Contributed by Charlene Saunders:
A.C. HARVEY, an enterprising nursery-man and farmer, and a
public-spirited citizen, was born in Hardy County, Virginia, in the year
1828. In 1884 he came to Indiana with his father, B.C. HARVEY, who
settled in Tippecanoe County, and the winter following the family
resided in La Fayette. The father and his boys employed themselves in
hauling wood from the woods, where Sample's pork house now stands, to La
Fayette, and at that time there was but one cabin south of Sample's
Run.
The country, which in that vicinity was then swamp, wilderness and
woods, is now covered over with dwellings, depots and railroads. In the
spring of 1835, the father bought the old George Stump farm on Indian
Creek, five miles northwest of La Fayette, at which place the subject of
this sketch still resides. His father died in 1841, and seven years
later his mother died, leaving him to care for and provide for the five
younger children. In the course of time, by the strictest economy and
good management, he accumulated a sum of money by which he was enabled
to purchase the interests of the other children in the home farm as they
became of age. He has now 320 acres of land, a part of which was once
covered by Headley's Lake, which by a process of artificial and natural
drainage, has been redeemed and converted into farm land of surpassing
fertility. His success in the cultivation of the soil has been such as
to give him especial notoriety as a wheat-raiser, and his corn, oats and
potatoes almost always carry off premiums at county fairs. He is a
reliable horticulturist and nurseryman, and has had thirty years
experience raising and selling fruit trees, vines and evergreens, and he
will leave monuments of his industry, that a century will not efface.
He is a thorough, practical farmer, and the reasons for his great
success is that he utilizes machinery, adopts the advanced thoughts on
profitable agriculture by introducing new and improved varieties of
grain and upon the suggestions of his own judgment, tries experiments in
the introduction of improved methods and appliances calculated to
develop the best processes. These peculiarities of MR. HARVEY
distinguish him as a man of honorable intentions and inflexible will, in
which there is also a combination of positive energy and judicious
perseverance.
MR. HARVEY's paternal ancestors are English, he being a descendant of
DR. WILLIAM HARVEY, whose discovery of the circulation of the blood has
rendered his name immortal. On his mother's side he is a descendant of
ADAM CLARK, the commentator, and ABRAHAM CLARK, one of the signers of
the Declaration of Independence. MR. HARVEY has grown up with
Tippecanoe County, and has strengthened with its prosperity,
participating in the exercises, and practicing the customs and usages of
society during the transforming process from the past to the present,
from primitive nature and wild barbarisms to educated civilization and
prosperity.
He has been twice married, taking for his first wife MISS JULIE A.
HEATON, whose parents, JOHN S. and ANNA (RERICK) HEATON, were the first
settlers of Dayton, where they kept a small store. Three children were
born to this union, of whom only one is now living, named AYLMER O.
MRS. HARVEY died in 1858, and MR. HARVEY was again married in 1859 to
MISS EMELINE V. HEATON, a sister of his first wife, and to them have
been born five children, three of whom are yet living; JULIA J., wife of
DWIGHT C. ALLEN; ELNORA and EVA A. MR. and MRS. HARVEY and their family
are members of the Universalist church at Dayton. MR. HARVEY was one of
the organizers of the Wabash Grange, and was purchasing agent for the
same, and for seven years held the office of secretary. He also helped
build and furnish the convenient Wabash Hall at Burton.
In his religious as well as secular views MR. HARVEY is a man of very
decided opinions, believing that God will overcome evil with good that
He will be satisfied with the work of His own hands; that in His
providence He will direct all things for the best interests of His
children, and for His own glory will finally save all mankind from sin
with an everlasting salvation. In politics he was formerly a Whig,
Abolitionist and Unionist, and is now an uncompromising Prohibitionist
and Republican.
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana
pp. 519-520