STEUBEN REPUBLICAN, WEDNESDAY, July 20, 1898, page 4, column 5

DIED In Greenfield township, LaGrange county, Ind., July 7, 1898, 
Deacon Samuel Harper, aged 74 years, 1 month and 22 days.
   Samuel Harper was born in Northern Ireland, near Londonderry, May 
15, 1824.  In 1833 he came with his parents to Canada.  After a 
short residence there, he moved to Toledo, Ohio, where he was 
employed in the Toledo Blade office until they moved to Adrian, 
Mich., where his young manhood was spent.  He was educated at Ann 
Arbor, Mich., and graduated in the class of '50.  He came to Orland 
in 1850, and was the first professor in Northeastern Indiana Baptist 
Institute, which place he filled four years.  He united with the 
Orland Baptist church in 1851, and in 1872, was chosen deacon, which 
office he held until his death.  In 1852, he married Miss Hannah B. 
Stocker, of Angola.  To them were born three children, Chester S., 
Addie B. and Matie B. Harper.  The bereaved widow, who has been his 
beloved companion for forty-six years, Chester S. Harper and Matie 
B. Perfect of Angola, survive him.  His oldest daughter, Mrs. Addie 
B. Taylor, died in 1885.  Mr. Harper was trustee for the Baptist 
church property, and one of the ministerial committee for a number 
of years.  He was elected trustee for the township of Greenfield, 
LaGrange county, in 1873, and in 1874, was sent to the legislature.  
The offices of trust which he held, religious, educational and 
political, were discharged with honesty and fidelity.  He leaves 
besides his own family three grandchildren, one of whom, Mary 
Taylor, the daughter of Addie B. Taylor, he brought up with his own 
family, two brothers, one sister and a large circle of friends.  He 
gave liberally to the support of the church and Sunday school of 
which he was an earnest teacher, and to the cry of the poor and 
afflicted his ear was ever open and to whom he was liberal almost to 
a fault.  All who knew him intimately unite in saying, "Blessed are 
the dead who die in the Lord; yea, from henceforth, their works do 
follow them."  Funeral services were held in the Baptist church on 
Sunday after his death, conducted by Rev. L. C. Hoppel.  The remains 
were laid to rest by the side of his daughter in Green Lawn 
cemetery.
  
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
   
   Samuel Harper, 15 May 1824 - 07 Jul 1898, married Hannah (Brown) 
Stocker, 16 Aug 1834 - 1911.
   Chester S. Harper, 1853-1913, married Emma T. (Taylor) Harper, 1854-
1943.
   Addie B. (Harper) Taylor, born about 07 Jan 1860-30 May 1885, married 
James P. Taylor, 12 Sep 1847 - 08 Aug 1904.
   Matie (Mary) B. (Harper) Perfect, 15 May 1864 - 28 May 1950, married 
James a Perfect, 16 Sep 1861 - 02 Oct 1901.

"Cemeteries of Steuben Co., Ind., 1990" by Audree Siebel Lewis, Vol. I, 
page 840; Vol. II, pages 1798, 1801.

Submitted by Mona Hilden-Beckwith
e-mail:  hilbeck123@att.net