James Clarence Harper Papers, 1840-1890

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James Clarence Harper Papers, 1840-1890

1840-1890

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/02776/

James Clarence Harper was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Patterson, Caldwell County, N.C., in 1840, where he engaged in farming, merchandising, the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, stock raising, and teaching. He served as civil engineer, surveyor, and justice of the peace. He was a colonel in the state militia; member of the North Carolina legislature, 1865-1866; and U.S. representative, 1871-1873; and sat on the North Carolina Commission of Claims.He was active in road building projects and the Methodist Church and served on the building committee of Davenport Female College, Lenoir, N.C., and as president and building commission member for the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum in Morganton. Harper married Louisa C. McDowell in 1843; the couple had two children: John W. (1847-1865), a Confederate officer who was killed at Kinston, and Emma Sophia (1844-1922), who married Clinton A. Cilley, lawyer and judge of Lenoir and Hickory, N.C. Correspondence and related items, 1857-1886, chiefly document business matters. Beginning in the late 1870s, most items relate to the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Harper's multi-volume diary, 1840- 1889, contains almost daily entries, most of which are very short. Entries usually begin with a weather report and go on to document family; community; and business activities, such as buying and selling land, surveying, farming, and teaching. He often gave brief reports of political campaigns and election results; his agricultural activities (little or no mention of slave laborers); names of Methodist sermons; activities in the state legislature (1865-1866) and Congress (1871-1873); and homefront activities during the Civil War. Diary entries in the early 1870s mention painter and preacher Johannes Oertel of Lenoir. There is also periodic mention of Harper's activities on behalf of the Davenport Female College and, after 1876, the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum. Also included are a few clippings and a printed copy of a speech Harper made in Congress against school integration.

1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 100 items)

eng, Latn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6627016

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Cilley family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h2243x (family)

Davenport Female College (Lenoir, N.C.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sj7bsk (corporateBody)

Oertel, Johannes Adam Simon, 1823-1909

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bk3nxw (person)

Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, artist and Episcopal clergyman, was born in Bavaria and came to the United States in 1848. In 1851, he married Julia Adelaide Torrey (d. 1907), with whom he had four children. His works include decorations for the ceiling of the House of Representatives in the Capitol in Washington, D.C.; "Rock of Ages," which was widely circulated in reproduction; and many religious paintings and wood carvings for churches. Oertel served as rector in Lenoir and Morganton, N.C.; Glen ...

United States. Congress. House

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r31sjr (corporateBody)

U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house of Congress. From the guide to the Subscription lists, 1870, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections) The first session of the Congress of the United States, under a resolution passed by the Congress of the Confederation, on September 13, 1788, was called to meet in New York City on March 4, 1789. On the appointed day only 13 Members of the House were present and, as this number did not constitute a quorum, the sessions...

Harper family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61d100n (family)

Western North Carolina Insane Asylum (Morganton, N.C.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s51vds (corporateBody)

The Western North Carolina Insane Asylum at Morganton, N.C. was originally establised in 1883. Its first director was Dr. Patrick Livingston Murphy (1848-1907). In 1890 the hospital's name was changed to State Hospital at Morganton, and in 1959 to Broughton Hospital, named after World War II Governor J. Melville Broughton (1888-1949)...

Harper, James Clarence, 1819-1890

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g4ht4 (person)

James Clarence Harper was born in Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Patterson, Caldwell County, N.C., in 1840, where he engaged in farming, merchandising, the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, stock raising, and teaching. He served as civil engineer, surveyor, and justice of the peace. He was a colonel in the state militia; member of the North Carolina legislature, 1865-1866; and U.S. representative, 1871-1873; and sat on the North Carolina Commission of Claims. ...