Thomas HARPER b. 1802, VA, m. (1) in TN, (Unknown), b. (1800/1810), d. (aft 1840), (Warren Co., TN), m. (2) Mary E. --?--, b. abt 1817, TN, d. (after 1850), Marion Co., AL, m. (3) Mary Jane GRIGGS, b. 1829, AL, (dau of Jesse GRIGGS and Rebecca TUCKER) d. 1890, AL, bur. Old Poplar Cemetery near Winfield, Marion Co., AL.  Thomas died (after 1860), Marion Co., AL.

---

Thomas HARPER was the son of Josiah HARPER (1759-1838) and Sarah PARROTT (1761-1839) of Virginia and Tennessee.  Very little is known of Thomas' early life.  He was first married possibly in Smith Co., TN, where he was named in a lawsuit in 1835.  By the 1840 U.S. census, he had settled in nearby Warren County (p. 341).  His daughter Sarah (see #1 below) married there in 1842 but moved to northwest Alabama before the birth of her first child in 1843.  The HARPERs almost certainly arrived in Alabama at this same time.

The 1850 U.S. census finds the HARPER and McWHIRTER families living side by side in Marion Co., AL (p. 118).  Thomas clearly had remarried since the previous census, considering that his current wife (Mary E.) was only 8 years older than his daughter Sarah.  Together, he and Mary had at least one child (see #11 below) and perhaps as many as four.  The previous year (1849), Thomas had acquired from the federal government approximately 40 acres in Section 10, Township 13 South, Range 11 West — an area now bordered by Glen Allen to the west, Walker County to the east, and Fayette County to the south. 

The HARPERs attended Hopewell Baptist Church (located in present Fayette County), which Thomas represented as a delegate to the North River Baptist Association from 1855 to 1860.  During this same time period, he acquired several more federal land patents to the north and south of the church.  Thomas reported owning real property valued at $5,000 and personal property worth $1,500 on the 1860 census of Marion County (p. 615).  He then disappeared from the records and is supposed to have died before 1870.

If Thomas survived the Civil War, his final years were plagued by tragedy and grief.  Seven of his sons were old enough to have served in the conflict – three are known to have enlisted in the Union army, and at least two joined the Confederate army.  Of these seven brothers, four died from illness or wounds received during the war, and one was hanged as a Union sympathizer.  No military service records have been found for the other two brothers, but the evidence suggests that they too were lost during the deadly decade.  In addition, at least one of Thomas' sons-in-law died in the war.

1) Sarah Harper was married at her father's home, according to her application for pension.  Andrew McWhirter served in the First Alabama Cavalry, Co. K, USA, and died of measles in a Union hospital.

2) The 1860 census finds Robert Harper, his wife and their five children living "next door" to Nancy's father in Lampasas Co., TX.  The family evidently returned to Alabama before the Civil War.  Robert enlisted in the Union army, Co. B, First Alabama Cavalry, and died of measles while in the service.

3) James W. Harper served the Confederacy in the First Alabama Cavalry, Co. G.  He was wounded in battle and "sent home to die," which he did ... three years after the war ended.  James was survived by his wife and eight children born between 1849-1865 (source: Widow's Pension application).  Sarah Drucilla's maiden name, Byars, is proved by the death certificate of her daughter, Elizah Harper Love, who was born at Old Pikeville, Marion Co., AL.

4) Mary E. Harper was 18 on the 1850 census and was married a short time later.  James and Mary Harper Tucker were living in Astons Store Beat with other married children of Thomas Harper and very near to Thomas Harper's household in the 1860 Marion County census.  James Tucker had remarried by the 1870 census to a Didemy or Deniece (maiden name unknown).  Mary Harper had a son, Josiah Newton Tucker, who reared a large family in Fayette County.  She also had a daughter, Millie Alice Tucker, who married William Ira Barker of the "Barker Bunch" in Lamar Co., AL.

5) Josiah H. Harper enlisted in the Union's First Alabama Cavalry, Co. B.  On a return visit to his home, he was captured and killed by the Confederate Home Guards.  He left a wife and four children (source: Southern Claims Commission, John Lyons, Case No. 20850, Marion Co., AL).

6) Daniel W. Tucker served in the Civil War for the Confederacy in Texas.

7) Thomas W. Harper, a soldier in the 43rd Alabama Infantry, Co. H, CSA, was killed in the Battle of Knoxville.  His widow's pension application states that they had no children.  Thomas Wade Harper must have married Mary shortly before he joined the army.  He enlisted in 1862 and died about five months later, according to a request for bounty pay that Mary obtained for his service.  Mary and family left for Texas about 1869; she remarried in 1871 to John BOREN from Texas.  Her parents' full names were John Madison Lane and Phoebe Ann Walden (source: ADAH). 

8) Elisha Denton Harper married in the early 1860s and was last recorded on the 1866 Alabama state census.  He and Lucinda Lyle had two children: Mary E. Harper (1863-1900/1910) and John Thomas Harper (1865-1930).  Mary married James J. DUTTON, 1879, in Walker Co., AL – Lucinda Harper signed a handwritten note giving permission for her underaged daughter to marry (source: The Zachariah Dutton Genealogy Web); John T. Harper married Francis Evoline WELCH.  Lucinda A. Lyle Harper was recorded in the household with her father, John P. Lyle, and family in the 1880 census.  The nickname "Dent" was contributed by a great-granddaughter, June Harper Barton Symonds, of Jasper, AL.  

9) Tennessee P. Harper enlisted in the Union army and served in Co. K, First Alabama Cavalry.  His date of death was found in National Archives Service Records. 

10) George Harper's middle name and date of death provided by Penny Harper of Savannah, GA. (5/6/2011)

12) Kimber F. Tucker fought for the Confederate cause in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

13) Jesse and Sallie Whitehead Harper had 15 children.

1/30/2011 - Added maiden name for mother-in-law of George W. Harper (#10)