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Albert Harvey, who began life in Idaho as
one of its pioneer settlers and is now the owner of an
excellent farm property of one hundred and twenty acres, on
which he is successfully engaged in the raising of grain and
fruit and also of sheep and cattle, was born in Dekalb county,
Illinois, November 29, 1855. During his infancy his parents,
John and Grace Harvey, removed to Chicago but after a short
time spent there took up their abode at Kankakee, Illinois. A
few years later they returned to Chicago and Albert Harvey,
who in the meantime had been acquiring a public school
education, soon afterward began working at farm labor and was
also employed in the shingle mills near Green Bay, Wisconsin.
On the 4th of July, 1876, he removed to Iowa, where he engaged
in farming on his own account and also for others until 1887,
when he came to Idaho and settled on his present place, which
is pleasantly and conveniently located about three miles east
of Middleton.
Mr. Harvey first bought one hundred and sixty acres of
land, most of which was covered with sagebrush, and here he
began his life as an Idaho pioneer, meeting all the hardships,
trials and privations incident to the settlement of the
frontier. He afterward sold eighty acres of his land to J. L.
Shaffer and subsequently acquired a tract of forty acres, thus
increasing his place to its present size of one hundred and
twenty acres. His daughters, Grace and Maude, also own sixteen
acres each, constituting what was the old Clendenen place, and
this their father cultivates for them, their land being just
across the road from the home farm. Mr. Harvey has upon his
place one hundred and six prune trees, which are the only
trees that have been profitable, the remainder of the orchard
being cut down. In four years he has taken in cash from these
prune trees nine hundred and sixty-six dollars and yet the
trees are nearly twenty-five years old. He also has sixty head
of sheep upon his ranch and one hundred and twenty head of
cattle, two of which are registered shorthorn heifers. His
farm was at one time the property of Pleasant Latham, who had
resided thereon from the time of the Civil war. Mr. Harvey has
in his possession an old rawhide bottom chair which Mr. Latham
brought with him across the plains and in which his wife would
sit and knit before the camp fire when they made camp for the
night. She felt real grief at not being able to take this with
her when they left the farm, but had to leave it behind, as
there was not sufficient room for it on the wagon which
carried away their belongings. This chair possesses all the
crude marks of being homemade more than a century ago and
should be preserved in a state museum as a relic of pioneer
times.
In 1886 Mr. Harvey was married to Miss Margaret M.
Calhoun, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, and a daughter of David
Calhoun, a farmer. They have ten children: Maude and Grace,
both of whom attended the preparatory school at Caldwell and
are at home; Amos L., assisting his father on the farm; James
A. and Clarence D., who are farming near Nampa; Cecil, who is
assisting his brothers at Nampa, and they are this year
seeding one hundred and twenty acres to grain; Mary, the wife
of Frank Grove, who was in the motor transport service in
France; Olive, the wife of Claude Grove, a farmer near
Caldwell; Elbert E., twelve years of age; and Kenneth, aged
eleven.
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey have a number of interesting
souvenirs which were sent to them by their son-in-law in
France, their daughter, Mrs. Frank Grove, living at home while
her husband was overseas. Mr. Harvey had an exhibit of Ben
Davis apples at the St. Louis exposition in 1904 and received
first prize and a silver medal for the finest individual
exhibit. He is a man modest, quiet and unassuming in demeanor,
finding his greatest joy in the companionship of a happy
family and of his grandchildren, who are the joy of his life.
He occupies a beautiful modern home situated at the base of
the foothills, his place constituting an attractive picture in
the landscape. |
