James Harper (congressman)
| James Harper | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 2nd district |
|
|
In office March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1837 |
|
| Preceded by | Henry Horn |
| Succeeded by | See below |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 28, 1780 Castlederg, County Tyrone, Ireland |
| Died | March 31, 1873 (aged 93) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Political party | Anti-Jacksonian |
James Harper (March 28, 1780 – March 31, 1873) was a Philadelphia businessman, manufacturer, civic leader and two-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
James Harper was born of Scots-Irish stock in Castlederg, County Tyrone, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States as a youth, and settled in Philadelphia. He married Charlotte Sloan Alford, a member of an established Pennsylvania Quaker family. He engaged in the manufacture of brick and from 1820 to 1830 in the wholesale grocery trade. Like many powerful men of the early Republic, he was a Freemason, rising to the position of Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1824. As Grand Master, he hosted fellow mason the Marquis de Lafayette during the latter's "Farewell Tour" of the United States in 1825.
In 1832 Harper was elected to the United States Congress as a National Republican (Anti-Jacksonian), and represented Pennsylvania's Second Congressional District in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses. His letters from Washington, some of which are preserved in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, reflect a disgust with the endemic corruption of [[Andrew Jackson]]'s administration. He chose not to stand for reelection in 1836. In Congress he allied himself with Henry Clay, and followed Clay in commissioning his portrait from the Philadelphia portrait painter John Neagle.
Upon his retirement from Congress, Harper continued in the manufacture of brick, also branching out into real estate speculation and urban development. Having bought the north side of Philadelphia's then undeveloped Rittenhouse Square, he built a fine house for himself at 1811 Walnut Street in around 1840. Setting a patrician residential tone for the square with this ediface, he sold off the remaining lots at profit. The front part of his house, sold after his death to the Social Arts Club (an exclusive men's club that thereupon renamed itself the Rittenhouse Club), still stands behind the 1901 facade that the club added.
...
Wikipedia