William Harper
In reviewing the careers of the notable men of a community, the thoughtful person is impressed by the number of foreign-born individuals who have risen to high places among the leaders in almost every line. The question naturally arises whether the older countries give their men a better early training than can be obtained here, or whether in the United States those who have labored under disadvantages of a more constricted form of government expand under the liberal laws of this republic. But, whatever the cause, the effect seems to be the same, the men of foreign birth who have succeeded exceed those of strictly American stock. In the great coal industry one of the best known figures in Ohio is William Harper, who is of foreign birth although thoroughly Americanized. He was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, and there attended a private school. His first business experience was connected with the coal industry, for he was in his young manhood a salesman for a coal company. In 1883, on immigrating to the United States, he settled first at Chicago, where he became a salesman for the Brazil Block Coal Company, an enterprise with which he was identified for twelve years. He then went to Columbus, Ohio, where he became manager of the Cambridge Consolidated Coal Company.
Mr. Harper came to Cleveland in 1896, and here became associated with the Ellsworth Morris Coal Company as manager of the company's mines at Cambridge. In 1897 the name was changed to the Morris Coal Company, with the following officers: Calvary Morris, president; John E. Newell, vice president; and William Harper, secretary and treasurer. In 1912, upon the death of Mr. Morris, Mr. Harper succeeded him as president and retains also the position of treasurer, H. C. Steffen being secretary and P. T. White, vice president. This company owns two mines, one known as Black Top and the other as Cleveland, located at Cambridge in Guernsey County, Ohio, where there are still left over 45,000 acres of fields to mine. There are 350 people employed, and the headquarters of the company are located at Cleveland, with executive offices in the Citizens Building. Mr. Harper is also secretary and treasurer of the Morris Poston Coal Company of Cleveland, a subsidiary company of the Morris Coal Company. He belongs to the Union Club, is a republican, and attends the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Harper was married in December, 1895, to Miss Edith Murchy, of Chicago, and they are the parents of two children: Wallace, who is twenty-one years of age and now attending Dartmouth College; and Evelyn, a graduate of the Laurel School for Girls, Cleveland, and now attending Smith College.
From Cleveland - Special Limited Edition, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York, 1918 v.1