Robert Harvey
From Black Hawk Slept Here
- An early settler of Lancaster Township
- Left during the Black Hawk war
The following is excerpted from a biography of his son as published in the 1887 county history.
[Robert Harvey's] father was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, February 29, 1788, a son of Henderson and Martha (McConnell) Harvey. Henderson Harvey was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In middle life, to be rid of slavery and its pernicious influences, he left Tennessee for Pennsylvania, and later moved to Ohio, and in 1811 removed to the then Territory of Indiana. He died at an advanced age in Union County, where he was esteemed as one of its most worthy pioneers. Robert Harvey, the father of our subject, although afflicted with partial blindness of his left eye, volunteered in the war of 1812 and served one year. He was married in 1818 to Elizabeth Richey, of Butler County, Ohio, at the home of her parents, returning to his home in Indiana the same year. Elizabeth Richey was born in New Jersey in 1794, a daughter of Jacob Richey. Seven children were born to them—William, who was a much respected citizen of Lancaster Township, is deceased; Mrs. Mary Rohr, living in Iowa; Mrs. Martha DeWitt, of Bluffton; Jacob R., whose name heads this sketch; Lorenzo D. was a member of Company G, One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry, during the late war, and died in the service at Munfordville, Kentucky; John lives in Huntington County, Indiana, and Rebecca, the fourth child, died in Union County, aged three years. The parents cleared a farm in the wilderness of Union County, where they made their home until 1832. In April of that year they removed with their family to Wells County, settling on section 18 of Lancaster Township, Robert Harvey being the fourth man to settle in what is now Wells County. The preceding winter he had become totally blind from inflammation of the eyes. He was the owner of three tracts of land in Lancaster Township, comprising about 300 acres, and possessed of personal property sufficient to give him a good start in those pioneer days. The troublesome times of 1832 (the year of the Black Hawk war) induced his brothers Samuel and John to come from Union County. and move him back there. He left his stock and implements with a man named Joseph Knox, and returned with his brothers to Union County, where he spent the following winter. On returning to Wells County he found himself robbed of his stock and everything that was movable, and never recovered anything nor heard of his rascally neighbor again, but he again accumulated property and enjoyed a good home until his death, in 1853, his widow surviving him until July 12, 1877. -- Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana (1887), pages 806-807
Questions
- That gravestone looks rather new for 1853. When was it placed there?
