William was born Feb. 22, 1813, in Dorchester County. His early years evidently involved a lot of moving. According to his obituary in the West Chester, Pa., "Daily Local News," William “was raised by an uncle who owned slaves, but while still quite young he went to Ohio to live with an aunt, who was a preacher in the Society of Friends. He soon became imbued with anti-slavery ideas and became an active worker in the anti-slavery movement .... His work in this way provoked animosity among his friends and relatives in Maryland that were remembered long after the war was over and slavery was gone.”

This paragraph presumably was written with the help of William’s son, Lewis, and should not be taken as precise and unbiased. It may reflect William's bitterness over the lawsuit and his explanation for the opposition to it by some on the Eastern Shore. The reference to an uncle who owned slaves almost certainly is Col. Bill. The aunt in Ohio is unknown, though it may have been Edward’s sister Sarah. There was a “Louisa” Harper of about the right age, who married Joseph Hurst in Dorchester county, had several children and moved to Ross County, Ohio, around 1802. The Hursts seem to have been Methodists, not Quakers, but they were noted for their work on the Underground Railroad. No record of William Harper has yet turned up in Ohio, despite some close searches. William’s brother, Beauchampe, went to Ross Township, Greene County, Ohio, (two counties west of Ross County) about 1835.

Around 1845, William came to the Philadelphia area, possibly through Quaker or abolitionist connections. He lived in New Jersey in 1849, when the lawsuit was filed. He was in the Upper Delaware ward of Philadelphia in the 1850 census. On Monday, Sept. 15, 1851, William married Mary E. Goodwin (1810-1873) from an old and somewhat faded Chester County ex-Quaker family. The marriage took place in West Chester, probably in the parsonage of the Baptist Church, as it was the Baptist minister in the town who performed the ceremony.

Mary's father died in 1858, and Mary inherited his $6,700 farm on the east side of Wilmington Pike (now Route 202) in Westtown Township. Mary and William worked the land there with the help of hired hands. In 1850, the household included Edward Sangrain, a 26-year-old illiterate Irish farm hand; 17-year-old Margaret Chandler, a domestic servant; and a girl named Fannie Barrett, age 10. William's sister, Nancy Harper, lived with them in 1860, as did Hannah Goodwin, Mary’s 85-year-old mother.

Mary Goodwin was 41 when she married William, and their only child was Lewis Goodwin Harper (1852-1928).

According to the obituary, William’s farm was a station on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. It is unlikely that it was a regular stop, though he may have taken in runaways there from time to time when neighboring stations were full or being watched. The value of his land decreased between 1860 and 1870. Mary Goodwin died on the farm on Christmas Eve 1873. William was elected supervisor of Westtown in 1875, but he sold the farm in 1878 and moved in with his son in East Goshen. He died of pneumonia in his son's home on Jan. 2, 1892.

Lewis was born June 6, 1852, and attended Wyers’ Academy and Friends’ High School, both in West Chester. In his youth, he went to work as a machinist in the Cope foundry on the Brandywine Creek just west of West Chester. But he returned to farming because of ill health. Like his father, he was active in the Republican Party. Lewis attended Goshen Baptist church. He married Sarah Elizabeth Roney (1855-1952) on Oct. 18, 1876. The wedding was held at Lizzie's mother's home in East Nottingham Township. Goodwins who were second cousins of Lewis had been neighbors of the Roneys in the southern end of the county, and perhaps it was through them that the couple met.

Lewis and Lizzie bought a 93-acre farm on Goshen Road near Milltown, East Goshen Township, in 1876. The farm had been part of the old Goodwin homestead, and it sat just south of the remainder of the 135-acre Goodwin property. Lewis sold this farm in 1924 and retired to West Chester. The land has since become a housing development, but the farmhouse still stands, off Reservoir Road.

Lewis and Lizzie had six children:

1. ETHEL GOODWIN HARPER (Jan. 18, 1878-Nov. 22, 1928), who married William H. Shourds of Cleveland, Oh., in 1906. They moved to Cleveland and had a son, Carl Shourds (1907-1920) and apparently no other children. Lewis G. Harper died during a visit to their home and Ethel died the next day.

2. CHARLES SUMNER HARPER (Aug. 14, 1879-Sept. 12, 1966), who married Nellie Lynch, a showgirl, which was considered something of a scandal in the family. Charlie worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a conductor and in other capacities for 47 years, living for a time in a rented house in Ardmore and retiring in 1953. His wife died shortly thereafter in Bradenton, Fla. They had no children. Charlie lived in Palmetto, Fla., but returned to West Chester and spent his final years in the old Mansion House hotel on Market Street. He was a 50-year member of the F&AM Lodge 322, West Chester.

3. HAMILTON RONEY HARPER (Oct. 8, 1880-May 24, 1907), who, like his brother Charlie, worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. And like his namesake, the railroad killed him. Hamilton had been manager of the Western Union telegraph office in Swarthmore, Delaware County. The railroad hired him and put him in a high-pressure job in Harrisburg. He was responsible for getting the right trains on the right tracks and a single mistake could lead to a terrible wreck. The job wrecked his nerves, and Hamilton died at age 27 in his parents' home in East Goshen of “nervous prostration” and “heart trouble.” He never married.

4. MARY ALFRETTA HARPER (March 26, 1886-March 31, 1945), who attended West Chester State Normal School and taught in public schools in Oxford until her marriage to Isaac Harry Shoffner (1874-1945) in 1915. He was a West Chester grocer. Their children were Geraldine E. Shoffner, Byron L. Shoffner, Warren I. Shoffner, William H. Shoffner, and Ethel G. Shoffner.

5. ROBERT SHARPLESS HARPER (March 8, 1892-Nov. 22, 1949)

6. WILLIAM HORACE HARPER (Sept. 29, 1895-Dec. 30, 1943), who married Mildred S. “Midge” Swafford of Philadelphia, a native of Georgia, and lived in Baltimore for 18 years, where he worked as a government agricultural agent. He died during a kidney stone operation, aparently as a result of an anaethetist’s mistake. His widow moved to a dairy farm in West Virginia with their two children, William H. Harper Jr. (born c.1926, never married); and Eunice Jane Harper (b.1929, married Elliott Shinn).

He was born March 8, 1892, and according to his son, derived his middle name from the Sharples Cream Separator, a successful product manufactured in West Chester in the late 1800s, which supposedly had been invented or tested on the Harper farm. The idea was to impress the Sharpleses and somehow reap a financial reward. Robert attended Friends School and was a 1908 graduate of East Goshen High School. He was a coronet player in the West Chester town band, and at one of its concerts he met Edith Rebecca Fetters (1901-1981), the schoolteacher daughter of an old Chester County farm family. They married on April 26, 1930, in a private ceremony in Edith’s parents’ home at 406 W. Union St., West Chester. The minister who performed the ceremony had married Edith’s parents, 31 years to the day before.

Robert and Edith moved to Cleveland after their honeymoon, but they were back in West Chester three years later when their only child, Ronald Lewellyn Harper, was born on Nov. 15, 1933. Robert worked as a self-employed electrician and handyman, and he also worked for Wyeth Labs. He died of heart disease at age 57 on Nov. 22, 1949, having been somewhat of an invalid since his first heart attack in 1942.

He was born Nov. 15, 1933, in West Chester and graduated from West Chester High School and Pennsylvania State University. At Penn State he met Nancy Goodfriend (b.1933), whom he married in her hometown of Worcester, Pa., on June 5, 1954. Ronald enlisted in the U.S. Army and he and his wife lived in Alexandria, Va.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Fort Ord, Calif.; and Cleveland, Texas, before settling in Exton, Chester County, about 1958. They lived in Exton until 1962, then at 1345 Sweet Briar Road, West Whiteland, until 1971. They moved to 194 Lakeside Road, Ardmore, that year, and moved to Gap, Lancaster County, in 1989, and Strasburg, Lancaster County, in 1991.

Their children are Douglas Robert Harper (b. July 29, 1960 in Philadelphia, married Joanne C. Ehling in Chester Springs, Pa., Feb. 14, 1988, divorced 1997, one child, Luke Hamilton Harper, born Dec. 12, 1990); David Ronald Harper (b. June 23, 1965, in Philadelphia, married Amy Mills on Mount Desert Island, Maine, Sept. 14, 1992); Megan Nancy Harper (b. Jan. 26, 1969, West Chester).

DOCUMENTS

Daily Local News, undated clipping, obituary notice, with two corrections in pen in final paragraph:

Lewis G. Harper

Lewis G. Harper, formerly of East Goshen, died yesterday afternoon at the home of his daughter, Ethel, in Cleveland Ohio, in his 77th year, from a paralytic stroke. He had been in poor health for three years since his first stroke. He was born on the farm now owned by Dr. Snyder, south of the borough, the only child of Wm. S. and Mary Goodwin Harper, his mother being a descendant of Thos. Goodwin, one of the first settlers of Goshen township. His father came of an old Eastern Shore Maryland, family. He attended school in Westtown township and the Friends' High School on North High street, and later the Wyers Military Academy here. He was one of the young men who organized the Wayne Fencibles here years ago.

In his youth he took up the trade of a machinist at the Cope foundry, near here, but on account of ill health he returned to farming, though he always had a keen interest in mechanical lines. In the early 70's he bought the farm in East Goshen, near Milltown, which he farmed until a few years ago. It is now owned by Len Zengle.

He married Elizabeth Roney, of Oxford, who survives him. The following children are living: Ethel, wife of Wm. H. Shourds, of Cleveland; Charles, of Ardmore; Mary, wife of I. H. Shoffner, of this place; Robert, of Cleveland, O., and Wm. Horace, of Baltimore. A son, Hamilton, died several years ago.

He had been living with his daughter, Ethel, in Cleveland, for two years and worry over (her) serious illness hastened his death. (He) was always active in politics in East Goshen township, being a Republican.

Daily Local News clipping, undated death notice:

HARPER -- In Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 21, Lewis G. Harper, in the 77th year of his age.

Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral services at the Hicks Funeral Home, 130 West Market St., West Chester, on Saturday, the 24th inst., at 3 o'clock p. m. Interment at Friends' Burial Grounds. Friends may call on Friday evening.

Unknown newspaper, classified death notice clipping, undated:

SHOURDS, ETHEL G. H.--Wife of William H. and mother of Carl (deceased), passed away Thursday, Nov. 22. Services at late residence, 11320 Itaska avenue, Monday, Nov. 26, at 2 p. m.

Daily Local News, undated clipping:

Funeral services for Lewis G. Harper were held Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock at the Hicks Funeral Home, West Market street. There was a very large attendance of relatives and friends, and many beautiful funeral offerings. The services were in charge of Rev. Edward S. Ninde, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of this place, who spoke most impressively.

Pall bearers included Charles T. Downing, Enos B. Hoopes, G. Pierson Cloud, Harry J. Hicks, Faunce Crowl and Harry F. Taylor. Interment was made in the Friends' Burying Ground on Rosedale avenue, south of the borough. The family left early yesterday morning for Cleveland, O., where the funeral of a daughter of the family, Mrs. Ethel Harper Shourds, will be held to-day. The family are very well-known in this section, they having lived in East Goshen township for many years previous to their going to Ohio, and much sympathy is felt for them there, being two deaths in the home within a week.

Daily Local News clipping, classified ad, "card of thanks," pencil notation "Monday, Nov. 26 1928 R.S.H."

HARPER -- The family of the late Lewis G. Harper wish to thank their relatives, friends and neighbors who sent flowers, offered words of sympathy, furnished autos or assisted in any way. Mrs. Lewis G. Harper and Family.

Daily Local News clipping, undated wedding announcement:

Harper-Fetters

A pretty home wedding, of marked charm and simplicity, was solemnized on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock at 406 West Union street, when Miss Edith Rebecca Fetters, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Horace A. Fetters, was married to Mr. Robert Sharpless Harper, son of Mr. Lewis Harper, of Cleveland, Ohio.

The affair had a double significance, as it marked the thirty-first anniversary of the parents of the bride.

Rev. E. C. Sult, Tiffin, Ohio, who had performed the ceremony for the bride's parents, the 26th of April, 1899, officiated.

The bride wore a beautiful gown of white chiffon fashioned with long lines. Her veil was arranged in cap effect, caught at either side with sprays of orange blossoms. She carried a shower bouquet of white roses and lilies of the valley.

Her only attendant, her sister, Miss Henrietta Fetters, wore a gown of beige chiffon and carried a bouquet of pink roses and larkspur.

Mr. Horace Harper, Baltimore, Md., acted as best man for his brother.

The wedding march was played by Miss Janet Dickson, Vineland, N.J. A reception followed the ceremony. Many beautiful gifts were received by the bride.

Mr. and Mrs. Harper will be at home after June 1st, at 11223 Ashbury Avenue, N.E., Cleveland, Ohio.