a close friend of Sarah's father, Benjamin Harrison, by virtue of being part of the constituting committee of First Baptist Columbia. 

The Tennessee Baptist, Dr. Graves's paper published in Nashville, reported that an initial worship gathering was held in Columbia on June 29, 1856, at which time four pastors "constituted ten brethren and sisters into [a Baptist church]...at night one more was received by letter, and two have already offered themselves for baptism." 

The baptisms were held on July 13, and two men were also ordained as the church's first deacons that day. Those two candidates for baptism were undoubtedly Sarah and Emma Harrison, and one of the men slated for ordination was their father Benjamin Harrison.

A later Tennessee Baptist article describes that first baptismal service as "largely attended" and "solemnly impressive," with many present who had "never before witnessed...Christian baptism."

Sarah's baptism in the Duck River on July 13, 1856, was part of the 'grand opening' of First Baptist. Emma would be the last of the church's charter members to pass away, and every obituary for her intimately connected the Harrison family to the life of First Baptist Columbia. The church would remain a vital part of Sarah's life--and of the lives of her immediate family--until their dying days. 

Dr. J.R. Graves
The minister who baptized Sarah Harrison Kerr
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Answered Prayers

Despite the fervent prayers of its founders, the first decades of FBC Columbia were rocky. According to an article by Mrs. Robert Young in the book Churches of Maury County, Tennessee Prior to 1860, Baptists had been attempting with little success to form a church in Columbia since 1838. The formal chartering of First Baptist Columbia in 1856 was a major milestone, but many lean years lay ahead for the congregation.

The Civil War, which began five years later, scattered the church's members. The library and furniture which had been accumulated by the members was destroyed during the course of the war, and at war's end, little progress had been made in finding a place to build a home for the little congregation. 

In 1870, the church purchased a lot at the intersection of High and Mechanic Streets for $900 and "a faithful few" labored to pay for it over the next five years. 

Finally, in the summer of 1872, the church was reorganized and began holding regular Sunday services in a rented room above the offices of the Maury Democrat. The church's first building was completed and dedicated in the summer of 1876, two decades after Sarah and her family had helped to found the church. Judge W.B. Turner later wrote that the dedication of the church "was a joyful occasion for all and especially for Deacon Benjamin Harrison who had prayed earnestly for years that the Lord would let him live to see a Baptist church in Columbia."

Marrying a Presbyterian

In November 1858, when Sarah was nineteen, she married a cabinet maker named Andrew Harvey Kerr. The ceremony was conducted by Rev. George W. Griffin, the first pastor of First Baptist Church.  Andrew--or Harvey, as he was known, and as one of his sons would be named--came from a long line of Scottish Presbyterians. His grandfather, it was said, was a zealous Presbyterian who would "sing, pray, and exhort at the meeting" and "sing and shout in the field while following his plow." Andrew Harvey's father and many of his close relatives were listed among the members of Port Royal Presbyterian Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee in the 1870s and 1880s.

Although the details of Andrew Harvey's personal religious convictions are lost to time, we catch a glimpse that he probably shared the Presbyterian faith of his forbears from his obituary, which says that his funeral was held at Columbia's Presbyterian Tabernacle, albeit presided over by a Baptist minister.

The faith of their children might also give some evidence of the faith journey Andrew Harvey made in life. His son Harvey James Kerr (my great-grandfather) was a committed member of the Church of Christ, a movement which drew in many conservative Presbyterians in the late 19th century. On the other hand Sadie, the owner of the family Bible I mentioned above, once subtly ribbed her brother Harvey in a letter about his faith of choice. Sadie, like her mother Sarah, was a committed Baptist. In 1952, while congratulating Harvey on his son's wedding, Sadie said, "Mack wrote me that a Baptist minister is performing the ceremony (that pleases me!!)." 

Part of a letter from Sadie Kerr Foster to her brother Harvey James Kerr
(Both were children of Sarah Harrison Kerr)
March 10, 1952
Collection of Clint Alley

A Fireside Missionary

Sarah Harrison Kerr not only played an active role in the formative years of First Baptist Church Columbia, she also conducted a campaign of evangelism around her own hearth. Her obituary says, "Her many noble Christian virtues were daily displayed in her home around her fireside, where she instructed her children so faithfully, in tenderness teaching them the way of truth and righteousness."

What beloved passages might she have read to her children around that fireside? Her daughter Sadie was prone to mailing Bible verses to her nieces and nephews to memorize for Sunday School in her later years. Might this have been a practice she learned at the knee of her precious mother?

Sarah's Christian influence extended well beyond her years, and continued to inspire her descendants for decades after her passing. Although our window into Sarah's life is small, we see a woman who lived in extraordinarily challenging times and whose whose life was powered by extraordinary faith. 

The Civil War no doubt tested Sarah's endurance as well as her faith. In addition to being pregnant for most of 1862 (their second son, who was born that year, was named Robert Lee Kerr), Sarah suffered the hardship of keeping the household functioning without her husband for months at a time. The Civil War took Andrew Harvey from home at least twice; once at the beginning, when he enlisted in the Second Tennessee Infantry, and again at the end of the war, when Hood was making his final push toward Nashville. 

As the Confederate army swept through Columbia in November 1864, Andrew Harvey was conscripted into the Third Tennessee Infantry, and served a little less than a month for the Battles of Franklin and Nashville before returning home. In his oath of allegiance to the Union, made in January 1865, he said that he left the Confederate army because he "has a family."

Sarah's brothers also served in the Confederate army; one as a surgeon and one as an infantryman who walked home from Ohio after spending part of the war in a Union prison camp.

By the mid-1870s, Sarah, Andrew Harvey and their family were living near Dark's Mill, a community along the banks of Carter's Creek about seven or eight miles north of Columbia. In a twist of fate, their home was very near the home of Hamlin Alley, my 4x-great-grandfather on my father's side. Hamlin had moved his family to Maury County from Lawrence County after the Civil War.

The 1878 D.G. Beers Map of
Maury County
Homes of A.H. Kerr and
H. Alley highlighted in blue.
Source: Library of Congress

In 1877, the Columbia Herald and Mail reported "Mr. Harvey Kerr has a very sick family. His wife is very low; and his son Odie, who was accidentally shot Christmas, is improving very slowly." We don't know what ailment Sarah was suffering from in 1877. Perhaps it was the opening salvo of the disease which would cut her life short two years later. Whatever her ailment in the winter of 1877, she did not bounce back from it quickly; a blurb three weeks later said that she was still "improving slowly."

In September 1879, Sarah--mother of at least nine, the youngest of whom was four years old at the time--died of tuberculosis. She was only thirty-nine years old.

The Mission Continues

Sarah lived to see the first two decades of the Christian work she and twelve other believers began in Columbia. But the church she helped to found has blossomed into a major force for the Gospel. Untold thousands of souls have been impacted by First Baptist Columbia and the churches it has helped create. The Women's Missionary Union of Tennessee was created at FBC Columbia in 1888. By 1950, the church had more than 800 members. 

A photo I snapped of FBC Columbia in 2018.
Collection of Clint Alley

In 2001, First Baptist (now known as The First Family) moved from its downtown location to a 30-acre campus on Pulaski Highway south of Columbia, where expansion was easier. The church today has a staff of nine pastors, including a Hispanic ministry, and has sent many missionaries to the field worldwide. 

If Sarah could see the church today, and the many thousands of lives it has impacted since she first rose up from the waters of Duck River that Sunday so long ago, I think she would be immensely thankful. 

Works Cited

Churches of Maury County, Tennessee Prior to 1860. Columbia, TN: Tennessee Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1980.

'Dark's Mill Items,' Columbia Herald and Mail. 9 Feb 1877, p. 3.

'Death's Harvest.' The Herald and Mail. Columbia, Tennessee. 13 Nov 1908, p. 6.

“First Baptist Celebrates 160 Years of Serving Community.” The Daily Herald. The Daily Herald, August 8, 2016. https://www.columbiadailyherald.com/story/lifestyle/celebrations/2016/08/08/first-baptist-celebrates-160-years/25629174007/.

Foster, Sadie Kerr to Harvey J. Kerr, 10 Mar 1952, Collection of Clint Alley.

'In Memoriam: A Memorable Mother in Israel is Gone.' Baptist and Reflector. Nashville, Tennessee. 15 Oct 1908, p. 6.

McDaniel, Frank Kerr. Kerr Family History Project. Santa Clarita, CA: F. Kerr, 1993.

Neely, Philip Phillips. Sermons. United States: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1884.

Tennessee Baptist. Nashville, Tennessee. Vol XII, no. 42. 28 Jun 1856, p. 3.

Tennessee Baptist. Nashville, Tennessee. Vol XII, no. 44. 12 Jul 1856, p. 3.

Tennessee Baptist. Nashville, Tennessee. Vol XII, no. 46. 26 Jul 1856, p. 3.

Turner, William Bruce. History of Maury County, Tennessee. Nashville, TN,: Parthenon Press, 1955.