♂William Harvey

William Harvey (about 1831 – 1879) grew up in the Mount Carmel, Illinois, household of the pioneer Beauchamp Harvey and later lived in Denison Township, Lawrence County, where a Find a Grave index styles him a doctor. He was the second great-grand-uncle of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), the brother of James Harvey (1821–1896), her second great-grandfather. He is entered as a son of Beauchamp Harvey (1788–1859) and Hester M. Saylor (1796–1873).

Life

The Harveys had come to Mount Carmel in 1819, and the censuses of 1850 and 1870 both give Illinois as William’s birthplace. In the census of 1850 he was 19 and still at home in the Wabash precinct, with his father, then 62, and his mother. A county history published in 1883 names a son William P. among the seven children of Beauchamp Harvey and leaves him out of the four then living, which fits a son who had died by that date.

By 1870 he had moved to Denison Township, Lawrence County, where the census lists him in a household with Elenor, David and Eugene Harvey. The entry as indexed does not say how they were related to him, and the tree records no wife or children for him.

A Find a Grave index, which writes his name Dr. William P. Harvey, gives his death as 12 July 1879 at Denison, and a family tree on FamilySearch places his grave in Bunker Hill Cemetery in Lawrence County.

Notes

Birth year

The records do not agree on his age. The 1850 census gives 19, which points to about 1831, the year the tree keeps. The 1870 census gives a birth year of 1836, and Find a Grave gives 12 October 1835 and Mount Carmel as the place. The 1850 and 1870 censuses both give Illinois as his birthplace.

Other Williams

A Find a Grave memorial for a William Penn Harvey (1828–1917) is sometimes listed among Beauchamp Harvey’s children. The 1883 county history leaves William P. out of the four then living, which points to his having died by that date, so that memorial does not fit this man and is not used here.