Homer McKendree Carper
Homer McKendree Carper was born in Licking County. Ohio, July 24, 1826. He died at Delaware, Ohio, January 14, 1895, having almost completed his three score and ten years when called to his final reward. He was the son of Rev. Joseph Carper, a minister of the Gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He received his early education from the teachings of his mother and in the public schools. He was a student for a short time in the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio. In November, 1844, he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, and completed a classical course, and was graduated with honors in 1848. His attachment for his alma mater lead him to locate in Delaware and he afterward became a member of the Board of Trustees of his chosen university and was its trusted counsel at the time of his death.
Mr. Carper studied law at Lancaster, Ohio, under the tutorship of those great masters of the profession, Thomas Ewing and Hocking H. Hunter, and was admitted to the Bar in the year 1850, having imbibed from these eminent teachers, the great principles of the law, which he ever afterward taught and followed. He settled in Delaware and commenced the practice of his profession as a partner with Hon. James R. Hubbell, then a leading member of the Delaware County Bar. At the end of three years this partnership was dissolved and a new one was formed with Hon. Thomas C. Jones, which continued until Mr. Jones was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court. In the year 1862 he became associated with Hon. J. D. Van Deman in a partnership which continued for a period of almost thirty years. By that time Mr. Carper had obtained a sufficiency for the support of himself and family and he gradually retired from active practice and often refused to accept new business. A few of his clients, however, clung to him and insisted upon his legal services when they needed a counsellor or had important litigation. One of these clients was the C. C. C. & St. L. Railway Company, which he had served as counsel for many years.
Mr. Carper had few aspirations for official honors. He declined a nomination for the Common Pleas Bench in the year 1881, although urged to accept by the members of the Delaware County Bar. He was however a delegate from this congressional district to the National Republican Convention which nominated Benjamin F. Harrison for President of the United States. He served Delaware County for two terms as prosecuting attorney. Mr. Carper, like many of the older school of attorneys, was well versed in the common law. He argued from its principles and presented his cases to the court and jury upon its theories and precepts rather than from cases cited. He was, therefore, what would be styled an elementary practitioner rather than a case lawyer. He was a man of great scholarly attainments and he drew about him a circle of admirers who delighted in his conversation. He enjoyed his home to which he was greatly attached, and he rarely spent an evening away from his own fireside. Mr. Carper died very suddenly and his death created a great shock in the community. The Bar in which he had been so long a prominent figure adopted a memorial which was spread upon the court records as an inspiration to his brethren and fellow members of the Bar.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908