Charles Alfred Harper’s Journal and Stephen Markham’s Cane

This morning we got to do something really neat. We got to see the real, original, 174 year old journal of one of my pioneer ancestors, Charles Alfred Harper. He is my great-great-great grandfather. He is the ancestor that I picked for Landon to represent during our pioneer unit because Landon’s middle name is Harper. I have also always felt a connection to the Harper line because throughout my life, I have had relatives tell me that I have “the Harper look”. 🙂

When I found out that Charles’ diary was at the Church History Library in Salt Lake, I knew that I wanted to go see it. And it was such a neat experience.

This journal has quite an interesting history. This is what I discovered in my research… (written by a granddaughter of Charles’ in 1971)

“On February 2, 1971, grandchildren of Charles Alfred Harper living in Idaho received the record book from Dona Parker Johnson, a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who moved from Riverside, California, to Idaho Falls, Idaho, in 1967.

Mrs. Johnson related what is known of the whereabouts of the journal during the intervening years and how it came into her possession. She had seen and read it as a child in the home of her grandmother, Maude Mae Sanders, who in 1915 moved from Salt Lake City to San Francisco and lived in the Bay Area until her death at age 92.

How her grandmother acquired the journal is not known; she was not a relative of the Harper family. She had joined the Church about 1908, but by 1915 she had become inactive. [Charles passed away in 1900]

As a young girl Dona appreciated the value of the record which she read in the home of her grandmother before she moved from Oakland (her birthplace) to San Jose, California, at age 14. After the death of her father, Ansel George Sanders Parker, in 1963 and the subsequent death of her grandmother, Dona persuaded her mother, who then had the diary, to let her have it.

She had always hoped to be able to find descendants of Charles Alfred Harper so that the diary could be restored to the family. While doing research at the Genealogical Society Branch Library in Idaho Falls on her husband’s family, which included the Martin Harris line, she decided to look also for the Harper name and found several family group sheets.

She identified Chester Edwin Harper of Moore, Idaho, as a grandson of Charles Alfred Harper and informed him by mail that she had the diary and wished to turn it over to the Harper family. He in turn notified Ruth Harper Bright, living in Rigby near Idaho Falls. She and her husband, Clifford M. Bright, went to Mrs. Johnson’s home in the evening of February 2, 1971 and received the journal.”

We also went to the Church History Museum and saw Stephen Markham’s cane.  Porter represented Stephen Markham (his 4th great grandfather) in our pioneer unit.  Stephen’s cane is nicknamed the “rascal beater” and was used to beat off the mobs at Carthage jail.