Anthony Harpstrite
Taken from _History of Marion and Clinton Counties, Illinois,
(Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough & Co., 1881), pp. 217-218.
Anthony HARPSTRITE
was born at Ettenheim, in Baden, November 10, 1820, and was the oldest
of six children of John
B. HARPSTRITE and Mary RAMER. In 1833, the
family came to America. They lived some time near Reading,
Pennsylvania; two years at Dayton, Ohio; and in 1837, moved to Delphi,
Indiana, and after living from 1838 to 1844 at Terre
Haute, Indiana, the latter year came to Clinton county. His father
bought for $400 two hundred and forty acres of land on
Wolf Ridge in the present Looking Glass township. This land was
afterward sold in 1866 for $13,000. The only opportunity
Judge HARPSTRITE had for going to school
was in Germany, before leaving that country. He was twenty-four years
of
age when he came to Clinton county. In 1850, he married Catherine
UPMEYER, a
native of Prussia. From 1853 to 1864,
he was farming on section 8, of township 2, range 5; he then moved to
section 3 of township 1, range 5, and in 1874, to his
present farm in sections 32 and 33 of township 2, range 5. He has
succeeded in life by means of untiring energy and industry.
He owns eleven hundred acres of land in Sugar Creek and Looking Glass
townships. His home farm consists of two hundred
acres. He has eight children, Catharine,
wife of William POOS of
Looking Glass township; Mary, who married
Philip
GEORGE of St.
Louis; Julia, Sophie,
Anton, Charles,
Edward and Martha.
His oldest son, John HARPSTRITE, died
in 1873, at the age of nearly twenty-one. Mr. HARPSTRITE
began life as a democrat and voted for James K. POLK
in
1844. On the agitation of the slavery question, and on the formation of
the Republican party, he became a Republican. He
was one of the early members of the Republican party in Clinton county,
voted for FREMONT in 1856, and has been a
Republican ever since. He was elected county commissioner in 1873, and
filled that office until it was abolished by the
adoption of township organization.
Submitted by: J. Eric Taylor
Clinton County Biography Index
This file last modified 1 October 2008