UPDATE JULY 2018 - New evidence that James H Harper's place of birth may be CLAY COUNTY, IL instead of Walnut Hill, Marion, IL on his death cert. Death record information is only as good as the informant's memory, after all. A listing from Cass County, MO history book I found at their genealogy library in Harrisonville gives a timeline of places J H Harper lived and his place of birth. Looks like he & Matilda owned and managed a hotel for a short while in Archie, MO called Pacific House. It seems they moved away from Cass Co. and came back a couple of times over the years as mentioned in his Obituary and census records.

Son of James M Harper and "Miss" Warren according to his Missouri death certificate and informant son "Edward" Harper who is Charles Edward.

He was born May 1850 (different from the 1849 on the grave marker) in Walnut Hill, Illinois and is found on the 1860 census Walnut Hill, Marion County, Illinois – age 11 – in household of James Harper (father), Margaret (step-mother) and brother John Harper.
There are several trees on Ancestry that show a James Harper on the same 1860 census in Logan County, IL instead, as there were at least two James Harpers on 1860 Illinois census the same age, but the one in Logan County is not THIS James Harper – obviously. THIS James Harper , my Great Grandfather, IS NOT the son of Samuel and Mary Ann Cartmel. He is the son of James Harper and "Miss" Warren as it says on his death record and census record. It is very important for people on Ancestry not to just make guesses with nothing to back it up, check for proof for or against, or blindly copy errors, and lead future descendants of this James Harper family to the wrong conclusions.(Some trees seem to make a lot of Samuel Harper being Choctaw, for example, which is not this James Harper's and therefore not our heritage). His father, James M Harper (the M as shown many later records), married Margaret Lee 1859 and is shown on the 1860 Walnut Hill, Marion County, IL census. The date of this particular census, June 20, 1860, also proves that the marriage record of one James Harper and Elizabeth Snyder cannot be THIS James Harper's father. That marriage record is dated Feb. 1, 1860 in Edgar county. - Another mistake shown on Ancestry trees. (James M Harper, the father, was actually married to Elizabeth Epperson or Apperson, his third wife, as proven by the marriage record of their only child, Louisa Alice Harper-Hoffman, Iowa, 1881 and death record of Louisa Alice Harper-Hoffman-Houren shows mother's name Epperson also; then see Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Vol. B Pg. 339, marriage record of Elizabeth Apperson and James Harper on 24 July 1864 Clay County, IL. - this marriage record cannot be found on Ancestry.)

The mother of James H Harper and brother John, the first two of James M Harper's children is not certainly known at this time.
There are many Warrens listed in 1860 and subsequent census records for Marion County, IL – one family even on the same 1860 census page that this James is listed on, so it's very possible that their mother was a Warren. Another speculation is that their mother was "Polly" Woolsey who married a James M Harper 1848 in Randolph Co., Illinois, but Warren is more likely.

James H Harper was the father of 11 children: William Henry, Emma (Mary) Lee Carter-Clark, Chas. Edward "Eddie", Rosetta O'Guin-Clark, Minnie Estella, Ida Mae Rardin, James J, Roscoe Thomas, Claude Ivan, Jessie Viola and Nellie Crain-Vance.