Harper Family Notes 
Capt. George Branch Harper and James William Harper

E. J. Melton’s History of Cooper County, Missouri
CHAPTER 40
FOUNDING FAMILIES AND THEIR DESCENDANTS
Pages 210 – 220

Pioneer and Patriot.  CAPTAIN GEORGE BRANCH HARPER, who settled in Cooper County in 1839, with his brothers, Dr. John Peterson Harper and Thomas Burwell Thweatt Harper, fitted up a caravan in Boonville in 1849, and traveled overland to California in the gold rush.  He returned to Boonville in 1855, and engaged in the drug business with another brother, James William Harper, and in 1859 was employed in the Boonville branch of the Bank of St. Louis.  At outbreak of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as captain, fought in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged throughout the war and was severely wounded at Wilson Creek.  He was promoted to colonel near close of the war but his commission was intercepted by Federal lines.  After the war he was a broker in St. Louis, a banker at Pleasant Hill and later treasurer of Cooper County.  The Confederate camp of Cooper County was named for him.  He is buried in Walnut Grove cemetery in Boonville.  He died July 8, 1895.
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History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri,
Publication: St. Louis: National Historical Company, 1883

JAMES WILLIAM HARPER, 1821-67, born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, was the father of Henry Winston Harper, distinguished educator, dean of the Graduate School of Texas University and noted chemist. James W. Harper and his brother, George Branch Harper, conducted a wholesale drug house where Tearle's now is. Theirs was the only wholesale institution of its kind in the West.

The Harper monument has more than eight hundred letters on it, more than any other in Walnut Grove Cemetery, including mention of William Worsham Harper, 1857-1932; George Muir Harper, 1861-63; James Crenshaw Harper, 1863-65; Sallie Worsham Harper, 1828-76; Harriet Rebecca Harper, 1829- 76; and Henry Winston Harper, born in 1859, and residing in Austin, Texas

Harper Monument - besides the Harpers already mentioned this monument contains: William Worsham Harper, born 1857; died 1932; George Muir Harper; born 1861; died 1863; James Crenshaw Harper; born 1863; died 1865; Sallie Worsham Harper; born 1828; died 1876; Harriet Rebecca Harper; born 1829 and died 1876; and Henry Winston Harper; born in 1859 and residing in Austin Texa

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