Area farmer and teacher almost makes century mark

A.D. Harpel, wife Cora, and son

The photograph featured here of A.D. Harpel and family was found in a photo album of Alexander Henderson, which Shirley Fruits generously loaned to the Reference/Local History Department to digitize.

A.D. Harpel was the first teacher of  Daisy Hendricks Fruits (Alexander's granddaughter). A.D. (Andrew Douglas) Harpel was born in Newton County, but lived in Montgomery County almost his entire 97 years. "Doug" Harpel was 6 days shy of being 98 when he passed away. He married Cora Effie Fruits in April 1894, and they were blessed with three sons and three daughters. Not only was he a farmer and teacher, he was also a charter member of the Montgomery County Farm Bureau and a former member of the Farm Bureau's Board of Directors.  Mr. Harpel attended the Old Ladoga Normal School and Wabash College. You can view Harpel's Teacher Examination scores on our database of Teacher Records. The post office he used when taking these teaching examinations was Yountsville, and when he was 29 he scored the highest out of all teachers in the Arithmetic category.