HARPER, TEXAS. Harper is on U.S. Highway 290 twenty-three miles
west of Fredericksburg in far western Gillespie County. It is in
the heart of the Hill Country and has an ideal climate. The site
was first settled by the Matthew Taylor and Eli McDonald
families in 1863. A historical marker shows the site of the
McDonald massacre of August 1864, in which two members of the
McDonald family were killed by Kiowa Indians, a young mother and
four children were captured, and the elderly Aunt Hannah
escaped. The first post office was established in 1883 by George
Franklin Harper, for whom the town was named. Harper celebrated
its centennial in 1963, and more than 15,000 visitors attended
the festivities. In 1985 the town served a large ranching area
and had six churches, a fire department and ambulance service, a
public school, and growing residential subdivisions. As of 1982
Harper had the oldest bank still operating in Gillespie County.
The population was 383 in 1982 and 1990. By 2000, however, it
had grown to 1,006.