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They went thataway: a Gradyvillian goes to Texas . . . . . . and from there Frates Harper moved around. He made his way from Gradyville to sojourns in three states, and multiple marriages along the way. Jim has meticulously researched the story of Mr. Euphrates Harper, in this fascinating mini-biography. Click on headline for complete story By Jim A funny thing happened on the way to researching today's column--I set out toward the westering sun, bound for Gradyville, but wound up instead on the road to Texas, Illinois, Missouri and matrimony, and it's all W.M. Wilmore's fault. In the April 26, 1911 News, Mr. Wilmore, the longtime Gradyville correspondent, amongst all the usual reports of weather, crops, who had been shopping in Gradyville or visiting elsewhere, and who was doing poorly or on the mend, slipped in this little attention-getter: "Your reporter is just in receipt of a letter from Mr. Euphrates Harper, a son of Mr. and Mrs. S.A. Harper, of our city. Euphrates left us four (sic) years ago for the state of Texas, locating at Moody. He likes the state fine, and is getting along nicely. He also informed us that he was united in the bonds of wholly (sic) matrimony on the 12th, with one of the finest ladies in the Lone Star State. We have been informed that the young lady Mr. Harper married is very wealthy. We are always glad to hear of our Adair county boys doing well. Success to you and yours, Euphrates." (Texas records indicate he married Mrs. Frances West on April 13th, 1911 in McClellan County. He subsequently married a Miss Wilson in Adair County, Ky., and after her passing in 1939, he was wed to Bessie Bonds.) Mr. Pyrrhus Euphrates "Frates" Harper was born in the summer of 1891 in Gradyville, the oldest child of Steven "S.A." Harper & his second wife, Maude Nelson Harper. (Perhaps the political leaning of the family may be discerned from the 1900 census: their fifth-born child, a son, born early that year was named Theodore Roosevelt Harper. But I digress.) Frates had departed Gradyville on the road to Texas in the summer of 1908, shortly before his or 18th birthday, and the August 26th News reported he had written his father and was indirectly quoted as stating "he landed all right and he is well pleased with the appearance of the land." I believe young Harper's departure from Adair County was noted in the August 5, 1908 News but if so, the Gradyville newsletter incorrectly gave his surname: "Mr Frank Shirley and wife, of McGregor, Texas, who have been visiting here for the past three weeks, returned to their home the first of the week [that is, around July 26th or 27th] taking several of our Gradyville people with them, namely, Miss Nancy J. Grady, Euphrates Kemp (sic), and Mr. Shirley and wife, of Fairplay." When the 1910 census was taken April of that year, 19-year-old Frates appeared in Bell County, Texas in the household of a young couple, John B. & Nora Roach. His occupation was given as "hired man." Mr. Roach was born in Kentucky and quite possibly was a native of Flat Rock, Metcalfe County. (The towns of McGregor and Moody, Texas, are not far removed from each other in McClellan County, and Bell County adjoins McClellan to the southwest.) By June, 1917, Mr. Harper resided in Auburn, Sangamon County, Illinois, and on his draft registration card, he indicated he was a farm hand. By 1942, he lived in Jacksonville, Illinois, and at the time of his passing in late 1963, Frates and the third Mrs. Harper were residents of near West Plains, Howell County, Missouri. This story was posted on 2016-09-25 07:59:52
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