Robert Harpur

Robert Harpur (January 25, 1731 – April 15, 1825) was an Irish-American teacher, politician, pioneer, and landowner. He participated in surveying lands within the

Harpursville, New York in eastern Broome County, New York was named after him. Additionally, Harpur College, the arts and sciences component, and the oldest part, of present-day Binghamton University, was also named for him.

Classical names used in New York

While Harpur worked as a clerk in the office of the New York State Surveyor General, and Secretary of the Land Board, he assigned numerous classical tradition names to locations in the Central New York Military Tract, today in Cayuga County, Cortland County, Oneida County, Onondaga County, and Seneca County.^[3]: 1–2

An earlier theory was that Surveyor General Simeon De Witt assigned these classical names.^[3]: 1

Archival material

The New York State Library, in Albany, New York, holds the following materials of Harpur, according to its online catalog: "This collection contains material created by Harpur and material collected about him. Among Harpur's papers are his personal account books, 1768-1814, which include house expenses and tuition accounts for students he tutored; and a photostat of a land grant to Harpur for lands in Kingsbury and Queensbury townships. Among the items collected about Harpur are several biographies, postcards of the Senate House in Kingston, N.Y. and Clinton's mansion, and a photostat of a 1790 print of Columbia College, where Harpur taught."

See also

• Colesville, New York

References

• Early history of Colesville, NY^{[permanent dead link]}