ALBERT BARNES HARVEY.
The memory of a good and noble man lingers long after his demise in the hearts and minds of those who knew him best. The late Albert Barnes Harvey, of Muscotah, Kan., during the course of a long and notable career, covering ever forty years in Atchison county, accomplished much in a material sense and left behind him an unimpeachable record for integrity and upright living which will long endear his memory to his former mortal associates. He lived in the days when men were more closely drawn together in the great struggle to create a State from a wilderness of prairie and unpeopled waste, and did his part in the development of his adopted county, of which he was one of the real pioneers. Soldier, farmer, banker and religious worker who lived true to his ideals as a man and citizen, he walked with the leaders of the great State which he assisted in upbuilding.
Eng. by E. G. Williams & Bro. N. Y.
A. B. Harvey
Albert Barnes Harvey was born May 12, 1841, at Williamsport, Pa., a son of Samuel and Margaret Harvey. His parents went from their native State to Illinois in the early days of the settlement of that State, developing a fine farm in Henderson county, Illinois. Samuel Harvey prospered in the State of his adoption, reared a fine family, and in his later days retired to a comfortable home in Monmouth, Ill., removing to the city for the purpose primarily, of giving his children the advantages afforded there for obtaining a good school education. He died at the home of his son in Henderson county after a long and useful life. The subject of this review, Albert Barnes, when a young man twenty years of age, hearkened to the first call of President Lincoln for troops with which to quell the rebellion of the Southern States and enlisted in Company G, Tenth infantry, regiment of Illinois volunteers, and served faithfully throughout the Civil war. He was engaged with his regiment in many great battles, such as Corinth, Island Number Ten, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, Siege of Vicksburg, and Capture of Atlanta, and took part in Sherman’s famous march from Atlanta to the sea and the subsequent taking of Savannah. He marched in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., and was mustered out of the service July 12, 1865. He then returned home and engaged in the peaceful pursuit of farming until 1874, when he came to Kansas and settled on a farm southwest of Muscotah. This farm was only partially improved at the time of his purchase and he improved and cultivated it until 1880, at which time he came to Muscotah and engaged in the hardware business in partnership with A. J. Harwi; later he was in partnership with F. S. Roberts, who was succeeded by W. C. Allison. In 1890 he became associated with J. H. Calvert in the banking business at Muscotah, he and his partner purchasing the bank founded by George Storch and changing the name to the Muscotah Exchange Bank. This bank was later changed to the Muscotah State Bank and is one of the thriving financial concerns of Atchison county, now incorporated with the Farmers State Bank. Mr. Harvey was in the banking business for twenty years and served as president of the Muscotah State Bank, and was successful in his business ventures to such an extent that he became one of the wealthy citizens of the county. During his later years he and Mrs. Harvey enjoyed traveling about the country, the condition of his health becoming such that it was practically necessary for him to spend his winters in the Southland. He and Mrs. Harvey spent many happy days in visiting the battlefields of the South over which his regiment had fought and they enjoyed life to the utmost during those later years.
Mr. Harvey was married October 25, 1871, at Stronghurst, Ill., to Miss Viola Allison, who was born October 25, 1841, in Washington county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of John and Margaret (Carter) Allison. John Allison was born in Pennsylvania and was a second cousin of President William McKinley, whose mother was an Allison. Margaret Carter Allison was born in Scotland and accompanied her parents to this country when twelve years of age, where they settled in Henderson county, Illinois. Both of Mrs. Harvey’s parents died in Illinois, and a brother, John C, who enlisted in the Union army at the age of seventeen years, died at Ft. Donelson. An older brother, Hugh, also served in the Union army, and a half brother, W. C. Allison, now of Horton, resided in Muscotah for many years and was one of the pioneer business men of the city. The Allison family is a very old and numerous one of Scotch descent. No children came to bless this happy wedded life of Albert H. and Viola Harvey, but they reared two adopted daughters, who are now established in comfortable homes of their own, namely: Lela, wife of A. P. Bishop, of Topeka, now a farmer living southwest of Muscotah, and Lula, wife of E. H. Purdy, of Kansas City, Mo. Mrs. Bishop has four children: Albert, George, Dorothy and Ruth. Mrs. Harvey spends the spring and summer seasons in her beautiful residence in Muscotah and invariably travels in the South during the winter. Mr. Harvey retired from active banking pursuits in 1910.
Mr. Harvey was a member of the Congregational church at Muscotah and served as deacon of the church from 1898 until his demise, on Monday, July 22, 1912. For many years he was superintendent of the Sunday school and was very fond of young people, nothing giving him more pleasure than to gather about him a group of intelligent young folks with whom he was always at his best. He took a keen interest in church and Sunday school work and endeavored to follow the precepts of the Greatest of All Teachers during all the days of his long and useful life. He was prominent in Masonic and Odd Fellows lodge circles and served as worshipful master of the Muscotah Masons on two occasions. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a Republican in politics and took a keen interest in the political and civic affairs of Atchison county, serving three terms as a member of the Atchison County High School board and a term as mayor of his home city. Many of the distinguished men of Atchison and the State of Kansas were his personal friends, among them being the late Governor George W. Glick, with whom he spent a winter in Florida, Ex-Governor W. J. Bailey, and the late Judge Horace M. Jackson, of Atchison. He was, withal, a home and church man above everything else. He loved his home and his family and was hospitable to the core of his being, always ready to entertain friends or even strangers at his board, jolly and big-hearted, always.