Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Harper, Samuel Houston 1843 - 1911
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 4, 2013, 10:44 pm

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

SAMUEL HOUSTON HARPER.

Samuel Houston Harper was born April 23, 1843, on a farm near Zanesville, Ohio,
and died in Ottumwa, Iowa, December 17, 1911. In 1853 he came with his parents
to Wapello county, where the family located on a farm one and one half miles
south of Ottumwa. There were no railroads west of the Mississippi river in 18^3,
and Mr. Harper rode on horseback with his father from Keokuk while the rest of
the family came up the Des Moines river on a steamboat.

Samuel Harper attended the country schools and worked on the farm until 1862,
when he enlisted as a corporal in Company B, Thirty-sixth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry. In June, 1863, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the
Forty-sixth United States Colored Infantry, later being promoted to first
lieutenant and captain in the same regiment. Captain Harper was mustered out in
February, 1866, after serving three years and seven months in the army. The last
few months of his service were spent in Mexico, where United States troops were
engaged in driving out the French invaders of that republic.

On his return from the army Captain Harper began work for the hardware firm of
Henry & Haw and continued with them until 1869 when with Timothy Egan he engaged
in the hardware business under the firm name of Egan & Harper. In 1873 this firm
suffered loss of its stock by fire and in the same year reengaged in business
and purchased the stock of their competitors, Daggett & Edgerly, Mr. Edgerly
remaining with the new firm, known as Egan, Harper & Company. In 1875 Mr.
Edgerly sold his interest to E. A. Chambers, and the firm became Harper,
Chambers & Company, and in 1876 started in the wholesale business. In 1881 the
business was enlarged and Frank McIntire and R. C. Wilson entered the firm. In
the same year the company suffered another loss by fire. In 1892, Mr. Chambers
retired from the business, and the firm became Harper & McIntire Company.

During his entire life Captain Harper was an enterprising and public-spirited
citizen. He gave liberally of both his time and money to further all public
enterprises. He was a loyal believer in Ottumwa's future as an industrial and
manufacturing center and lost no opportunity to promote the interests of his
city or state. He stood forth as a type of high-principled and progressive
modern business man and commanded the respect of all his fellow citizens. At the
time of his death he was, in addition to his place at the head of his hardware
jobbing firm, vice president of the South Ottumwa Savings Bank, president of the
Agency Savings Bank, vice president of the Phoenix Trust Company, a director of
the Iowa National Bank, Iowa Savings Bank and Chillicothe Savings Bank, also a
stockholder in numerous other local institutions.

Captain Harper was instrumental in organizing the Ottumwa Commercial
Association.and became its first president. He was also very active in the
organization of the Wapello County Old Settlers' Association and served as
president of the association during the first years of its existence, taking
great pride in the success of the organization.

At the time of his death Captain Harper was serving as a member of the board of
directors of the Young Men's Chrisitan Association, the Open Door Mission, the
Ottumwa Cemetery Association and Parsons College of Fairfield, Iowa, and was an
elder in the First Presbyterian church of Ottumwa. He had previously served on
the Ottumwa board of education and the board of the Ottumwa Public Library, and
was formerly president of the Mississippi & Missouri Valley Hardware Association.

After serving as commander of Cloutman Post, No. 69, G. A. R. Captain Harper was
elected department commander of the Iowa Grand Army of the Republic for 1005-06,
and in 1906-07 was named as commander of the Iowa commandery, Military Order of
the Loyal Legion, and at the time of his death was president of the Thirty-sixth
Iowa Veterans' Association.

Socially Captain Harper was numbered among the members of the Wapello Club and
the Ottumwa Country Club, as well as being affiliated with the Knight Templar
division of the Masonic order.

Captain Harper exercised a keen interest in the political affairs of the
community and the state. He served Wapello county as state senator during three
sessions of the legislature from 1902 to 1907. In 1897 and 1898 he was a
delegate to the National Monetary Convention at Indianapolis and in 1900 was
named as sixth district presidential elector. In 1911 the need of a reform
business administration for the city of Ottumwa, having become extremely urgent,
Captain Harper reluctantly consented to become the republican candidate for
mayor to which office he was elected by a large majority. His sudden death nine
months after his election interrupted the manv plans he had inaugurated for the
improvement of the city's finances and the general civic welfare, but the good
influence of his reform policies persisted after his death and proved his short
administration to be of lasting benefit to the community.

On November 9, 1879, Captain Harper was married to Cornelia Russell, daughter of
John Wallace Russell. Clarence Samuel Harper is the oldest son of Samuel Houston
Harper. He was born in Ottumwa, March 11, 1876, and was educated in the public
schools of this city. He graduated from the Ottumwa high school in 1893 and from
Harvard College with the class of 1899. On returning from college Mr. Harper
worked on the editorial staff of the Ottumwa Courier until 1901 when he entered
the employ of Harper & McIntire Company, of which firm he is now vice president.
He is secretary of the Arnold Jewelry and Music Company, a director of the Iowa
National Bank, the South Ottumwa Savings Bank, the Chillicothe Savings Bank and
the Phoenix Trust Company. He is also a director of the Ottumwa Commercial
Association. In 1905 Mr. Harper was married to Elisabeth Deuel Chamberlin of
Chicago. Their children are Samuel Houston Harper II, James Rayner Harper and
Wallace Russell Harper.

Russell William Harper is the younger son of Samuel Houston Harper, and was born
in Ottumwa, November 4, 1877. He was educated in the public schools of Ottumwa,
entering the employ of Harper & McIntire Company at the age of sixteen years,
remaining with them continuously, and when the partnership was incorporated in
February, 1913, was elected treasurer and a director. He is also a director of
the Iowa Savings Bank and the Agency Savings Bank and a stockholder in several
local manufacturing institutions, and has been connected with the Iowa National
Guard since 1899, serving at this time as principal musician of the Fifty-fourth
Iowa Infantry Band. Mr. Harper was married in 1908 to Alice Edna Burroughs of
Marshalltown, Iowa.


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


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