My Genealogy Hound

James W. Harper, cotton dealer and real estate agent at Mansfield, Ark., was born in Tennessee on the 15th of May, 1849. His parents, Blaney and Elizabeth (Griffey) Harper, were born in the “Old North Carolina State” in 1816 and 1814, and died in 1882 and 1880, respectively. They removed from their native State to Tennessee, thence to Arkansas in 1851, settling at Fort Smith, where they remained one year, then moving twenty-five miles south, where he made his home until his death. The father was a minister of the Gospel, belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a member of the Legislature, being elected in 1867 for two years. He became the father of nine children, seven of whom are living: Nancy B. (Mrs. Bruce), Jesse C., Samuel H., Joseph W., Lenora Ann (Mrs. Ball), J. W., and Mary H. (Mrs. Gleason). James W. Harper spent his early life in Sebastian County, and received his education in private schools. After attaining his twenty-first birthday he began doing for himself, and has been a contractor for twenty years and a merchant for four years. He lives upon the old homestead, the present site of the town of Mansfield. He is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1869 he was married to Miss Mary J. Dixon, a daughter of William H. and Mida (Short) Dixon, of Tennessee. She was born in Arkansas in 1847, and became the mother of seven children: William B., George, Joseph L., Graham, Nora and Myrtle. One child, Freddie, is deceased. Mr. Harper’s grandfather, Haynes Griffey, was a soldier in the War of 1812.