Harper family
Biography
The Harper family has strong connections to Methodism in Louisiana. In 1881, Jacob Dick Harper
(1846-1922) married Virginia Fox (1856-1933). Harper served as a minister in the Louisiana
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His pastorates included Washington (1873),
Arcadia (1874), Plaquemine and Gross Tete (1875), Evergreen Circuit (1876), Lake Charles (1877),
Opelousas District (1878-1879), Alexandria and Pineville (1880-81), Columbia (1882-1885),
Alexandria District (1886), Delhi District (1887-1890), Ruston (1891-1893), Homer (1894), Arcadia
District (1895-1896), Mansfield (1897-1898), Delhi District (1899), Alexandria District (1900-1903),
Lafayette (1904-1907), Bunkie (1908-1909), Winnfield (1910-1911), Zachary (1912-1915), Opelousas
(1916-1920), McDonoghville (1921-1922). Within the Louisiana Conference, Harper served as
secretary of the Board of Education, chairman of the Committee on Conference Relations, president of
the Board of Church Extension, and president of the Board of Missions. Harper’s children are Clara
Harper Woolfolk, Ruth Harper, and Rev. Robert Henry Harper.
Dr. Robert Henry Harper (1882-1965) was born in Columbia, Louisiana. He graduated from Centenary
College of Louisiana in 1904; in 1923 Centenary awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.
On March 29, 1905, Harper married Edna Skipworth (d. 1954), the daughter of Henry Skipworth and
June Dick DuBose Skipworth. In 1905, Harper joined the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South (later Methodist Church, South Central Jurisdiction) as a supply preacher; he
was ordained in 1907. His pastoral appointments included: St. Martinville (1905), Pollock (1906),
Lecompte (1907-1908), Natchitoches (1909-1913), Parker Memorial Church in New Orleans
(1913-1916), First Methodist Church in New Orleans (1918-1925), presiding elder of the New Orleans
district (1926-1928), editor of the New Orleans Christian Advocate (1929-1930), First Methodist
Church in Lake Charles (1931), First Methodist Church in Baton Rouge (1932-1933), First Methodist
Church in Lafayette (1934-1936), presiding elder/district superintendent of the Alexandria District
(1937-1942), Napoleon Avenue Methodist Church in New Orleans (1943-1944), Mansfield
(1945-1946), Parker Memorial Church in New Orleans (1947), Louisiana Memorial Methodist Church in Opelousas (1948-1952), Pollock (1953), and Golden Meadow (1954-1956). He also served as the
conference secretary. Harper was an active mason having served as Grand Prelate of the Knights
Templar of Louisiana and also the United States. He also served as Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge
of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Masons. Dr. Harper’s publications include Louisiana Methodism
(Washington, D.C.: Kaufmann Press, 1949) and In the Land of New Acadie (Nashville, Tenn: Board of
Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1930). Harper’s children are Henry Skipworth Harper
and Robert E. Harper.