He was the youngest of four sons born to Joseph Henry Harper, (1750–1838), a farmer, carpenter, and storekeeper, and Elizabeth Kollyer, a Dutch burgher's daughter. With his brothers, James, John, and Joseph Wesley, he founded the Harper & Brothers publishing house. He is credited with founding Harper's Weekly (1850), Harper's Magazine (1850), and Harper's Bazaar (1867). Fletcher gave cartoonist Thomas