James Harper Starr born December 18, 1809 in New Hartford, Connecticut.  When he was five years old, his family moved to Ohio.  He studied at an academy in Worthington, Ohio.  In 1830, he became a member of the first class of the Reformed Medical Society of the United States of America.  He practiced at McDonough, Georgia and later at Pleasant Grove.  He married Harriett Johnson and they came to Nacogdoches, Texas on January 17, 1837.  On January 12, 1837, he was appointed by President Sam Houston as President of the Board of Land Commissioners and receiver of land due for Nacogdoches County.

On May 25, 1838, President M. B. Lamar appointed Starr as Secretary of the Treasury.  In the fall of that year, he helped move the office from Houston to Austin.  He resigned as Secretary of the Treasury on August 31, 1840.  He was a very conscientious and efficient person and in December of 1839, he prepared a law, which Congress passed, better defining the duties of the Secretary of the Treasury.  In 1840, he returned to Nacogdoches and resumed the practice of medicine.  In 1844, because of his friendship with General Kelsey H. Douglas, he opened a land agency and managed the Douglas lands, etc.

Starr opposed secession and hoped the North and South cold reunite.  When this failed, he no longer opposed secession.  The Congress of the Confederate States of America passed the Sequestration Act of 1861 and Starr was appointed as a receiver in the enforcement of the laws.  He served until 1864.

In 1863, he was appointed Confederate agent for the postal services west of the Mississippi River.  He became Postmaster General for the Trans-Mississippi.  With the surrender of the Southern Armies, Starr’s public career ended.

In 1870, Starr moved his residence and business to Marshall and had his son, James F. Starr, as a partner.  He added to his land agency the business of exchange dealers and private bankers.  He retired in 1873.

On March 30, 1881, Governor Roberts appointed Starr a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas, but health problems prevented him from serving.  James Harper Starr died on July 25, 1890, in Marshall, Texas.  James Harper and Harriet Johnson Starr had five children.  Sarah Sinclair and Clara Westmoreland are great, great granddaughters of James Harper Starr.

Sarah McGee Lentz Sinclair & Clara Lentz Westmoreland, Descendants