Robert Harpur
Robert Harpur was an Irish-American teacher, politician, pioneer, and landowner. He participated in surveying lands within the Central [New York Military Tract|Central Military Tract in New York State] and is credited with giving classical place names to numerous locations in central New York. He settled in the Binghamton, New York area, where Harpur College was named for him.
Life
Harpur was born in Ballybay, County Monaghan, Ireland. He was a graduate of the University of Glasgow and taught in Ireland for 7 years before coming to the Colony of New York in 1760. Three days after his arrival in 1761 he was installed as professor of mathematics at King's College, renamed Columbia College after U.S. independence. One of his pupils was Alexander Hamilton while he studied there in 1774. During his tenure, he was hired by the university to catalog the collections of the Columbia library, making him the first librarian of the university.Harpur served in various capacities in the New York government during the American Revolution. He was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1777 to 1784. He was Deputy Secretary of State under John Morin Scott and Lewis Allaire Scott from 1778 to 1795. In the spring of 1795 Robert Harpur, with his 2nd wife Myra and family, moved west along the upper Susquehanna River. He settled near Belden Brook on his Warren Patent, which is near present-day Harpursville, NY.
Legacy
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.An earlier theory was that Surveyor General Simeon De Witt assigned these classical names.