Jesse H. Harper, a prominent gun and clock smith of this city, was born in North Carolina, in 1826, and is the son of Edward and Martha (Hancock) Harper. The parents were natives of North Carolina. The father was an artisan and farmer, being very successful through life. He had a family of eleven children. Three of his sons became merchants, and one a Baptist minister. The father was not a member of the church, yet his house was ever open for all ministers. The father supported a widowed mother and nine children, and at the age of twenty-two erected a house in which he lived until his death, which occurred in 1857. His widow followed him in 1876. Our subject lived to the age of fifteen years on his father's farm, and then entered the academy of Pittsboro, remaining two years, then spent some years in different schools, the latter portion of which he was partly pupil and partly assistant teacher. He taught school two years at Montezuma, Tenn., and two years at Muffin, and two years at Shady Grove Academy, near Jackson. In 1852 he was married to Sarah E., daughter of James Henderson, ex-trustee of this county. She was born in this State, in 1832, and is the mother of five children-three daughters and' two sons. The oldest daughter is dead. After marriage he moved to. Haywood County and taught school at Alamo, remaining some time, then moved to this city. He taught school at Cerro Gordo, this county, for one year, then purchased property and erected a residence, which is known as Harper's Male and Female Institute. Since locating in this city he has taught an army of children, numbering over 3,000. The doors of his school are thrown open for the rich and poor alike. In 1855 he was elected alderman of this city, and afterward served as tax collector, and in 1860 served as mayor of the city; was defeated in 1861 for same office on account of his politics, he being a Union man. During the years from 1860 to 1868 he was postmaster, and elected by the Legislature to the land register office in West Tennessee, and was one of the three commissioners appointed for Madison County; was elected city recorder, and held the office of justice of the peace. In 1870 he was appointed mail agent on the Mississippi Central Railroad, holding that office two years. Mr. Harper is a self-made man and possesses 'many rare accomplishments. He and wife are members of the First Methodist Church, and he is a member of the I.O.O.F. and also of that honorable order called Free and Accepted Masons. He is the eternal foe of ignorance and therefore has a poor regard for any man who opposes national education. He built his own institute, at his own expense, and gave poor children more than $20,000 in tuition, books, slates, pencils, food, clothing, etc. He hopes that he may be permitted to live until education is the common birthright of every child, who shall have every right in law that man may claim for himself. The following is one of his hand-bills published thirty years ago. It says: "True education is the only guide to happiness. We believe that education is the common birthright of every child of man, and that the legislator who refuses his influence to perfect the title to this greatest of all human rights, is simply a disgrace to the position he occupies, and a robber of the rising generation of its brightest jewel, which is liberty to know the truth. Send the children to the Jackson Male and Female Institute, and they will be received and properly educated; and to the poor and needy and to those who have no money we say: 'Come.'"

Goodspeeds History of Tennessee