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Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Clark County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Patterson D. Harper was born in Ohio in 1818, and is a son of Rev. Thomas Harper and Elizabeth (Kinsel) Harper, both natives of Virginia. Thomas Harper gained quite a reputation as a Baptist minister, and was a soldier in the last war with Great Britain. He was a man of great ability, and was highly honored by all his associates. He lived to the good old age of eighty-five. His life is a leaf of the past which could be read and imitated with profit by many of the present generation. Our subject left his father’s house in 1841, and went to Iowa, visiting several places; he there married Eliza A. Stedman, nee Staley, and remained in that State until 1853, when he came to Clark County, Mo., and located on his present farm of ninety acres, where he is engaged in farming and stock raising. This marriage has been blessed with seven children, only two of whom are living: they are Ezra and Martha A. Our subject lost his first wife in 1855, and afterward married Sarah C. Goodrich, by whom he has had eleven children, of whom the following nine are living: Mary F., Margaret M., Minnie P., Emma L., Seth A., Frank, Ruth, P. D. and Bobby. Mr. Harper served in Company H, Twenty-First Missouri Volunteers, during the late war, taking an active part in the battle of Shiloh, and was also in the regular battle at Corinth, besides participating in other engagements of minor importance. Previous to the organization of the Republican party Mr. Harper was a Democrat. He is a member of the A. H. T. A. and the G. A. R.

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This family biography is one of 232 biographies included in the Clark County, Missouri portion of the book,  The History of Lewis, Clark, Knox and Scotland Counties, Missouri published in 1887.  For the complete description, click here: Clark County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Clark County, Missouri family biographies here: Clark County, Missouri Biographies

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