Kenton Harper (1801 – December 25, 1867) was an American newspaper editor, soldier, Indian agent, plantation owner, banker and politician. An officer of the Virginia militia then U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War, Harper later became a Confederate general officer during the American Civil War, and reportedly helped nickname Stonewall Jackson. Early and family life Harper was born in 1801 in the city of Chambersburg in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was a son of George Kenton Harper, publisher of the Franklin County Repository newspaper, and his wife Nancy McClintock. By the U.S. Census of 1860, Harper had married Ellen Calhoun. They had four children together; two son's named Samuel and George Kenton, and two daughters named Nancy and Mary. Ellen's sister Catherine Calhoun also lived with the family at this time. Harper's son Samuel C. Harper (1831-1901) would also serve in the Confederate Army, enlisting on August 6, 1862, in Staunton and becoming a quartermaster sergeant in the 62nd Virginia Infantry. Like his father, Samuel survived the war, and but unlike him be buried in the Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Publishing and politics During his youth Harper worked as a printer in Chambersburg. In 1823 he moved southward along to Appalachian foothills to Staunton, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. He bought a local newspaper called the Republican Farmer. In time it would become known as the Staunton Spectator, which he would publish until 1849. In 1836, voters in Staunton and surrounding Augusta County, Virginia elected Harper as one of their two representatives (beside veteran Alexander H.H.Stuart) in the Virginia House of Delegates, but he failed to win re-election. Later, voters elected him as Staunton's mayor. During the Mexican War, Harper became a captain in the 1st Virginia Infantry, commanding the volunteer company from Augusta County that served in the northern frontier of Mexico. However he never saw combat and returned home to muster out in August 1848. Harper then was appointed acting inspector general of his brigade, and later was the military governor of Parras in the Mexican state of Coahuila. In 1860 Harper was appointed a major general in Virginia's state militia. From 1851 to 1852, Harper was the United States agent to the Chickasaws at Fort Washita in the Indian Territory, then became an assistant U.S. Secretary of the Interior in Washington, D.C. He also was president of a Staunton-area bank. American Civil War When the Civil