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Permanent LinkSenator Samuel Houston Harper View All Years
SAMUEL HOUSTON HARPER was born near Zanesville, Ohio, April 23, 1843; he died at Ottumwa, Iowa, December 17, 1911. At the age of ten his family removed to a farm near Ottumwa, where the remainder of his youth was spent. He enlisted in Company B, Thirty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry in June, 1863, and by promotion attained the rank of Captain, serving until honorably discharged in February 1866. Very soon after the close of the war he entered the hardware business in Ottumwa, first as a clerk, then for himself in association with various other persons until 1892, when the firm of Harper & McIntire was formed and still continues, Captain Harper having been the controlling factor in its growth into one of the largest wholesale hardware establishments in the State. His fine ability and his standing as an honorable and trustworthy man drew to him such connections as the presidency of the Agency Savings Bank, vice presidency of the South Ottumwa Bank and the Phoenix Trust Company, directorship in the Iowa National Bank, Iowa Savings Bank, Dain Manufacturing Company, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Chillicothe Savings Bank, Ottumwa Y. M. C. A., Ottumwa Cemetery Association, the Open Door Rescue Mission and the Ottumwa Public Library Board. He served in the Iowa Senate most efficiently during the 29th, 30th and 31st General Assemblies. Among memorable measures for which he labored was that for the appropriation for the erection of the Historical, Memorial and Art Building. He was commander of the Iowa Department G. A. R. in 1905 and of the Loyal Legion Iowa Commandery, in 1906. He was a presidential elector and a delegate to the national monetary conventions at Indianapolis in 1896 and 1898. He was serving most successfully as Mayor of Ottumwa at the time of his death.