Son of Paul P. & Barbara (Conrad) Harpole.

Courtesy of Barb:

A Tribute to the Memory of Hon. James W. Harpole of Junction City, Oregon
By Rev. W. H. Pruett, of Weston, Oregon, January 1, 1894
To the Memory of Hon. James Walker Harpole, of Junction City, Lane County, Oregon. A father in Israel has gone home, leaving to his descendants the most precious of legacies--the memory of a sainted life prolonged beyond the ordinary limits and devoted to God's service.
He was born in St. Charles county, Missouri, April 19, 1814. He was the son of Paul P. and Barbara Harpole. His father was a native of Pendleton county, Virginia, and his grandfather Harpole was born in Holland. Uncle Jimmy Harpole, as he was so well and favorably known by all who knew him, was the youngest child of a family of eight children, six sons and two daughters, and the last to depart this life.
He was married to Miss Mahala, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Zumwalt, February 9, 1837, of Pike county, Illinois. The young couple remained in Illinois for the first ten years of their married life, during which time their union was blessed with five children, three daughters and two sons.
Possessing an enterprising spirit, and very desirous of seeing the far West, early in April, 1847, he and his amiable and energetic companion bade the home of their childhood and friends of their youth farewell and entered upon the long, arduous and dangerous journey of crossing the plains, destined for the Pacific slope, to locate a new, home in the Territory of Oregon.
But alas! before reaching his destination the death angel visited the family and summoned to a mansion above the beloved wife, an affectionate mother and a kind and esteemed friend, who, after a brief illness of thirteen days with mountain fever, departed this life August 13, 1847.
This very devoted companion, who had been a true helpmeet to him, and who had undergone untold privations and hardships incident to such a journey, had been an exemplary Christian and died in the triumphs of a living faith in Christ, with the full assurance of entering that "rest that remaineth to the people of God," her remains being interred on Powder river in Union County, Oregon.
To say that this was a severe stroke upon her surviving husband, and the children who were left without a mother's love and counsel, very faintly expresses the true condition of affairs as they then existed. But he bore heroically the burdens of life alone after laying away in that secluded spot where no tomb stone marks the last resting place of one whom he had earned to esteem more highly than himself, and proceeded on hiss lonely journey, reaching his destination in the latter part of October, locating for winter quarters in the Waldo Hills in Marion County, fifteen miles east of Salem.
As an early pioneer of Oregon the family had to undergo many privations and forego luxuries owing to the scarcity of all kinds of grain, vegetables, etc., and yet this motherless family were very fortunate in some particulars, as Father Harpole was a natural and successful hunter from his early boyhood. He kept the table well supplied while at home with a variety of meats such as venison, elk, bear, fish and birds, with which the hills and mountain regions abounded. This practice imbibed in early life was followed up at intervals until disabled by the infirmities of old age. As a hunter I question much whether he had a peer on the Pacific Coast. .
In the fall of 1848, soon after the gold excitement in' California, he proceeded overland with a pack horse in search of the rich ore, where he remained one year, returning in the fall of '49 by water. Then in the spring he made a second trip to this gold region returning the following fall overland. As the result of his toil as a miner he accumulated the sum of six thousand dollars. Soon after his second return home from the gold mines, he returned to his old home in Illinois by sea, where he purchased quite a large band of stock, returning the next season by way of the plains with his cattle, and located on his arrival in the Willamette Valley on French Prairie, ten miles north of Salem.
In the fall of 1852 he again made his second return visit to Illinois, by water as formerly.
On February 3, 1853, he was united in marriage to Cynthia A., daughter of Andrew and Susan Zumwalt, Rev. James Burbage, a Baptist minister, officiating. Then in the spring, accompanied by his wife and her two sons,Wesley and Marion Lingo, he made the third trip across the plains to Oregon by ox team.
He was again made Captain of his Company, as he had previously served, during his second trip across the plains. His acquaintance with the route, his brave and fearless spirit, which was so characteristic of the man and his knowledge and experience of the treachery of the red man, eminently qualified him for the responsible office assigned him. He encountered some narrow escapes from the hands of the bloodthirsty savages, but owing to his presence of mind and cool deliberation in times of real danger, always succeeded in conquering the enemy.
After his third arrival in Oregon, he remained in Marion County until March, 1854, when he with his family moved to Umpqua Valley, locating a home near Oakland, in Douglas County, it being a very fine grazing country for stock.
Here he remained some eighteen months, during which time the two eldest sons, by his surviving companion, were born. After this brief sojourn, he returned to Lane County in the fall of 1856, where he permanently located twelve miles northwest of Eugene City, where he resided nearly thirty-years before his demise.
From this time forward he made farming his principal pursuit, and that of stock raising secondary. He proved to be quite a business man and a prosperous farmer, accumulating more or less property in real estate during these many years of toil.
He professed a hope in Christ in the early part of1869, during a revival conducted by Rev. Nelson Clark, and united with the M. E. Church, and was baptized during the summer following by his pastor, Mr. Clark. His return to God was not until quite advanced in age, notwithstanding he had been taught in early childhood by his honored parents to regard his soul's welfare paramount to all other interests. The parting exhortation of his dying father (who was a Minister of the Gospel), was: "Son, remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." This instruction was not heeded in early life, but the language of inspiration found a lodgment in his soul which ultimately had the desired effect, thus verifying the declaration of the Prophet, "My word shall not return unto me void."
Politically he was a Republican of the primitive stamp. In his early life, prior to the late rebellion, he stood identified with the Douglas Democratic party, casting his ballot for Stephen A. Douglas when a candidate for the presidency in 1860. But before the next presidential campaign, believing he could not be true either to his convictions or his country and remain where he was, he connected himself with the Republican party, the principles of which he was an earnest advocate to the last.
In 1880 his party elected him to the responsible office of Representative from Lane County to the State Legislature, where he faithfully served his constituents with honor to himself and all concerned. He was a man of firmness and inflexibility of purpose, and yet of active sympathy withal. His object was to be scrupulously honest in all his dealings with men, and had the absolute confidence of all who knew him.
In November, 1890, he was taken with la grippe, from which he never recovered. This disease developed slowly, yet surely. He did not apparently realize his precarious condition until a short time before his death. He was not wholly confined to his bed until the day of his demise. He doubtless entertained hopes that as the spring season advanced, bringing with it settled weather and a more congenial atmosphere, it would secure to him a convalescing condition of health. But, alas, the Lord had need of him, and on Thursday, March 16th, at 2 o'clock p. m. "he was not, for God took him," being at his death 78 years, 10 months and 27 days old.
His sudden and unexpected departure struck grief to the hearts of all who were personally acquainted with him.
Pastor Wallace conducted the preparatory burial service with very appropriate remarks on the 18th of March at his residence, and the remains were then taken to the Odd Fellows' cemetery, located four miles west of Junction City and interred. The hymn used at the home was "Meet Me There," and at the cemetery, "Joy Cometh In the Morning," and were well rendered by the congregation.
The large concourse of relatives and friends who followed the remains to their final resting place only evidenced the high esteem in which the man of God was held in the community where he had lived for nearly two score years.
The funeral sermon, by his own special request, was preached at the M. E. Church at Junction City on Sunday Nov. 12, 1893, by Rev. Dr. I. D. Driver, of Portland, Oregon, as his services could not be procured at an earlier date, taking for his text: ‘If Man Die Shall He Live Again?" (Job XIV 14) At this service, where the last tribute was paid to his memory, were present some four hundred people to give audience to the sermon so ably delivered by Dr. Driver.
A dear companion, a kind parent and an esteemed neighbor and friend has gone to reap his reward.
There remains his entire family, wife and children to mourn his departure. Mrs. Sarah Daugherty, Mrs. Elizabeth Lingo, Peter and John Harpole, of Junction City, and Mrs. Barbara H. Pruett of Weston, Umatilla county, Oregon. The children of his surviving companion are: Seth W., Enos, K. Polk, and M. Dallas Harpole, all of Junction City, Oregon, and Mother Harpole, who has reached her 77th year, owing to infirmity of age, is simply waiting, waiting for the summons, "Child, your father call, come home." Oh, how tenderly our sympathy and prayers go out in her behalf, who realizes more keenly than anyone else can, the loss of the loved one that has gone—one with whom she had been so intimately associated for forty years, and with whom she had toiled so incessantly, and borne so nobly the great burdens of life. May God wonderfully sustain and comfort her during the remaining days of her pilgrimage here below has been and will continue to be, our prayer for Jesus' sake
"Thou dear and faithful father rest;
The Lord has called thee to his breast,
Thy toils are over, thy labors done,
Thy conflict past, thy victory won."
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