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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Columbia County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Rev. James R. Harvey is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was born in Pope County, Ark., on June 30, 1837, his father having moved to this State in 1836, settling in Pope County. His name was J. T. Harvey, and he was a physician by occupation, being a medical practitioner of this region for forty-eight years. He died in Benton, Saline County, in 1888, at the age of seventy-three years, his widow, formerly Miss Sarah Enos, being still alive and a resident of Benton. They were born in Georgia and Tennessee, respectively, and became the parents of six children, five of whom are still living: Mary (wife of D. A. Woodall, of Little Rock), J. W. (deceased, graduated from the Nashville Medical College in 1859, and died at Memphis, Tenn., while serving as a surgeon in the Confederate army), Dr. T. A. (is a graduate of the Kentucky School of Medicine, and is located at Benton, Ark.), Cornelia (is the wife of Dr. D. C. Lee, of Grant County), J. C. (who resides in Benton), and James R., the immediate subject of this sketch, who was educated at White Sulphur Spring, close to Pine Bluff in Jefferson County, Ark., and after having attended this institution for some time he was licensed to preach, was recommended to the annual conference in 1859,and soon after commenced his labors as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, joining the conference at Monticello in the fall of the same year. He traveled for one year throughout this county as an itinerant minister, and on May 3, 1861, joined the Confederate army, becoming a member of the Second Arkansas Cavalry under Col. Solon Bowlin, but was afterward transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department, and after serving as a private until 1862, he was elected lieutenant, but only held the position a short time, when he resigned on account of ill health. He then returned to the west side of the Mississippi River and was chosen chaplain of the Third Arkansas Regiment of Cavalry, under Col. W. F. Slemmons, serving until the war was over. He was married October 11, 1864, to Miss Ruth A. Dickinson, of Calhoun County, Ark., a daughter of James and Nancy (Ware) Dickinson, natives of Habersham County, Ga., and Franklin, Tenn., respectively. Mrs. Harvey was born in Mississippi, June 16, 1841. She and the Doctor have no children of their own, but have reared and helped to educate six girls, who made their home with their foster parents until their marriage. Mr. Harvey and his wife have two girls with them at present, one being six years age and the other fourteen, making in all eight girls that they have cared for. At the close of the war Mr. Harvey, in common with a great many other ministers, had to look about him for something to do in connection with his ministerial labors, and he began studying the profession of dentistry under Dr. B. B. Ward, of Camden, and in 1871 graduated at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, and immediately entered upon his practice. He was stationed as a minister at Monticello for four years, and the following three years served as a presiding elder of that district. In 1879 he was stationed at Prescott, but the following year did little work as a minister, as his health was quite poor. In 1881 he was chosen presiding elder of Washington District, but the following year he was compelled once more to give up his duties, as his health again failed him, and took up his abode in Little Rock. He then traveled for eighteen months for Baird & Bright, and was then chosen chaplain of the Legislature at Little Rock, and in 1884 succeeded Otis Patton as superintendent of the Blind School of that city. After faithfully discharging the duties of this position for two years, he resigned in consequence of the illness of his wife, and was succeeded by Rev. John Dye, of Sulphur Rock, Ark. He then moved to Nashville, Howard County, and engaged in the hardware business with James V. Collins, but the latter died at the end of a year and a half, and Mr. Harvey purchased his interest in the establishment, but resumed his ministerial duties in 1889, and was stationed at Magnolia, where he has a large congregation, and a good church. He is a member of the following social organizations: A. F. & A. M., Prescott Chapter, and also belongs to the K. of H. of Prescott, and the I. O. O. F. and K. of P.

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This family biography is one of 106 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Columbia County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Columbia County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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