Harvey Robert Cupples, Clearfield Co., PA., then Red River Parish, Louisiana
Submitted for the LA GenWeb Archives by Mike Miller, Nov 2001.

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Harvey Robert Cupples.  A man who is accomplishing some very remarkable results in scientific 
farming and the breeding of blooded stock is Harvey Robert Cupples, one of the prosperous 
planters of Red River Parish, whose magnificent plantation is one of the show places of the 
parish.  At present he is vice president of the parish school board from Ward Four, but has 
held other offices of local import, and has in the past, as he is still doing, rendered most 
effective public service.  He was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1872, a 
son of James R. and Susan (Wise) Cupples.

The paternal grandparents were natives of Pennsylvania, and strict Methodists in religious 
faith.  James R. Cupples was a prominent man, interested in contracting and building, as well 
as farming upon an extensive scale, but the home environment proved too narrow for Harvey R. 
Cupples, and he finally left Pennsylvania, and with one of his boyhood friends set out to see 
something of the country, but with no particular destination in view.  When they reached 
Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Cupples took a commercial course in a business college of that city, 
and later located at Shreveport, Louisiana.  Two of his brothers are also located in Louisiana: 
J. O., who is with the Peavy-Wilson Lumber Company of Kinder, Louisiana; and .J. E., who is a 
planter of Robson, Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

Upon going to Shreveport, which he reached in 1896, Harvey R. Cupples embarked in a mercantile 
business, and later held several clerical positions with business houses of that city.  In 1906 
Mr. Cupples left Shreveport for Red River Parish to become manager of Westdale Farm, 
Incorporated, a property of 10,000 acres devoted to Cotton, grain and livestock.  He managed 
this property in a very satisfactory manner according to the latest scientific methods in 
farming and stock breeding.  After coming here he erected a splendid residence, his father, 
who paid him a visit, superintended its construction.  Unfortunately this beautiful home has 
since been destroyed by fire.  In 1918 Mr. Cupples bought his present plantation of 723 acres, 
on which he now makes his borne, and he is developing this property and raising banner crops.  
While he has been a democrat from his youth, Mr. Cupples is too broad-minded a man to permit 
himself to be partisan in politics.  He has served on the parish police jury from Ward Four, 
holding office for the period between 1914 and 1918, inclusive, and following the completion 
of his term of office he was elected a member of the school board, to which he still belongs.

In 1898 Mr. Cupples married at Shreveport Sarah A. Casselbery, of Jackson, Tennessee, and they 
have three children: Fred R., Emily Sue and Harvey Robert, Junior.  Another daughter, Ruth E., 
died at the age of five years.  Mr. Cupples belongs to Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church of 
Shreveport, but was formerly a member of the Christian Church.  They are all musical, and they 
have a family choir.  Fred Cupples was too young to serve his country during the World war, 
but was with the Second Army and spent a year or two in France.  He is now married and is 
employed by the Howard Mercantile Company.  The daughter is a student of Centenary College, 
Shreveport.  Mr. Cupples is a thirty-second-degree Mason, and belongs to El Karubah Temple, 
A. A. 0. N. M. S., of Shreveport.  He and his family are numbered among the most representative 
of the people of Red River Parish, and they have many warm personal friends in this region.

NOTE:  The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 365-366, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.

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