Ben Harper (politician)

He was the son of the mariner Peter Harper[1] and lived in Ohio and Missouri before he settling in Illinois in 1850.

A wealthy hotel owner, he was the builder of the Harper House (1871)[2] and Harper′s 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.

[5] In 1907 another son, Stuart Harper (1872–1910), build a prairie style mansion with stucco covered walls at a cost of $35,000.