Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 674 - 675 

GEORGE W. HARVEY, who is pleasantly located in Afton Township, on section 23, is operating successfully as a farmer and stock-raiser, and numbered among the industrious and enterprising men of Sedgwick County. His birthplace was in Peoria County, Ill., and the date thereof Oct. 23, 1855. His parents, Isaac and Sarah (Kemple) Harvey, were natives respectively of England and Germany.

            Isaac Harvey, the father of our subject, was born near London, Feb. 10, 1818, and, with his excellent wife, is still living on a farm in Afton Township, whose affairs he still attends to with much of his old-time energy. The mother was born Nov. 13, 1834. Their wedding took place in Illinois, and they first settled in Peoria County, Ill., and came to Kansas in the fall of 1886.

            The children of the parental family, nine in number, were born as follows: Charles B., Sept. 8, 1854; the birth of George W., our subject, has already been given, he being the second son; Sarah J. was born April 25, 1858; John W., Nov. 25, 1860; Ida J., March 15, 1863; Isaac Mc., March 3, 1864; Dora M., Feb. 19, 1867; Minnie C., Dec. 2, 1869; Frank E., Jan. 3, 1873; Bertha L., Oct. 18, 1875. The first-born died in infancy. Sarah J. is the wife of Walter Hopkins, a boot and shoe dealer of Peoria County, Ill., and the mother of five children; John W. died in Peoria County when two years old, and Ida J. in infancy; Isaac married Miss Ida Patton, and is a farmer of Logan Township, Peoria Co., Ill. The younger children are at home with their parents, pursuing their studies in the common school.

            Mr. Harvey, when twenty years of age, left the parental roof and commenced for himself as a farm laborer. After a year thus employed, he rented land, upon which be worked and made his home with his parents. The year following, on the 10th of January, 1878, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ann, daughter of James and Mary (Bearce) Winterbottom. Mrs. Harvey was born in Fulton County, Ill., Jan. 10, 1857. Her father was of English birth and parentage, and a farmer by occupation. The mother was born in Illinois. They came to Kansas in 1884, and are now residents of Anderson County. Mary A. was the eldest of their six children. Her brother, Joseph William, was born July 4, 1859, and died at his home in December, 1887, when a little over twenty-eight years old; Sarah is the wife of George Ashley, a farmer of Linn County, this State, and the mother of one child; Ida Florence died in infancy; Alice Ethel married Milo Wheeler, and lives in Linn County, Kan.; and John Harvey is at home with his parents.

            The five children born to our subject and his wife are recorded as follows: Grace Luella was born in Peoria County, Ill., Aug. 19, 1879; James Calvin, born Sept. 12, 1880, died in infancy; Charles Allen, born Dec. 26, 1881, died in this county, Oct. 27, 1887; Cora Ethel was born at the present homestead of her parents, Jan. 5, 1884, and Chester, March 15, 1885.

            The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Harvey, Eli H. Bearce by name, was born in Hartford, Conn., Feb. 14, 1792, and married, on the 19th of March, 1816, Miss Sarah Austin, who was born in Penfield, N. Y., July 5, 1795. They were of English and Welsh descent, respectively, and emigrated to Illinois in 1820, where Mr. Bearce engaged in farming. Their family consisted of three sons and four daughters. The names and children of these are given as follows: Hannah has five sons and four daughters; Orson, five sons and seven daughters; Lucinda, three sons and seven daughters; Maria, three sons and two daughters; Homer, five sons and three daughters; Franklin, five sons and two daughters, and Mary, two sons and three daughters.

            James Winterbottom, the father of Mrs. Harvey, and of English ancestry, was born July 18, 1828, in Cheshire, whence he emigrated in his youth, settling in Illinois in 1840, and on the 12th of March, 1856, was married to Miss Mary Bearce. Their children are recorded as follows, all being born near Cuba, Mary Ann was born Jan. 10, 1857; Joseph W., July 4, 1858; Sadie M., Sept. 5, 1860; Allie E., Jan. 26, 1867, and John H., July 12, 1870. The parents and all the children crossed the Mississippi, and located in Anderson County, Kan., on the 1st of September, 1884.

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