Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Harper, Russell W. 1877 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 June 29, 2013, 4:51 pm

Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

RUSSELL W. HARPER.

Russell W. Harper is a member of the Harper & McIntire Company, controlling an
extensive hardware trade. He was born in Ottumwa, November 4, 1877, and is a son
of the Hon. Samuel H. and Cornelia (Russell) Harper. The father was born near
Zanesville, Ohio, April 23, 1843, and was a little lad of but ten summers when
brought to Wapello county by his parents, who took up their abode on a farm
about a mile and a quarter north of the present city limits of Ottumwa. There
Samuel H. Harper was reared to agricultural pursuits, remaining upon the farm
until 1862, when he could no longer content himself to follow the plow, for the
country was involved in civil war and he felt that his first duty was to the
Union. Accordingly, he offered his services to the government, becoming a
private of Company B, Thirty-sixth Regiment of Iowa Infantry. In June, 1863, he
received a commission from the secretary of war, making him a second lieutenant
in the Forty-sixth Regiment of United States Colored Infantry. He was afterward
advanced to the rank of first lieutenant and later to the rank of captain and
was honorably discharged in February, 1866, thus closing a service that covered
three years and seven months.

The following year Samuel H. Harper became actively connected with the hardware
trade, in which line of business he continued until his death. He entered the
firm of Henry & Haw, of Ottumwa, with whom he remained until 1869, when he
established business on his own account as junior partner in the firm of Egan &
Harper. A disastrous fire overtook them in 1873, destroying building and stock,
but in the same year they purchased the hardware stock of Daggett & Edgerly,
after which the business was continued under the firm style of Egan, Harper &
Company, Mr. Edgerly remaining with the new firm. However, in 1875 he sold his
interest to E. A. Chambers and in 1876 the firm embarked in the wholesale
business by sending two men upon the road to represent their house to the trade.
In 1881, when Mr. Egan disposed of his interest, R. C. Wilson and Frank McIntire
entered the firm under the firm name of Harper, Chambers & Company. In 1881 fire
again brought disaster to the house, destroying their building and largely
damaging their stock. In 1885 Mr. Wilson retired from the firm and in 1892 Mr.
Chambers withdrew, at which time the business was reorganized under the name of
the Harper & McIntire Company and has so continued. In 1893 the large four-story
building now occupied by the company was erected and the business year by year
has continually increased until it has reached extensive proportions.

Samuel H. Harper continued in active connection therewith until his death, and
he was also president of the South Ottumwa Savings Bank, a director of the Iowa
National Bank and of the Iowa Savings Bank and also vice president of the
Phoenix Trust Company, while of the Chillicothe Savings Bank he was a director.
He was widely recognized as a man of sound business judgment, of close
application and of unfaltering energy. He never made engagements that he did not
keep nor incurred obligations which he did not meet, and he enjoyed to the
fullest extent the respect, confidence and honor of colleagues and
contemporaries. His position in business circles is indicated in the fact that
he was elected to the presidency of the Mississippi and Missouri Valley Hardware
Association. He took an active part in politics and was serving as mayor of the
city at the time of his death. He was also for five terms a member of the state
senate and aided in molding the legislative history of the state. He indorsed
and supported many important bills which eventually became laws, and he left the
impress of his individuality for good upon the development and progress of the
commonwealth. He likewise indorsed all those measures and movements which are a
matter of civic virtue and civic pride. He served on the board of education and
was a member of the board of directors of the Ottumwa Library. He was one of the
directors of the Open Door Mission and was an elder in the First Presbyterian
church. He was likewise on the board of directors of the Young Men's Christian
Association and did all in his power to advance the moral progress as well as
the material development of the community. His social nature found expression in
his membership in the Wapello and Country Clubs, and his fraternal spirit was
manifest in his membership in the Masonic lodge and in the Grand Army of the
Republic, of which he was state commander for the years 1905 and 1906. He was
also commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, department of Iowa, in
1906-7. He died December 17, 1911, and in his demise Wapello county lost one of
its most worthy and valued citizens, for his efforts were an element in public
progress along many lines.

His son Russell W. Harper has spent his entire life in Ottumwa and is indebted
to the public-school system for the educational privileges he enjoyed. After
putting aside his text-books he entered the employ of the Harper & McIntire
Company, accepting a clerical position and later going upon the road as a
traveling salesman. Some time later he returned to the office, with which he has
since been connected, and upon the incorporation of the firm in February, 1913,
he was elected treasurer. Practically his entire time is devoted to the
development of the hardware business, which is conducted along both wholesale
and retail lines, its ramifying trade interests reaching out over a wide
territory. He is also a director of the Iowa Savings Bank and the Agency Savings
Bank and is financially interested in a number of other business enterprises of
Ottumwa. He possesses the typical progressive spirit of the age and individual
merit and worth have brought him to his present connection.

In June, 1908, Mr. Harper was united in marriage to Miss Edna Burroughs, of
Marshalltown, Iowa. They belong to the Presbyterian church, and Mr. Harper is a
member of the Wapello Club. His political allegiance was given the Republican
party until 1912, since which time he has been identified with the Progressive
party. The change in his political affiliation was characteristic of the man. He
has always taken an advanced step when the way seemed favorable, and when he has
felt that the times demanded it. He has never been content to remain in a groove
marked out by others, and his initiative spirit and laudable ambition promise
well for further success in the future.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914


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