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David R. Leeper

American politician (1832–1900)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ115435851 ↗
Source-derived summary

David Rohrer Leeper (January 12, 1832 – November 27, 1900) was a politician, writer and miner from Indiana. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1874 to 1877 and Indiana Senate in 1878. He served as Mayor of South Bend from 1892 to 1894 and police commissioner of South Bend.

Early life

David Rohrer Leeper was born on January 12, 1832, in a log cabin near South Bend, Indiana, to Elizabeth (née Rohrer) and Samuel Leeper. At a young age, his parents moved to a tract of land near the Sumption Prairie Road in South Bend. He grew up on the farm and attended public schools. He also studied under professors Wright and Cogswell in South Bend. He attended school at the old seminary building (the site later became the South Bend High School).

On February 22, 1849, Leeper and his friends journeyed to the Pacific coast. They reached the gold fields on October 11, 1849.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “David R. Leeper” as american politician (1832–1900). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1832, 1900, 1874, 1877—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1832-01-12. The account is most persuasive where David, Leeper and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician (1832–1900). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q115435851. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1832, 1900, 1874 and 1877.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David R. Leeper”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David R. Leeper primary sources, David R. Leeper archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David R. Leeper”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “David R. Leeper” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.