Rev. W. F. Harper, pastor of the Baptist Church since December 15, 1893, is a son of Henry C. Harper, a well-known educator of Indiana, in which state he was born, March 9, 1854.\u00a0 He was educated largely by his father, and also at the high school at Danville, Ind., and in the University of Lebanon, Ohio.\u00a0 After graduation, Mr. Harper was an instructor in the normal department of his Alma Mater, and in 1876 was elected principal of the Central Indiana Normal School, and, three years later, organized the Southern Indiana Normal school, at Mitchell, resigning the principalship of this school to enter the ministry in 1882.\u00a0 During these years he was a lecturer on educational topics throughout the state, and a special student of mental science, pedagogy, law and theology.<\/p>\n
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In May, 1882, Mr. Harper was ordained as pastor of the First Baptist church, at Wichita, Kan.\u00a0 Six years later he became pastor the First Baptist church at San Diego, where he remained three years.\u00a0 His next pastorate was at Tacoma, Wash.\u00a0 This pastorate was cut short by the serious illness of his oldest daughter, who died in Redlands in May, 1895.\u00a0 While at San Diego, eight chapels were erected by the missionary society for the smaller communities of San Diego county.\u00a0\u00a0 The little church, used by the society in Redlands since 1889, not being sufficiently large to comfortably seat the increasing congregation, services were opened in the YMCA auditorium on March 4, 1894, and were continued there until a new and commodious church edifice was built and formally opened, December 27,1896.\u00a0 The membership has grown rapidly and now numbers 220.\u00a0 A new parsonage has also been built since Mr. Harper came here.\u00a0 Mr. Harper was married at Aimo, Ind., to Miss Margaret Tincher, and three of their four children are now living.\u00a0 He has been elected president of the Baptist State Convention in each of the three states where he has been a pastor.<\/p>\n
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The Baptist church was organized Nov. 13, 1887.\u00a0 The first meeting was held in the Lugonia schoolhouse, and was presided over by Rev. C. W. Gregory of Los Angeles.\u00a0 Services were continued in the school house until the following June, when Rev. Daniel Read became pastor, and immediately thereafter a tent was erected on a lot on Cajon street, where a church was afterward built and dedicated Feb. 24, 1889.\u00a0 After a pastorate of five months, Rev. Read was called to Los Angeles, and was succeeded by Rev. W.W. Willis in February, l889, who remained with the society until the following May.\u00a0 Rev. J.D. Rumsey succeeded as pastor in September, 1890, and continued to supply the pulpit until the summer of 1893.<\/p>\n
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(Source:\u00a0\u00a0 Illustrated Redlands<\/em>, 1897, p. 31)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21062,"template":"","photo_tag":[],"gallery":[176],"awards_category":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photo\/21061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photo"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/photo"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photo\/21061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"photo_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/photo_tag?post=21061"},{"taxonomy":"gallery","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gallery?post=21061"},{"taxonomy":"awards_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/awards_category?post=21061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}