Benjamin “Ben” Harper was an American businessman and politician.

Harper was born February 12, 1817 in Philadelphia. He lived in Ohio and Missouri before he came 1850 to Illinois. From 1854 until 1855 Harper was Mayor of Rock Island, Illinois

Mayor of Rock Island, Illinois

The office of Mayor of Rock Island, Illinois has existed since the Rock Island's incorporation in 1841 with Benjamin Barrett serving as the city's first mayor. Rock Island adopted a Mayor-Council form of government. It held that form of government for the next 110 years when in 1952 the city...

. A wealthy hotel owner, he was the builder of the Harper House (1871) and Harper Theatre (1878).

The Harper House “has been described in superlatives, such as the ‘finest hotel between Chicago and the Pacific coast’” (George W. Wickstrom). The hotel occupied the site of the former Rodman House that burned down on October 22, 1869.

Ben Harper died April 3, 1887 in the City of Rock Island. He is buried at Chippiannock Cemetery

Chippiannock Cemetery

Chippiannock Cemetery is a cemetery located on 12th Street and 31st Avenue in Rock Island, Illinois. The word “Chippiannock” is a Native American term which means “place of the dead”.-History:Rock Island was in need of a permanent cemetery in 1854...

. His son Ben Harper, Jr. was a prominent building contractor in Illinois.

Sources

• George W. Wickstrom: The Town Crier. Rock Island, IL: J. W. Potter, 1948. (p. 84-87)
• Historic Rock Island County. Rock Island, IL: Kramer & Co., 1908. (p. 85-87)

External links