C. P. Harvey
In tracing the genealogy of the Harvey family we find there was a Colonel Daniel Harvey, an officer in the English army who settled in Ireland and who, as far as can be learned, is the head of the present generation.
Michael Harvey, the father of C. P. was born in County Armagh, Ireland, March 27th, 1817, whence he emigrated to the United States about 1837, locating in New York city, where he married Miss Ellen McGill. who was also born in Ireland in 1819. He resided in New York about five years then removed to Lee county, Illinois, where he followed stock-raising and farming.
He was a very early settler and some of the papers giving him possession of his land were signed by President Fillmore, per his secretary. In politics he was a democrat nearly all his life. He died in 1867, being survived by his wife, who departed this life in 1903, and both were interred in Sandy Hill cemetery, Lee county. They were the parents of the following eight children: Thomas A., who is a lawyer residing in Lead City, South Dakota, and who for years was criminal attorney for Meade county; James, who is a farmer and stockman in Lee county, Illinois; C. P.; Mack, who is living on the old homestead in Lee county; John, who is mayor of Amboy, Illinois; and three others, Mary, Charles and an infant, all deceased.
C. P. Harvey was born in Lee county, Illinois, May 2, 1852, and obtained his early education in the public schools. He remained at home until twenty years old and then went to Chicago, where he remained for two and a half years in the employ of Shuler & Company. Returning to Lee county he engaged in farming for one year, and later removing to Clinton, Iowa, followed the same occupation for four years, going from there to West Side, Crawford county in 1878. Here he remained for about fourteen years, one of which he spent in conducting a meat market in the village, another in acting as superintendent of the poor farm, the remaining twelve years being occupied in farming for himself. Subsequently he moved to East Boyer and continued the pursuit of agriculture there for four or five years, later going to Paradise township.
After three or four years' farming here he located in Denison township, buying two hundred and forty acres of land which now comprises his homestead. Under Mr. Harvey's able management it has become a highly improved and valuable piece of property and most creditably reflects his ability to apply modem methods in obtaining the best results from the soil. In connection with general farming he is interested in the raising of fine stock.
Mr. Harvey was united in marriage in 1876 to Miss Hannah Polhamus, a native of Iowa, who is of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, and they had three children, namely: Earl, who was accidently killed; Thomas Albert, who lives opposite the home place and who in 1894 married Miss Lissie Latshaw, born in Shelby county, Iowa, and they have three children, Grace Gladys, Glen Eldon and Merlin Paul; James, who occupies the adjoining farm, and who married Miss Florence Warmath, born in Denison, and they have two children, twins, Frank and George.
In regard to politics Mr. Harvey has always been a democrat and takes an active interest in the affairs of his party. He served on the board of supervisors from 1883 to 1886 and has been a member of the school board for the past twenty-six years. In his fraternal connections he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He has brought to his life work a well trained mind, which has made it possible for him to carry to a successful conclusion the ambitions of his early youth, and among his many friends he is recognized as a man of sterling worth and of the strictest integrity, a reputation he has never failed to uphold.
Source: History of Crawford County, Iowa. Vol. II. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911.