Luper, David bio


David Luper	Lois Luper

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 589–590; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
David Luper. Among the resident in Lee Township who are spending their declining years in the enjoyment of peace and plenty, obtained by their industrious efforts and good management, and secure in the esteem of all who know them, are David Luper and his good wife, whose portraits appear on the opposite page and whose pleasant home is on section 16, Lee Township. The happy couple, although living alone, their children being married and settled in homes of their own, find much to enjoy in life. One of the greatest pleasures Mr. Luper can have is to converse with an interested listener regarding the early days and the pioneer life in which he bore a part. He speaks of the days when grain was threshed by driving the horses over it; when twenty-five cents was paid for letter carrying; wheat sold for twenty-five cents per bushel, and salt cost $4 per bushel. He hauled his own grain to Canton, between which place and Macomb there was not a postoffice.
The birth of our subject took place in Crawford County, Pa., January 7, 1814. His parents, Jacob and Nancy (McMurtry) Luper, were born in the Keystone State in 1792 and removed to Ohio in 1834. They spent the remnant of their days in the Buckeye State, the mother dying two years after their removal thither and the father in 1842. Their family consisted of four sons and three daughters, named respectively: David, Martin, John, Jasper, Sarah, Harriet and Abigail, all of whom survive. The eldest son, our subject, accompanied his parents to Ohio and remained with them there four years. He then, with his brother-in-law, Ebenezer Sanford, started for Illinois with a team, traveling much of the time without seeing a house. They landed in Ellsiville, this county, in February, 1838, and soon after his arrival Mr. Luper bought forty acres of land where he now resides. He cleared and improved a tract, to which he afterward added two hundred and forty acres. He has given his sons a farm and still retains one hundred and eighty acres.
The marriage of Mr. Luper and Miss Lois Curtis was celebrated March 10, 1842. Mrs. Luper was born in Ohio May 23, 1823, and in 1837 accompanied her parents to this county. She is a daughter of Enos and Lucy (Smith) Curtis, who were born in the Empire State, live in Ohio a few years, and passed the remnant of their days in this State. Mr. Curtis died in 1854, ten years after his good wife had crossed the river of death.
Mr. and Mrs. Luper have had eight children, two of whom died in infancy. The survivors are Lucy Ann, now the wife of Peter Wood and living in Pukwana, Brule County, S. Dak.; Huldah A., wife of Lorenzo Barnes, their home also in Dakota; Henry L., who married Nancy Pearce and lives in Lee Township; Emily C., wife of David Louk, whose home is in Lee Township; Martin J., who married Maggie Sheckler and lives in Ellisville Township; Mary E., wife of D. C. Smith, whose home is in Lee Township.
What is now Lee Township was organized into a precinct in 1841, with thirteen voters, of whom Mr. Luper and Mr. Harrison Rigdon are the only survivors. Mr. Luper was one of the first Highway Commissioners in the town of Lee, and the second School Treasurer in the township. He is a stanch member of the Republican party. Both Mr. and Mrs. Luper have been members of the Baptist Church for forty years and Mr. Luper has been Deacon and Trustee. They donated $100 to the Chicago University in 1860 and also gave to the Baptist Union Theological Seminary of Chicago in 1873. They have taken the Standard, a religious and family newspaper, published in Chicago, since 1858. On his return from a visit to Pennsylvania a few years since, Mr. Luper witnessed the burning of a ship near Cleveland, Ohio, where more than three hundred lives were lost. It is probably that no couple now living in the county are more highly respected than our subject and his wife, and certainly none are better deserving of representation in this volume than the aged couple who have witnessed so much of the growth of the county.