Henry Clapper
The career of Henry Clapper, now one of the honored retired citizens of Jonesboro, has been crowned with experiences of an interesting nature, and with activities that have brought him financial independence and public position. He is a member of a pioneer family of Indiana, and has seen the state grow and develop from a sparsely settled wilderness of timber into one of the leading agricultural, commercial and industrial commonwealths of the Union. He has borne no small part in this great development, and as soldier, citizen and public official has ever merited the esteem in which he is universally held.
Henry Clapper, the great-grandfather of Henry of this review, was probably born in Holland, and came early to America, settling in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, where he spent the greater part of his life as a farmer. It is thought that he died after the close of the Revolutionary war, but he was not a soldier in that struggle. His son, Henry Clapper II, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and there spent his entire life, being married twice and both of his wives dying in that county. By his first union he had a son, Henry Clapper III, the father of our subject, who was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1791. His mother died when he was a child, and when his father married again the youth could not live peaceably with his stepmother and accordingly, when seventeen or eighteen years of age, left home and journeyed to Ohio, where he settled in the vicinity of Zanesville. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Mr. Clapper enlisted in Captain Shane's company, and throughout the struggle that followed served valiantly as a soldier. When peace had been declared, he drew his pay of ninety-six dollars, and this he placed in his saddlebag and started out for Stark County, Ohio. while crossing Sugar Creek on horseback, his horse, although a good swimmer, lost its footing and rolled over, losing the saddlebag and the silver therein, which was never recovered. Mr. Clapper was near his destination, however, the home of Christopher Smith, with whom he secured employment, and not long thereafter, about 1817 or 1818 he married the daughter, Mary Smith, who had been born about 1798. Her grandfather, Christopher Smith's father, had come from either Holland or Germany prior to the outbreak of the American War for Independence, through which he served as a soldier in General Wayne's Command. He subsequently located in Westmorland County, Pennsylvania, where Christopher Smith was born. The latter was there married to a Pennsylvania girl and at a very early day they journeyed across the mountains to Stark County, Ohio, securing government land near Sugar Creek, where they founded a home and spent the remainder of their lives. Mr. Smith attained the advanced age of ninety-six years, while the mother passed away some three years later, being past ninety. Their daughter, Mary, the mother of Henry Clapper, was born in Pennsylvania, but was reared and educated in Stark County, Ohio. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Clapper located on a small farm in addition to cultivating which Mr. Clapper followed the trade of cooper, a vocation which he had learned in his youth. They resided in Stark County for many years, but just prior tot he outbreak of the Civil war came to Blackford County, Indiana and located one mile southwest of Hartford City, where they spent the reminder of their lives, Mr. Clapper dying at the age of eighty-four years and the mother when past seventy-four. They were not professed members of any religious denomination, but were kindly Christian people who won esteem and respect for their many sterling qualities. Mr. Clapper was a Whig in his political views and later joined the ranks of the Republican party, although he never sought public preferment as an office holder. Of the children of Henry and Mary Clapper, but two are living: Henry and Mrs. Rachel Diskey, of Hartford City. Two brothers of Henry Clapper of Jonesboro were soldiers during the Civil war: John and Christopher. The former returned safely to his home and lived for a number of year after the close of the struggle between the sates, but he latter died while in the Atlanta campaign with General Sherman, at Huntsville, Alabama, of pneumonia. They had both enlisted from Blackford County, Indiana.
Henry Clapper was born in Stark County, Ohio, January 6, 1827, and was twenty-two years of age when he removed to Blackford County, Indiana. Three years later, with a company of twenty adventurous spirits, he started for the gold diggings of California by way of the Isthmus, but he vessel, an old and unseaworthy ship, was driven by the trade winds far out of it course, and before a landing was effected in the Hawaiian Islands the crew and passengers were nearly starved. The trip to the Golden State consumed almost six months, and there Mr. Clapper spent some two and one-half years, with but indifferent success. returning to Indiana at the end of this period, he soon equipped himself for a trapping and hunting trip in Michigan, and there spent a year, killing sixty-eight elk and many deer, and securing on an average of twenty-five pelts of smaller animals a day. At the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Clapper answered his country's first call for troops, enlisting in the twelfth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. Thomas Doan, Col. Lew Wallace, commanding. While he enlisted for three years, the regiment was assigned to the one year's service. Mr. Clapper saw much active service and received his honorable discharge, following which he returned to Blackford County and during the next thirty years was identified with the movements and activities which built up that section in various ways. He was a dry good merchant at Hartford City for twelve years, and served in the capacities of justice of the peace and drainage commissioner for a long period. In 1893 he came to Jonesboro, retired from active pursuits and still makes this his home.
Mr. Clapper has been married five times, and his first two wives bore him two children each, all dying young. By his third union he had no children, and by his fourth marriage he had two children: Maxwell, a resident of Hartford City, Indiana; and Mrs. Edna S. Kirkpatrick of the same city. Mr. Clapper married for his fifth wife, Mrs. Mary J. Snyder, nee Colgan, who was born October 18, 1856, in Miami County, Ohio, of Irish parentage. She came to Wells County, Indiana, with her parents, John H. and Eunice (Patterson) Colgan, and when sixteen years of age was brought to Hartford City. Mr. Colgan served as a soldier during the Civil war in an Ohio volunteer regiment, and died at the Soldier's Home Lafayette, Indiana, November 18, 1910. The mother, who was seventy-five years of age September 20, 1913, still survives and makes her home at Jonesboro. She is a member of the Friends Church. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Clapper:
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H. Clyde, a glass blower of Jonesboro, who is married and has a daughter, Beulah.
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Fred H., connected with the stove factory at Jonesboro, who is married and has a son, Wayne.
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Paris, a stove mounter and inventive genius, who lives at home with his parents.
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Herbert, who is in his second year in the Jonesboro High School.
Mr. and Mrs. Clapper are consistent member of the Seventy Day Adventist Church. He is a Republican, takes a keen interest in the success of his party, and is ever ready to support movements which his judgment tells him will make for better conditions in his adopted community.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.