The William B. Harper II family appears in the 1860 Freestone County census taken on August 8, 1860, but Josiah was not living with them at the time. The members are:

*William B. Harper, age 34, farmer, state of birth, Tennessee, my great-grandfather.

*Wm. B.’s wife, Mary A, age 24. She was only 16 when they married. I have located a record of their marriage license, but no record of the solemnization of the union. She was also born in Tennessee. I have found no record of the Copelands in Tennessee.

*Daughter Samantha Love, age 8, also born in Tennessee. She was called "Aunt Love" by her family in her adult years. She married the son of a judge in Rusk County, John Wherry, whose grave is in the city cemetery in Henderson, Texas. Wherry died and Aunt Love remarried a man named Wharton, had two sons by him, but was again widowed and living with her father and mother in the 1890 census. Later census records show that she changed her name to "Estelle" at some point.

*Son, William B. Jr. (III), my great grandfather, age 5, born in Tennessee. More about him later.

*Son, Thos. C. (Clint), age 3, born in Tennessee. He died young. His grave is in the Gould Cemetery in the south part of Rusk county near the extinct community of Sulfur. His father, my great-great grandfather’s grave is also in the Gould cemetery, perhaps because when he died he was living with a daughter in the Sulfur Community. The Gould cemetery is not far from the village of Laneville, where four of my great grandparents lived, including the "Son, William, B. Jr., listed above.

*Son, John M., age 1, born in Texas, which means that the family probably migrated to Texas in 1858 or 1859. He may have been named after his uncle who had preceded them to Texas.

*R. L. Harper, age 71. This is undoubtedly Roseanna Love, William II's mother. This places her birth in Pennsylvania in about 1788/89.

*Elizabeth J. Harper, age 26. This is William B. II's sister who appears on the 1850 Census in Tennessee. I came across Elizabeth in a census and a record of her burial site that I am trying to relocate. She was living with the Darrington family, presumably the married daughter of the elusive John Matheson Harper, at the time. Elizabeth died a spinster.

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