The Postmaster of Warren is too well known in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin to need a very formal introduction. A native of the Keystone State, he was born in Northumberland County, Jan. 5, 1837, educated in the Selins’ Grove High School, Freeburg Academy, and in the Pittsburg Iron City College, remaining in his native country until 1868. He began business for himself, operating a part of his father’s farm, and later leaving the rural district was afterward engaged a number of years as clerk in a general store. In 1862, during the progress of the Civil War, he enlisted as a Union soldier in Company I, 30th Pennsylvania Infantry; and later re-enlisting in the 208th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and serving until the close, his regiment being assigned to the Army of the Potomac. He participated in the siege of Petersburg, and the other numerous engagements of that campaign, miraculously escaping wounds and capture, and was mustered out at Alexandria, Va., in 1865. His experience was not unlike that of hundreds of others who left home and friends and risked their lives for the preservation of the Union.

Prior to this, however, Mr. Kerlin had been married in Pennsylvania, March 21, 1861, to Miss Sallie C. Cummings, and until 1868, after returning from the army, was engaged in the music trade until emigrating westward. He located first in Monroe, Wis., where he sojourned only a short time, however, then purchased 160 acres of land in the vicinity of Waddam’s Grove, Stephenson County, Ill., which he operated, and in connection with which he also continued the music trade. He brought about some valuable improvements upon his farm, and occupied it until 1882. He then removed to Warren, Ill., where he has since been a resident, and is still carrying on the music trade, although retaining possession of his farm.

Mr. Kerlin was appointed the Postmaster of Warren in 1886, under the Cleveland administration, and has acquitted himself with great credit. After being located in the office not quite a year his stock of goods with post-office outfit and fixtures was entirely destroyed by fire, he and his son at the same time barely escaping with their lives.

Mrs. Sallie C. (Cummings) Kerlin, the wife of our subject, was born in Union County, Pa., March 15, 1838, and is the daughter of Alexander B. and Catherine (Fisher) Cummings. Her father, a native of the same place, was born in 1803, and engaged mostly in mercantile pursuits, likewise dealing largely in furnaces at Lewistown. He married Miss Catherine Fisher, and they became the parents of eight children, only two of whom lived to mature years. The family, in 1846, took up their residence in Lewiston, where Mr. Cummings prosecuted his iron interests a number of years, then removed to Selins’ Grove, where his death took place in March, 1861. The wife and mother had died the day upon which her daughter Sallie C. was eight years old. The parents and most of the family were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, prominent people, and highly respected in their community. Mrs. Kerlin, after the death of her mother, was taken to the home of her paternal uncle in Union County, with whom she remained until her marriage. Maj. John Cummings was a man of more than ordinary ability, and a prominent Democratic politician.

To Mr. and Mrs. Kerlin there were born two children, A. Boyd and Harriet B., the latter now the wife of W. S. Benson, Jr., Traveling Express Agent, and the son of W. S. Benson, Sr., Traveling Freight Agent of the Illinois Central Railroad. The son, A. Boyd, was Assistant Postmaster at Warren, Ill., but is now following the land, loan, and banking business at Storm Lake, Iowa.

The father of our subject was Peter J. Kerlin, a native of Lower Augusta, Northumberland Co., Pa., and born in 1791. He remained a resident of his native State until about the age of seventy years, then coming to Illinois, settled at Waddam’s Grove, Stephenson County, where he followed farming, and spent the remainder of his days in this vicinity, dying at the mature age of ninety-four years. The mother in her girlhood was Mary M. Welker, and of their three children only two are living, Jacob P. (our subject) and William W., a well known and popular physician of Storm Lake, Iowa. The mother died at Nora, Ill., at the age of eighty-six.

Mr. Kerlin is a man universally respected throughout his community as one possessing more than ordinary ability, and who, by his courteous demeanor, invariably gathers around him hosts of friends. In politics he is a steadfast Democrat, and socially, a member in good standing of the Masonic fraternity.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois (1889),