My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH HARPER, farmer and stock-raiser; proprietor of Spring River distillery, section 3, post-office Bower’s Mills, He is a native of southwest Missouri, born in Lawrence county, Nov. 11, 1843. He was there reared to the age of eighteen. His education was acquired at the pioneer schools. His father, J. Harper, was a native of North Carolina, and was a strong advocate of state sovereignty, and at the breaking out of the civil war took up arms under the Confederate banner and was commissioned captain in Gen. Price’s command. He died at his home in Lawrence county, in Feb., 1862. Our subject also did good service for the “lost cause,” serving under Price. He was engaged forty-three different times; got his first smell of powder and first sight of armed Yankees at Dug Springs, being one of one hundred and fifty men comprising the advance guard of Price, which made the attack on the Federal troops at that place just preceding Wilson’s Creek, where he was also engaged. He took part at the battle of Lexington, Newtonia, Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, Springfield, Hartsville, Cape Girardeau, Chalk Bluff, Helena, Ark.; and several engagements about Little Rock, Marshfield Macks Hill, and Prairie de Hand; from Spoon River to Camden, fighting every day; Saline River, Price’s raid through Missouri, Independence, Westport, at the Moniteau River, Kan., and again at Newtonia, Mo., where he was wounded three times, the only wounds he received through all his services. He was in many other engagements of minor importance, and though he passed near his home on several occasions, and for months it was very evident, their cause was hopeless, such was his fealty and his sense of honor that he staid with his command until they disbanded near Dallas, Tex., in May, 1865. Returning to Lawrence county he was married May 9, 1866, to Mrs. Matilda (Barrett) Caldwell, widow of John C. Caldwell, a native of Virginia, who was a captain in General Shelby’s command, C. S. A., and was killed May 5, 1863. Mrs. Harper is a native of Tennessee; her maiden name was Barrett; her mother was a Brice. granddaughter of Castleton Killcannon, the famous pioneer and Indian fighter of east Tennessee. The farm now occupied by herself and husband is the Caldwell homestead, and comprises 250 acres. Since coming on the place Mr. Harper has added to it quite materially. It now consists of 400 acres, 160 acres in cultivation and the rest in woodland and pasture. They have one child, Waldo Hugh, born Nov. 25, 1868. Mr. Harper has established the Spring River distillery the present year, machinery and all complete for making forty gallons of spirits per day. His farm was the first clearing made and first orchard planted in the county, by one Wm. Brown. Mr. Harper is an enterprising business man and a man of good sound sense and judgment.