From the 1912 book Past and Present of Marshall County, Iowa, Volume 2, pages 1104-1106:

ROBERT HARPER.
Marietta township, Marshall county, has no more progressive citizen than Robert Harper, a substantial and well known agriculturist and stock man, his fine farm representing much hard labor, but he is a man of much energy and determination in business affairs, indolence and idleness having ever been entirely absent from his nature, and his continued activity in the management and development of this property has made his one of the valuable farms of the county.

Mr. Harper represents a hardy Canadian family, his birth having occurred near Bradford, Canada, October 17, 1865, and he is the son of John and Isabel (Tannahill) Harper, the father born in the north of Ireland in 1835 and the mother was born in Cherry Vale, Ireland, in 1837. There they grew to maturity and were educated.

In 1866 they emigrated to Canada, where they were married, and later came to Marshalltown, Iowa. In his early manhood Mr. Harper was head bookkeeper for the shipping (what here would be called custom house) for twenty years. At Marshalltown he engaged in the mercantile business. He had engaged in the same line of business in Canada. finally he gave up merchandising and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Jefferson township, Marshall county, which he improved and on which he spent the balance of his life, dying in 1874. His widow survived many years, her death occurring at an advanced age on April 11, 1909. They were the parents of two children, Robert, of this review, and William James, who was kicked by a horse and killed when twelve years of age while on the farm. The father was a Republican and a member of the Presbyterian church.

Robert Harper was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools, later attended Albion Seminary and also Cornell College at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, making a splendid record there and graduating from the engineering department in 1888. He turned his attention to farming and has been very successful, now owning one of the choice farms of Marietta township, consisting of two hundred and fifty-two acres, which he has brought up to a high state of improvement and cultivation. It lies just west of the village of Marietta in one of the favored sections of the county. He carries on general farming and stock raising extensively. He has a substantial and pleasant home and everything about his place indicates good management and thrift.

Politically, Mr. Harper is a Republican and he has always been more or less active in local affairs. For some time he very ably filled the office of justice of the peace, and he has been secretary of the cemetery committee for twenty-two years, still performing the duties of the same. He and his family belong to the Presbyterian church at Albion, to which they are liberal in their contributions for its support.

Mr. Harper was married on December 25, 1890, to Jessie M. Woodward, daughter of William A. Woodward, an early settler of Marietta township, this county, where Mrs. Harper was born in 1866, reared and educated. Her father was a farmer and well known in the early history of this locality. He was a Republican and he and his wife belonged to the Episcopal church; his death occurred on September 27, 1903; his wife, who was known in her maidenhood as Mary C. Dean, passed away on December 1, 1893. They became the parents of eleven children, eight of whom are living.

To Mr. and Mrs. Harper eight children have been born, namely: Clara I., born October 7, 1891; Robert Harold, born November 28, 1892; Jessie Marion, born September 3, 1895; Margaret E., born May 13, 1897; William John, born November 9, 1898; Helen, born October 8, 1902; Edgar M., born March 6, 1904, and Kenneth, born December 17, 1906.