William Harper, farmer and stock raiser, was born in Sumner County, Tenn., September, 1843, and is one of a family of two children born to S. and S. (Easley) Harper, both natives of Virginia. The father was born in Culpeper County, in 1780, was of English descent, a farmer and stone-mason by occupation, and died in 1872. The mother was born in 1789 and died in March, 1877. Our subject was educated in the schools of Sumner County, and at the age of twenty-one began working for himself on his father's farm. In 1863 he married Miss Minerva A. Childress, a native of Sumner County, born in 1843, and the daughter of John and Elmira Childress. This union resulted in the birth of five children: Sallie I., W. J., Ella, Jesse L. and Earl P. Mr. Harper is a Democrat, a member of the Masonic fraternity, also of the K. of H., and his wife and three daughters, Sallie, Willie and Ella, are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.