Reunion 2000!
250 Years of Harpers
in America
After five years, the dream finally became a reality! “Reunion 2000! 250 Years of Harpers in America” was held on the 2nd weekend in August in Pendleton County.
What a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime weekend this was for 125 Harper Cousins from all over the United States. From 2-year-old Madeline Jory of Huntsville, Alabama, to 92-year-old Albert Harper of Dryfork, West Virginia, a good time was had by all.
Friday’s
banquet and square dance marked 250 years
to the day when our Harper immigrants first set foot on American soil. On Saturday, we took a bus tour of the
Harper homesteads and cemeteries (including the only traffic light in all of
Pendleton County). On Sunday, we
visited the Civil War-era home where
Jacob C. and Susan (McDonald) Harper raised their twenty children.
If
anyone wants a copy of my speech from Friday night’s banquet, the text is in
the Reunion 2000! Section of the Harper website at: www.fred.net/mfuller
I want to mention that the bus drivers and the women who made the food said over and over again that they had never dealt with such nice people! Harpers really are nice people...in addition to coming from hearty pioneer stock and being able to do most anything!
Friday Evening’s Banquet
Several
of you suggested that we do this again in 5 years. In order for this to happen,
we’ll need people to sign up for the Reunion 2005! Committee and position of
Reunion Coordinator. Caryn Johnson has already
volunteered to be on the committee. You
can contact her at: 1209 Madras Ct.,
Virginia Beach, VA 23454 or <carynj@pilot.infi.net>
If you want a CD of photographs or a videotape from Reunion 2000!, contact Eddie Jory at: 14008 Galveston Cir., Huntsville, AL 35803 or <ejory@hiwaay.net>
At the end of a long, hard reunion…
Items of
Interest
Ø I
finished copying the Harper photos in February and mailed them all back to
their owners. If you think you sent me
a photo that wasn’t returned, please write or email me.
Ø For a
limited time, I have access to a state-of-the-art scanner. If you have any photos that you haven’t sent
me, do it now! I’ll have them back to
you in two weeks.
Ø I
wanted to thank everyone for their encouragement and support as I prepared my
application for certification by the Board for Certified Genealogists. Yes, I passed! I’m now a Certified Genealogical Records Specialist® (now isn’t that a mouthfull!).
Ø From
Gladys Carter, granddaughter of Oscar Miles Harper, son of Thomas Benjamin
Harper, son of Noah Harper: “Just got
an e-mail from Ron & Janet Harper who visited us here in Missouri last
month - our first meeting face-to-face. They live in Meridian, Idaho (Boise
area). Again, thanks so much for
contacting me. I am in the process of
moving to Washington County Missouri after being in this house about 30
years. I still substitute teach but at
71 I should retire but I enjoy working.
Perhaps I will do a little counseling or sub-teaching when I get settled
there. We have had a place there since
last February but have not put our house up for sale here. Just got a grandson graduated from UMSL
(University of Missouri here in St. Louis).
He lived with us for 15 years and we are about to get another grandson
on his own so maybe the two of us will be alone since Lin is nearly 75 and in
April I will be 72 (married 53 years).”
Ø There
are a few copies of the reprinted The
Harper Family History 1713-1995.
Send check or money order for $36.25 to Marsha Fuller, P.O. Box 3623,
Hagerstown, MD 21742.
Ø My
summer vacation was spent near Lexington, Kentucky, visiting with a friend who
used to live in Hagerstown. While
touring around one day, I realized we were near Midland, the town where Jacob
Harper the Pioneer had relocated to from Pendleton County in the 1790s. We went to the library, located a map of the
Harper land, and were able to drive around it.
It was a beautiful farm and even had a Harper cemetery.
|
“The Harper Family Newsletter” is published once a year by The Harper Cemetery Association HC 66
Box 10 B, Hendricks, WV 26271 Marsha L. Fuller, CGRS, Editor P.O. Box 3623, Hagerstown, MD 21742 |
“A Favorite Story About Jacob C. Harper”
by
Charlotte Gibson
Jacob C. Harper’s corn kept disappearing from his corn crib, so he set a bear trap. Early the next morning, he heard a man yelling. Jacob and some of his sons ran to the corn crib and found a man caught in the bear trap. They removed the trap, took the man into the house and gave him breakfast. They also gave a sack of corn to him to take home. They were never bothered by anyone taking corn from the corn crib again.
LOST:
Ø Newsletters
sent to the following people were returned with “Forwarding Order Expired” last
year. Does anyone have current
addresses for:
Ø Mrs. Gerald L. Harrison, Jr., Dayton, OH
Ø Mary E.
Anger, Mocksville, NC and Elkins, WV
Ø Virginia
& John Dilks, Sullivan, MO
Ø Bette
Conway, Johnstown, OH
Ø Kenneth
Burley Harper, Arlington, VA
Ø Carol
Fennelly, Milton, DE
Ø Willa
M. Schroeder, Granite City, IL
Ø Vickie
Arbaugh, Ellicott City, MD
Ø Charles
R. Moyers, Morgantown, WV
Ø Maxine
Santmyer, Elkins, WV
Ø Renee
Montoney Simpkins, Radnor, OH
Ø William
Rolig, Laurel, MD
“I Was a Sears
Roebuck Bride”
by
Avonell (Shaffer) Painter:
I
became a part of the Harper family when I married Fred Harman Painter, son of
Elizabeth (Harman) Painter on July 23, 1948.
I was a Sears Roebuck bride – it happened like this:
My
sister, Joy, had just had an appendectomy at the Myers Clinic Hospital in
Philippi, WV. I was a student medical
technologist at this institution and, as part of the training, had collected
the routine admissions blood work on a new - very ill – patient. She was an older patient who had been
temporarily admitted to the noisy obstetrics floor.
Joy was
asked if she would agree to be moved to a noisier room on a lower floor in
order for this ill patient to have a quieter environment. She agreed.
Another
sister, June, and I were visiting Joy as she recuperated from the surgery. June’s neighbor, Mrs. Elizabeth (Harman)
Painter, passed by the room and my sister greeted her. Mrs. Painter was there to visit her mother,
Elmira (Harper) Harman – the lady who was moved to the quiet room. June introduced all of us to each other.
Later, June and Mrs. Painter got together and agreed that Harman and I should meet. They cooked up a plot for the next time I spent a weekend at June’s house. The plan went like this: Elizabeth would call and ask if June had a Sears Roebuck Catalog and, if she did, could Elizabeth borrow it? Well, all went as planned and guess who came to pick up the Catalog?!
Harman and I met and that was the end of the beginning.
CHANGES TO OUR
FAMILY TREE
BIRTHS:
Ø Nicholas Albert Fitzgerald, born January 14,
2000, to Kevin and Clara Fitzgerald.
MARRIAGES:
Ø Leslie
Pittman, daughter of Lorraine Pittman of Redwood Valley, California, was married
to David Chade of Connecticut on July 29, 2000.
DEATHS:
Ø Dale Boyce Fuller, grandson of Elizabeth
Harper (16th Child), September 2000, Cumberland, MD.
Ø Warren
Carter, husband of Nela Harper Carter, December 31, 2000 in Akron, Ohio.
Ø Richard
J. Blake, husband of Sally Lou Harper (granddaughter of Seymour (5th
Child), December 29, 1999 in Oklahoma.
Ø Grace
Harper Nelson, daughter of Walter Harper (15th Child).
Ø Ted
McDonald, July 2000, Dryfork, WV.
Ø Evelyn
Harper Roy, daughter of Minor (11th Child) & Clara Harper, April
2000, Harman, WV.
Ø Eston
Harman Cooper, March 2001, Elkins, WV.
Ø Gladys
Fansler, mother of Owen and Bob Fansler, March 2001, Elkins, WV.
Ø Barbara
Louise (Ormand) Neil, 70 years, July 1, 1999, Houston, Texas, granddaughter of
Peter (3rd Child) & Sarah Jane Harper.
Ø Carl
Harman, husband of Ruth Harman, grandson of Elmira Harper (12th
Child), on November 21, 2000 in Grafton, WV.
Ø Cromwell
Graham, son of Margaret (Harman) Graham, and grandson of Elmira Harper (12th
Child), on February 10, 2001.
Ø Mabel Blanche
(Harper) Worrell, daughter of Seymour Harper (5th Child), born 15
Dec 1901 in Davis, WV, passed away on 23 Feb 2001 in Lakewood, Colorado. In the fall of 2000, she told her son, Bob,
that she remembered sitting behind her grandmother, Susan McDonald Harper, on
the saddle of a horse while jumping fences out in the fields.
Harper Cemetery Association
HC 66 Box 10 B
Hendricks, WV 26271
|
Harper
Family Website Sponsored
by Dale B. Fuller and The Harper Cemetery Association Check out the photos and information on
the website! |
You Know You’re An Addicted
Genealogist…
q
If you get locked in a library overnight and don’t even
notice.
q
If you’d rather browse in a cemetery than a shopping mall.
q
If you’d rather read census schedules than a good book.
q
If town clerks lock the doors when they see you coming.
q
If you store your clothes under the bed and your closet
is carefully stacked with notebooks and journals.
q
If you can pinpoint Niederweiler, Koblentz, and Barenbach
on a map of Germany, but you can’t locate Topeka, Kansas.
q
If you’ve traced every one of your ancestral lines back
to Adam and Eve, and still don’t want to quit.
Annual Harper Reunion
May 27, 2001
1:00 pm
Covered Dish Dinner
Harman, West Virginia
©2001 Marsha L. Fuller, CGRS, All
Rights Reserved.
