Harp

The Harp family continuously has been a part of the Inman Methodist Church since it began as a brush arbor.

William Cullen Harp was the first Harp to own land in Fayette County. His son, Rev. Mozee Harp, a Methodist lay preacher from Virginia, probably was the first to settle in Fayette County. He and Rev. Bogan Mask were early preachers in what eventually became Inman Methodist. Bogan Mask, who has numerous descendants in the community in 1997, also is credited with beginning Ebenezer Methodist Church in Fayette County and Friendship Methodist Church in Clayton County.

The 1850 census shows Mozee Harp's family of six living in Fayette County. Mozee, whose name is spelled Moses in his fathers will, married Sara Hill, a daughter of Elisha Hill, for whom Hills Bridge Road is named and who is buried across the Flint River in Clayton County, near the site of the original church, which later moved to a site adjacent to the cemetery on Hills Bridge, then to a location on John Street, and finally to its present location on Hills Bridge Rd.

The children of Mozee Harp and Sara Hill continue to be a part of the Inman community and the Inman Methodist Church. Relatives include the Burch family, the McLucas family, the Welden family, and others.

A son, William Nathan Tally ( Nathan and Tally being the names of Methodist preachers), married Ida North of the Crossroads Community. Her father was a direct descendant of Lord North, the Scottish advisor to the crown who counseled King George that the colonist in America wouldn't be overly disturbed by taxes levied in London. W.N.T. and Ida built a home in what is now known as Harps Crossing and eventually added a cotton gin, a commissary and a sawmill. The family operated a sawmill South Georgia for a time. Their oldest son, William Edward Mozee, remained at Harps crossing, operating the family businesses while living with his grandmother, Sara. In 1997, one of the children of W.N.T. Harp and Ida North survives. Ida May Harp never married and at this writing is 110 years old, a resident of LaFayette Nursing center in Fayetteville. She made a home for brothers Harry and Russ until their deaths. Russ, along with his brother Roy, served in France with the American Expeditionary Force in World War II. Harry was in the army for a short time before becoming ill and being discharged during the influenza epidemic that ravaged the armed forces. Russ, who with a partner, had built a telephone line from Fayetteville to Inman before World War II, farmed and worked as an electrician thereafter. The phone line fell into disrepair while he was in France and was never repaired. Harry raised peaches at Harps Crossing and was instrumental in bringing Rural Electrification to Fayette County in the 1930s. Russ wired many houses for lights when REA arrived.

Roy, who had operated a store on the site of the present Inman Methodist Church, migrated to Oklahoma and made a modest fortune in the retail business. He began, with his partner George Glass of below Woolsey, by moving to oil strikes with a rolling store which supplied oil field workers with essentials. He later owned family-type stores and was able, in the 1950s, to give the Inman church shares of stock which led to a fund making it possible to get a building fund underway for the present church building. He, and Harry, later made other generous donations in support of their church. The present church stands on the old store site which the Harp family gave for the new building.

W.E.M. Harp married Eva Blanche Burch, of Inman. Blanche, who was taught at the Inman School by James Wesley Culpepper, who became Fayette County's most acclaimed lawyer and a powerful representative in the Georgia General Assembly in Atlanta. (The Inman school was located directly across from the John Burch Harp Sr. home on Highway 92). When Mr. Culpepper informed Blanch's parents that she should go away for more schooling, she was sent, at high school age, to Agnes Scott College in Atlanta. Later she transferred to Wesleyan College, a Methodist institution in Macon, where she graduated magna cum laude. After teaching at the Inman school she married W.E.M. Harp. Although she spent the remainder of her life as a homemaker, she was active in the church, as a Sunday School teacher and as historian. A half century later, she was still helping students with their Latin studies.

W.E.M. Harp and Blanche Burch Harp had five children. W.E.M. (Bill) Jr., who never married and stayed home to look after his mother until his death in 1978. Ida Mae married Weldon Griffith, who was a pillar of the Inman church until his death and for whom the Fellowship Building on John Street is named. Ida Mae in 1997 is 90 years old, living at her home in Fayetteville, and is a regular attendee of church services at Inman. Sara, who married Jim Minter Sr., was very active in church work until becoming ill in the 1980s. Donald, who lives on John Street, married Doris McElroy. Doris faithfully played the piano and later the organ for more than 60 years until illness forced her to retire. They have four children: Carolyn and Sara Jane, who now live in Atlanta; Mickey, who founded and operates Harps Farm Market in Inman; and Donald Allen Harp Jr., who following in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, Rev. Mozee, is one of Methodism's outstanding preachers and pastors the Peachtree Road Methodist Church in Atlanta, where he has just led a $20 million expansion program. Ruth married J.W. Dumas, of Kenwood, Ga. and was active in Friendship Methodist church until her death. John Burch Harp married Mary Lunceford. Their children are John, Jr., Charles, Patricia, David, Bill, and Kenny. All still live in the area. John and Charles founded and operate Harp Grading, a large earth-moving company headquartered in Harps Crossing, not far from where their great-grandfather operated a sawmill and a gin house. Patsy married Moody Elliott and both are presently stalwarts of the Inman Methodist Church. Kenny is also an active member. John Burch Harp Sr., now past 80 and in failing health, was a church trustee for many years. The Harps have been loyal supporters of this church since its beginning.

The Minters are relative newcomers to the Inman area, but have a history of involvement in the community and the Inman Methodist Church. John and his wife, Della, moved to Inman from the Rest community early in the 20th century. Although John Minter continued to farm lands where Whitewater Middle School is now located, he moved to Inman because of illness, and a need to be closer to his physician, Dr. John Welden.

Two Minter brothers settled in Virginia before the Revolutionary War, probably emigrating from Wales. Their descendants moved to North Carolina, then to the Monticello area of Georgia, and later to Henry and Clayton counties. They were farmers.

John Minter married Della Lee Moore from the Moore-Peeples family from the Bear Creek, now Hampton, area. Their fathers had served together in the same company of Longstreet's Corps in the Civil War. John farmed in Clayton and Henry counties before moving to Fayette in the 1890s. When the Minters decided to move from Rest to Inman they began remodeling a house on what is now John Street, ending in front of the present church on Hills Bridge Road. While they were waiting for their home to be finished, they camped out in a tenant house, which in 1997 still stands on McLucas property, across the road and east of the Dr. Welden house in Inman. They had no well at the tenant house, and had to tote water from Dr. Welden's

When their home on John Street was completed it had electric lights, a rarity in rural areas in the first part of the century. At that time, several local citizens who envisioned Inman growing more than it ever did, had land on the West side of the present John Street divided into building lots. John Minter owned several of these lots. Records show that when the church decided to move from the cemetery to a location on John Street, one of John Minter's lots became the site of the new church building. Records are not clear, but family members are of the belief that he donated the lot for the new building. The Fellowship Hall is now on that lot.

The Minters got their electricity from a Delco generator, which was housed in a backyard building and consisted of an engine and big bottles of chemicals. The Delco unit also supplied power to the church until hard times came along and the Minters were no longer able to operate their backyard electrical plant. The Minter home burned in 1940, so fast that nothing was saved except a glider, which in l997 is still in use on Andy McLucas' front porch, across Hills Bridge Road from the church.

John and Della Minter had six surviving children, all members of the Inman church until some moved away. Raymond, who married Charlotte Chambers, daughter of Dr. J.A. Chambers, was one of the volunteer carpenters who built the church on John Street. Raymond and Charlotte lived in Atlanta for many years until they moved back and built a home on Highway 92 in the 1950s. Their daughter, Martha Minter Barton, is a resident of Inman in 1997.

Grace Minter, John and Della's youngest daughter, a school teacher, married Bill McLucas Sr., her next door neighbor. Grace was active in the church until her death in 1980. Their three sons--Bill Jr., John, and Andy--were regular attendees. Andy set a what is believed to be a church record, attending Sunday School for 10 years without a miss.

Sara Harp Minter, who married James Gideon Minter, youngest son of Della and John, was a leader in the Inman church until she became ill with Alzheimer's disease in the 1980s. She taught Sunday School, served as superintendent of the Sunday School, served for many years as communion steward, and was energetic in recruiting new members. She also had a large role in raising funds to build and furnish the present church on Hills Bridge Road. Sara taught school in Fayette County for 30 years.

Jim Minter Sr. served on the Board of Stewards for many years. A farmer most of his life, he was Inman's postmaster at the time of his death in 1967.

The children of John and Della Minter who moved away were members of the Inman Church while growing up. They were Byron, who moved to Elberton; Addie, who married George Glass from the Woolsey community and moved to Oklahoma; Elizabeth, a school teacher who spent her later years in Thomson; and Robert, who moved to Henry County about 1930. He married Helen Rodgers. Helen, her son John Minter and his wife are living across the river near McDonough but are Baptist.

James G. Minter Sr. and Sara Harp Minter had one son, James G. (Jim) Minter. He married Anne Taylor, the daughter of Methodist minister and district superintendent Robert Taylor. Anne and Jim are members of Inman Methodist. They have two children, Richard Anthony and James Robert. Rick Minter, his wife Joanne, and daughter Stephanie are active in the Inman Methodist Church in 1997. Rick, Joanne and Stephanie live in the Jim and Sara Minter homeplace on Hills Bridge Road.

At this writing Rob and his wife Jana are planning to move back to Inman from Atlanta, into the house on Hills Bridge Road that for many years was home to Jim and Sara Minter.

Mozee Harp was born 4-17-1819 to Cullen Harp and Elizabeth Russian. He moved to Fayette County, GA and had a family that is still represented in the Inman area today. He married Sarah Hill, the daughter of Elisha Hill and his first wife Martha Patsy Stubbs. They acquired land north of Inman and reared the following children:

Nancy Slaughter Harp b. 1843 married John A. Nash (as his first wife)--see separate biographical sketch

Mary Frances Harp b. 1856 married Dr. Elijah Burrell Welden--separate biographical sketch

This family was prominent in Liberty Chapel records. Mozee and Sarah are buried in the cemetery at Inman, along with many of their family members. At this time a descendent has reported that when Mozee's mother Elizabeth was widowed, and when Sarah's father Elisha was widowed--the two of them were married.

There are some records that mistakenly report Rev. Harp's name as MOSES, but it is the belief of his family that he spelled his name MOZEE. A descendent (John McLucas, Sr.) is in posession of a book that Mozee signed as his own, and his name was spelled accordingly by his own hand. The book is John Wesley's commentary on the New Testament, and Mozee had purchased the book from Liberty Chapel pastor Rev. Bellah according to the note in the front of the book. Rev. Harp was a Local Preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, having been first ordained by the Conference as a Deacon in 1852, and as an Elder in 1866. His name was listed in the Conference Journal at the time as "Mosie E." Harp (from Methodist Preachers in Georgia 1783-1900, by Harold Lawrence, Boyd Publishing, 1984).

Mozee Harp's son William N. T. Harp left a published biography. His account of his life was published in Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. 1, Southern Historical Association, Atlanta, GA, 1895, p. 654. The article was as follows:

William N. T. Harp, farmer, Inman, Fayette Co., Ga., son of Mozee and Sarah (Hill) Harp, was born in Fayette county, Dec. 25, 1849. His paternal grandparents were natives of Virginia; came to Georgia early in life and settled on land included in Henry county when laid off, and now in Spalding county. Here Mr. Harp's father was born in 1819 and raised a farmer. He was a local Methodist preacher and was widely-known as a good and useful man throughout the counties of Henry, Fayette, Spalding and Clayton. He died in 1875. His mother was descended from early settlers of South Carolina, where she was born in 1820. When she was five years old her parents came to Georgia, lived a year in Jasper county and then moved in 1826 to and settled in Henry (now Clayton) county. She is still living. Mr. Harp remained with his parents, attending the common schools while growing up, until he attained to manhood, when he commended to farm for himself. By close attention, industry and good management he has accumulated a large and valuable property, is a leading farmer and one of the really substantial citizens of the county. He was a member of the board of county commissioners from 1886 to 1890. In 1890 he moved to Seville, Wilcox Co., Ga., where he owned and operated a saw-mill. While there he served as mayor for a period. After about four years' experience he sold out and returned December, 1893, to Fayette county, and is now a member of the board of county registers. Mr. Harp was married Dec. 16, 1876, to Miss Mary Ida, daughter of Edward O. and Sophronia (Glass) North, natives of what is now Clayton county, Ga. To them the following children were born: William E. M., born Oct. 3, 1977; James, deceased, born Aug. 3, 1879; John Pearl, deceased, born Oct. 15, 1881; Harry, born Nov. 7, 1884; Andrew Russell, born Nov. 11, 1886; May Ida, born Jan. 25, 1889; Roy, born May 9, 1891; Hugh, born Nov. 16, 1893.

At the time of this writing, Miss Mae Harp--daughter of W. N. T. Harp--is the oldest living member of Inman United Methodist Church. She was born January 25, 1889, and resides in Fayetteville, GA. She was 108 years old on her birthday in 1997. She has been a lifelong active member of this congregation, having been entered on the Cradle Roll on July 28, 1908 by pastor J. W. Bailey.

information submitted by Dr. Harp; narrative by S. J. Overstreet for church history

Donald Allen Harp, Jr. was born the oldest child of Donald Harp, Sr. and Doris Anna McElroy. He graduated from Fayette County High School and Young Harris Jr. College. He received his undergraduate degree from Huntingdon College, and his Master of Divinity from Emory University. He completed his Doctor of Divinity at McCormick Theological Seminary, University of Chicago.

Dr. Harp married Mary Ellen Dendy, and the couple have two children--Allen and Robin.

Dr. Harp has had appointments in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church at Jenkinsburg, St. Andrew (Carrollton), Northwoods (Atlanta), Sam Jones Memorial (Cartersville), First United Methodist Gainesville, and now serves at Peachtree Road United Methodist (Atlanta). He served as Mayor Pro-Tem of Carrollton and was a member of the Carrollton City Council. He is on the Board of Directors of Young Harris College; Wesley Foundation, Georgia Tech; and North Georgia Foundation. He is a member of the President's Advisory Council at Oglethorpe University. He is Chair of the Administrative and Personnel Committee of the North Georgia Conference; Vice Chair of the North Georgia Conference Council on Finance and Administration; and was a Delegate to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church and to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference in 1988. He received the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award from Brenau College in Gainesville. He was Chair of the Lake Lanier Task Force of the Gainesville-Hall County Chamber of Commerce. He has been a member of the Georgia State Games Commission, was appointed to the Atlanta Olympic Committee by Gov. Zell Miller, and has served as a member of Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell's Advisory Committee.