Alexander HARPER

Birth: 22 Feb 1744, Middletown, Conn. [S1] [S2] [S3]
Death: 10 Sep 1798, Harpersfield, Ohio, OH [S1] [S3]
Burial: Unionville Cem., Unionville, Lake, Ohio

AFN: FP44-CQ

Father: John HARPER
Mother: Abigail MONTGOMERY

Family 1: Elizabeth BARTHOLOMEW

Marriage: 30 Jul 1771, Wooster, Otsego, New York

                                                  __
                                               __|__
                       _James HARPER _________|
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                      |                       |__|__
 _John HARPER ________|
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|                     |                        __|__
|                     |_Janet "Jannet" LEWIS _|
|                                             |   __
|                                             |__|__
|
|--Alexander HARPER 
|
|                                                 __
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|                      _William MONTGOMERY ___|
|                     |                       |   __
|                     |                       |__|__
|_Abigail MONTGOMERY _|
                      |                           __
                      |                        __|__
                      |_Mary AKEN ____________|
                                              |   __
                                              |__|__

INDEX

Notes

Colonel Alexander Harper 1744-1798 http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlake/bios/harper.html Alexander Harper was born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1744. In the year 1770 he took a pate nt of a large tract of land and moved to Harpersfield, Delaware County, in the state of New Y ork. In 1777 he received a captain's commission in a regiment of rangers commanded by Col. John Ha rper, the regiment having been raised by the direction of Gov. Clinton. He was afterwards pro moted to the rank of colonel, and served with distinction in the War of the Revolution. On June 28, 1798 he removed with his family to what is now Harpersfield, Ashtabula County, Oh io, and settled there, dying on the tenth of September of the same year. This section of th e country was then a wilderness, and Col. Harper gave the township of Harpersfield the naem w hich is has since borne. It is said that soon after landing he placed his staff in the ground and dedicated a portio n of land as a cemetery, and he himself was the first to be buried there; he being the firs t white person buried in the Western Reserve, whose grave can be identified. An appropriate m ounument bearing an inscription with the name and date of birth and death, and recounting th e virtues of the pioneer and patriot still marks the spot. This cemetery is on the county lin e at Unionville village. A biography of this distinguished citizen and some of his first descendants may be found in a n interesting history of Harpersfield, written by Mrs. Malvina Sherwood, dedicated to the Hon . Elisha Whittlesey, and recorded in the records of the Ashtabula Historical and Philosophica l Society by the celebrated penman, the late Platt R. Spencer. _________________________________________________ Lake County Genealogical Society (Ohio) Unionville Cemetery (Ashtabula County) This lovely grounds is on the east side of County Lin e Road, and the south side of St. Rte. 84, being in Ashtabula County. For this reason, the in scriptions are not included here, but it is being mentioned as this cemetery holds many Lak e County residents, especially very early pioneers of the Western Reserve. The DAR readings w ere several decades ago. Harpersfield Heritage Society produced a book on this cemetery sever al years ago. Mildred Steed wrote of this cemetery and Captain Alexander Harper (1744-1798 ) on page 109 of Soldiers and Widows of the American Revolution who lived in Lake County, Ohi o [published by New Connecticut Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, Painesville, Oh io 1985]. "One day while traversing the tractless forest of his land (where Unionville now s tands), he noticed a spot which was higher and more sandy than the rest and marked this porti on of his land for their cemetery, little knowing that he would be the first to be buried the re. In this historic cemetery at the corner of Route 84 and County Line Road in the Village o f Unionville, lie the remains of many of the old settlers buried in the nineteenth century . "In the hardships and exposure connected with the clearing of his land and the improvemen t of a new country, he contracted malaria and died September 10, 1798 about three months afte r his arrival and was buried in his cemetery in a coffin hewn from a log. The grave being dat ed 1798 is the oldest authentic burial on the Western Reserve. The ode on the slab reads: 'Ar ound this monumental stone, Let friendship drop a sacred tear. A husband kind, a parent fond , An upright man lies buried here.'" http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlcgs/madison/unionville.html ___________________________________________________


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