DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Captain Benjamin I. Harper — so let's let the record speak. Now, some men arrive in Texas and the land seems to know they belong there.
Benjamin Ingram Harper was born in 1809, came down from Virginia, and by 1833 he was standing at the front of a schoolroom in Liberty County, teaching other people's children their letters. A schoolmaster. Quiet work.
Respectable work. But Texas in those years had a way of pulling a man out of the classroom and into something considerably louder. In 1834, he wed Evelina Vocum, and they had a son together.
Then, the very next year, Harper was fighting. Under Andrew Briscoe, he took part in the Battle of Concepción and the Siege of Bexar. A schoolmaster turned soldier — and apparently a capable one, because by 1836 he had been commissioned as a second lieutenant.
Now here's where the story gets its weight. Harper organized a company to go and assist at the Alamo. They moved.
They pushed. And they did not reach it in time. Let that sit a moment.
They did not reach it in time. But they did fight — and fight they did — at the Battle of San Jacinto. Harper went on to become a captain, and he received land grants in Polk and Jefferson counties.
He remarried, this time to Nancy J. Reynolds, and together they had four children. He had built something — a farm out in Walker County, a life, a family spread across Texas soil.
Tradition holds that Benjamin Ingram Harper was buried right there on that Walker County farm, in 1863. The cemetery itself is now gone. The ground doesn't show it anymore.
But several of his descendants are buried nearby, keeping some small claim on the earth their ancestor helped fight for. A schoolmaster from Virginia. A soldier who pushed hard but arrived too late.
A captain who survived San Jacinto and planted roots deep enough that some of them are still here. The cemetery's gone — but the name isn't.
What the marker says
Benjamin Ingram Harper (b. 1809) came to Texas from Virginia, and in 1833, he worked as a schoolmaster in Liberty County. He wed Evelina Vocum in 1834 and had a son. The next year, under Andrew Briscoe, he fought at the battle of Concepción and the Siege of Bexar. In 1836, commissioned as a second lieutenant, he organized a company to assist at the Alamo. They did not reach it in time but did fight at the Battle of San Jacinto. Harper became a captain and received land in Polk and Jefferson counties. He remarried to Nancy J. Reynolds and had four children. Tradition holds that he was buried on his Walker County farm in 1863. The cemetery is now gone, but several of his descendants are buried here. (2003)