David Ker

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

1. January 10, 1794 The trustees elect David Ker presiding professor of the university Balloting on January 10, 1794, the trustees elected David Ker, who had come from Fayetteville, the university's first professor, with the title of presiding professor. He took charge at the opening in January 1795, lived in the house meant for a future president and held the post until July 1796. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: The First Century of the First State University, timeline (with Battle, History of UNC, vol. I, pp. 59-61) · Also: UNC Wilson Special Collections Library: David Ker and Mary B. Ker Portraits and Papers
2. January 15, 1795 UNC opens to students The University formally opened at Chapel Hill on a cold, rainy January 15, 1795, with Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight and trustees present, but no students had yet arrived. Hinton James came on February 12, and by March two professors taught 41 students; UNC was the only public university to graduate students in the eighteenth century. People: Hinton James, David Ker, Richard Dobbs Spaight Place: Chapel HillUNC Libraries, NC Miscellany: January 1795: The University of North Carolina (Nicholas Graham, January 1, 2004)
3. June 1, 1795 Harris sets up a small store of medicine for students and neighbours Writing from the university on June 1, 1795, Harris told his uncle, a physician, that with no doctor nearer than Hillsborough he would keep a small stock of medicine for students and the neighbourhood, at cost. He enclosed a plan of the university lands and village. People: Charles Wilson Harris, David Ker, Charles Harris Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Letter from Charles Harris to Dr. Charles Harris, June 1, 1795
4. October 1795 Joseph Green becomes the first student dismissed from the university Green and Frank Burton went to a cotton-picking frolic after being forbidden. Burton accepted public admonition, but Green refused and was dismissed by the faculty under David Ker. People: David Ker Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Joseph Green, Frank BurtonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 89
5. December 1795 Trustees adopt William R. Davie's plan dividing the university into a preparatory school and professorships Davie's plan put English at the center, let French stand beside the classics and set up chairs of moral and political philosophy, natural philosophy, mathematics, chemistry with agriculture and the mechanic arts, and languages. The board elected Samuel McCorkle a professor, but he declined when refused extra pay in place of the president's house. People: David Ker, William Richardson Davie, Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, Charles Wilson Harris Place: Chapel HillDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 93
6. Summer to December 1796 Charles Wilson Harris acts as presiding professor After David Ker resigned under pressure from the trustees in the summer of 1796, Harris acted as presiding professor until his own resignation that December. He had persuaded Joseph Caldwell to join the faculty in October 1796. People: Charles Wilson Harris, David Ker, Joseph Caldwell Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Harris, Charles Wilson