Representative William Harper View All Years

HON. WILLIAM HARPER.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to prepare and present suitable resolutions respecting the life, character and public service of the Hon. William Harper, an honored member of this House in the Third and Thirteenth General Assemblies, beg leave to report the following:

William Harper was born in Ross county, Ohio, November 3, 1819, and came to Des Moines county, Iowa, in October, 1842, where he purchased a farm in Yellow Springs township, and was at once recognized as a leader in pioneer good citizenship, a zealous church worker and promoter of educational affairs of the community. For seventy years he was an active member of the Presbyterian crurch, and after fifty-four years as Elder was retired and made Elder Emeritus. In 1856, and again in 1876 he was sent by the Presbytery of Iowa as a delegate to the General Assembly of the United States. He was ever found ready to give unsparingly of his talent and means for the advancement of Christianity.

At the early age of nineteen he began school work. He, with a brother, taught the first large select school in the city of Burlington. For six years he served as county superintendent of schools of Des Moines county. He was one of the founders of the Jefferson Academy, afterwards Yellow Springs College, and was president of the board of trustees during its existence. He was also a member of the school board of Mediapolis. During the War of the Rebellion he was appointed recruiting officer or agent and enlisted many hundreds of men, thereby avoiding a draft in Des Moines county, which seemed imminent at the time. He was commissioned a notary public by Gov. George Hempstead in 1850. In 1850 he was elected a member of the Third General Assembly of Iowa. Again in 1870 he was elected to the Legislature where he distinguished himself as a leading member, serving on many important committees, and was chairman of the Committee on Schools. In 1877 upon his removal to Mediapolis he assisted in organizing the State Bank of Mediapolis of which he was president. It is said that he was executor or administrator of more estates than any other man in Iowa.

On August 7, 1844, in Ross county, Ohio, Mr. Harper and Miss Harriet (Ware) Heizer were united in marriage; of this union one child, a daughter Lurissa Jane, was born.

Mr. Harper passed from this life on December 31, 1908, and was laid to rest in the Kossuth cemetery beside his wife who passed away several years ago. He left to mourn his loss two brothers, John of Mediapolis and Robert of Manhattan, Kansas, a niece, Miss Nellie Heizer, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

William Harper was a man of positive character, but his convictions were tempered with conservatism. He was a peacemaker who arbitrated with most absolute justice. He lived a beautiful life, and those who knew him well remember his kind and sympathetic words and deeds, and by his death we all, and especially the young people, have lost a kind friend and true advisor.

Resolved: That a copy of these resolutions be entered upon the Journal of the House and that the Chief Clerk be directed to send an ingrossed copy to the family of the deceased.

WILLIAM D. DODDS,

WM. LARRABEE JR.,

E. H. FOURT,

Committee.

Adopted February 2, 1909.