Susan J. Harper

Susan J. Harper

Susan Harper Mims, 1842-1913

• Father: William C. Harper b. circa 1814
• Mother: Mary C. Johnson b. circa 1808

• Susan J. Harper was born on 17 May 1842 in Brandon, Rankin County, Mississippi.
• William C. Harper and Mary C. Johnson appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Rankin County, Mississippi. Other members of the household included Susan J. Harper, William A. Harper and Ella K. Harper. Also in the household were S. H. Johnson (age 21), M. J. Johnson (age 18), and E. H. Johnson (age 16), likely children of a brother of Mary, and Andrew Harper (age 36), probably William's brother.
• William C. Harper and Mary C. Johnson appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Brandon PO, Rankin County, Mississippi. Other members of the household included Susan J. Harper, William A. Harper and Ella K. Harper. Also in the household was M. J. Johnson, age 26, possibly a female domestic servant.
• She married Livingston Mims, son of Henry Mims and Susan Burr Read, in 1866.
• Livingston Mims and Susan J. Harper appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, at 433 Peachtree Street. Other members of the household included Emma Mims. Also in the household was niece Willie Pope, age 16, and three domestic servants and a gardener.
• Circa 1884, Susan Mary Clark wrote to Ann Williamson Clark:
       Atlanta Ga, April 26th
  My dear Aunt Campbell,
       Mrs Mims came around, upon her arrival, and brought me your very welcome letter herself. She was perfectly delighted with the entire clan Campbell, and particularly yourself. She says you are perfectly superb, and elegant. I told her of the compliment you paid her in your letter to me, and she was extremely gratified and delighted. She said it was very valuable praise from such a source. I am sorry the Major was not with her, for he is as elegant and superior as a Man as she is as a Woman. They are quite a remarkable pair. She regretted not seeing Cousin Clarke, and Mattie Wrenn. The cold weather and hard times have greatly crippled Mr M's business and he is anxious to again resume the lumber business. He thinks there is an uncommonly good prospect for making money now by shipping lumber to Aspinwall, and to Colon, and if he can raise the money he will go into it, but though only requiring two or three thousand dollars, money is so scarce in this section that I am afraid he can not get it. A great many of his customers have defrauded him of their debts, and he is discouraged with his present business. It was all conducted on credit, and all exporting to the towns within two or three hundred miles of Atlanta. If the people would have paid their debts, the business would have been as profitable as he could have required. He is now anxious to sell out, if he can. He has always been accustomed to a large commercial business, and that style of business suits him better than any thing else, but he will be compelled to be controlled by circumstances. Mrs Mims made me long to see you and the entire family. If any one of my Cousins ever come near Atlanta do send them to me. Mrs. Connally (Senator Joe Browns daughter) left on Saturday for the Exposition and then for Texas . . .
       End of fourth and final page of the existing letter; the year is not specified. Minimal punctuation added by the transcriber to enhance readability.
• Livingston Mims and Susan J. Harper appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1900 in Baker County, Georgia. It appears that they had a farm in Baker County and that information provided to the enumerator was questionable.
• Susan J. Harper became a widow at the 5 March 1906 death of her husband Livingston Mims.
• The following appeared on 10 March 1906 in The Macon Daily Telegraph:
       (Atlanta, Ga., March 9) The will of the late Major Livingston Mims has been read by the members of his family. His estate is valued at something over $100,000, and is in his own handwriting. The bulk of the estate is left to his wife, Mrs. Sue Harper Mims, and after her death three-fourths of the same is to go to his daughter Mrs. Joseph Thompson.
       The will provides that Mrs. Joseph Thompson is to receive $2,000 from the estate, and Livingston Mims Thompson $1,000. Major Mims' watch is left to his grandson, and his seal ring to his son-in-law, Joseph Thompson. Outside of the above legacies from the estate proper, the entire balance is to go to Mrs. Mims.
       The life insurance, of which there is said to be a considerable amount, is willed to Mrs. Joseph Thompson, with the exception of $2,000, which is to be paid at once to Mrs. Mims.
• Susan J. Harper died on 30 January 1913 at age 70 in Brookline, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
• She was interred at Westview Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia.
• The following appeared on 31 January 1913 in The Macon Daily Telegraph:
       News has been received in Atlanta of the death at 11 o'clock Thursday morning of Mrs. Livingston Mims, wife of the late Major Mims, former mayor of Atlanta, at Brookline, Mass, a suburb of Boston.
       Mrs. Mims had been ill for seven or eight months at Hotel Beaconfield, where she stopped with a companion, Miss Mary Stone.
       Mrs. Mims was well known in Atlanta, where she was a social leader. She was a prominent member of the Christian Science church. The old Mims' home stood on the present site of the Georgian Terrace.
• The following appeared in A Woman of the Century: 1,470 Biographical Sketches (1893): Mrs. Sue Harper Mims, social leader and Christian Scientist, born in Brandon, Miss., 17th May 1842. She is the daughter of the late Col. William C. Harper and Mrs. Mary C. Harper. Her father was a lawyer of great learning and distinguished ability. Her mother, eminent for her physical beauty and mental power, is living still, over eighty hears of age, in the comfortable old homestead where Mr. Mims was born. The town of Brandon, now lapsed into age and inaction, was once a center of affluence and was noted for its beautiful and intellectual women. Miss Harper, dowered with every charm of person, spirit and heart, had the added advantage of thorough study and extensive travel and was as much admired in her girlhood as she is now in her perfected bloom. She became the wife of Maj. Livingston Mims in 1866. Maj. Mims is a leader in social and business circles, a gentleman of aristocratic lineage and culture. He was for several years president of the Capitol City Club in Atlanta and during his reign President and Mrs. Cleveland were entertained by the club. In his elegant home, "Heartsease," he and his wife receive their friends with courtly and graceful hospitality. They are prominent for their scholarly attainments and accomplishments. Their home is a gathering place for the literary, artistic and musical people of the city. Mrs. Mims' influence has always been for intellectual and ethical culture, and nothing affords her or her husband greater happiness than to know that hers has been a character at all times essentially uplifting. She is at once a leader and a follower of Christian Science. In the South she has been one of its prime movers and teachers. Nor is it only on this subject that she has so charmingly conversed and contributed forceful and interesting articles. Her critiques on various books and authors from time to time have met warm approval. Her time, her means, her powers of heart and soul are spent in doing good. She is a most approachable and sympathetic woman. The humblest laboring worman, the saddest sin-sick outcast can go to her freely and be made to feel the absolute sisterhood that abides forever.

• Last Edited: 12 Sep 2010