Person:Rebecca Harvey (6)

SPRINGFIELD NEIGHBORHOOD-

    The following article was written by Rebecca Hadley, daughter of Issac Harvey, in 1872, and read recently by Levi Mills at the dedication of the new Springfield Meeting-house. To the many who take an interest in that church and neighborhood, it will be of interest. Mrs. Hadley wrote:
    "I have been solicited by many friends to give a little history of the individuals that first settled near where the Springfield Meeting-house now stands, long before the Monthly-meeting was established; but I am far advanced in years, and all are gone that can remember anything about the first settlement except two or three older than myself, and I feel incompetent to do the matter justice, but what I am going to write is still fresh in my memory.
    In the year 1804 Samuel Lee, an orphan boy raised by Isaac Harvey, moved with his family and built a cabin on the place where Samuel Curl lives, the land having been bought previous to that time by Isaac Harvey, and in the fall of 1805 Archibald Edwards, his wife, and Peter Dicks, their uncle, moved out and built a small cabin on the spot where Hiram Coate lives. In the fall of 1806 Eli Harvey, Isaac Harvey, Caleb Harvey, and Joshua Harvey, brothers, all moved with their families from North Carolina and settled where Demice Kimbrough lives; Caleb where his son Isaac now lives, and Joshua settled a little northeast of where William P. Harvey lives. They also brought with them their aged, widowed mother, who lived to see her fourth generation, and died in her 96th year. She was born in Pennsylvania, 16th of Eighth month, 1736, and died the 16th of the Second month 1832. Also her widowed sister, Edith Harlan, with her family and two of her sons, Nathan and William Harlan, with their families, moved the same time from Morth Carolina and settled about a mile from Springfield. In those early days there were some remarkable circumstances took place,and I think, providentially. It was getting late in the fall when we arrived at our new home; Isaac Harvey had employed Samuel Lee to build him a house, which he did; had it up and covered, and a pretty good hewed-log house and quite snug puncheon floor which looked like living in, and as Eli Harvey's wife was a very weakly woman, Isaac proposed to them to just come in with his family, and he took in their mother and a hired hand that came with us, which made just twenty in all, and lived that way for a while. All seemed satisfied except Eli, he was so dissatified that he thought he must go back to Carolina in the spring, and he thought he would not build a cabin as the others had built. It was an extremely cold winter, but whenever the weather was so they could stand it to go out to work, Eli would go go down to his place and cut away the underbrush in order to build. By this time he had concluded to stay until fall, but thought he could not stay any longer in such a wilderness country.
     He at length cut logs for a house and hewed them very particularly, and in the time of cutting and preparing the logs he became homesick, concluded he must move his family down to where he was at work, so that he need not spend so much time going to and from. So when the  coldest weather had a little subsided they moved and spread their tent to live in for a while. The rest discouraged him, thinking it would be too hard on his weakly wife, but she was willing to do what she could to help satisfy him, and now, very strange to say, he set his tent with the mouth to the east, and just behind stood a very large sugar tree, which forked up several feet from the root, and one day when he was away from home there came up a tremendous hurricane, such a one as I never saw. He started for home, greatly alarmed, and when he got within a quarter of a mile of home he found the trees all blown up by the roots or broken off at the top, and all the underbrush was laying flat, and now he had to step along on the logs as best he could to try to find his dear family.
     He thought if he ever found them at all they were sure to be crushed to pieces, but after he toiled some time in the broken timber he came to the tent which stood erect as ever, and right in the fork of the above named sugar tree, blown up by the roots, all of his dear family hovered in there together, not one of them hurt, but awfully frightened, expecting he was killed. When this old pioneer found his family all alive he had to bow the knee and return thanks for this providential deliverance. And after that he lost sight of going back to old Carolina, after he, with the help of his neighbors, cleared away the timber, and he went on and soon had up a snug little hewed log-house, which I believe, is still standing by the frame (house) he built afterward.
    Our certificates were directed to the Miami Monthly-meeting, and at that time no other Monthly-meeting nearer until the following spring, when Center Monthly-meeting was established in the Second month, 1807, and our certificates indorsed by Miami to Center Monthly-meeting, and this was the nearest meeting we had for nearlythree years; no road for a while except for a pathway which we made going and returning through the dense forest. Many indeed were the privations and hardships that first settlers had to undergo. I feel it no more than due the dear honored dead to say that notwithstanding their many trials and difficulties they had to pass through, yet that stream of Christian love that ever seemed to flow among them, traveling many hundred miles together and settling in the wilderness far away from their nativity, often brought them very near and dear to each other. Our country at that time was full of wild animals such as bears, wolves, wildcats, and some panthers, plenty of deer and turkeys in abundance, rattlesnakes plenty, but after a while they disappeared.
    Our men-folks had to go to Waynesville to get their grinding, and at that time, it was a very small place. And now, as soon as practicable, after helping each other build a cabin apiece, they built a small one for a school-house near where the little old frame stands that the colored people hold their meetings in. And in the year 1809 the Friends of Harvey's Settlement, as it was called, requested the privilege of holding an Indulged Meeting, which was granted by the Center Monthly-meeting and held in the above named school-house, and commonly silent meetings, except when ministers would visit us from a distance, which they often did. I well remember the first traveling Friend that preached in our little meeting house, whose name was Abel Thomas, from Pennsylvania and many others whom I well remember visited us. I have often thought it would look rather a novelty to the young people in this enlightened day to be at a meeting held in such a house; but I can assure you dear children, it was here in this humble looking cabin that I first felt the power of religion poured into my soul, and it was here too, that I was favored to see the difference between a sleeping Christian and a true devoted worshiper, and that was a silent meeting, but still going to Center Preparative and Monthly-meeting, until in the year 1812, when they built a small meeting-house on the hill where dear old Springfield Meeting-house now stands, and a request had been sent up for our meeting to be established, and also the privilege of holding a Preparative Meeting which was granted in the fall of 1812. The meeting-house lot and also a lot adjoining it for the grave-yard, was run off some time previous to that and donated by Isaac Harvey to Springfield Meeting.  Our neighborhood had now become thickly settled and, for all the hardships we had encounter, with considerable sickness, yet not a single death took place amongst us for over six years after we settled here. The first death was Lydia (Dicks), the wife of Isaac Harvey, my own dear mother, who died the 2 day of the First month, 1813, and was the first that was buried in Springfield grave-yard; and the spring following Mary (Morrison), wife of Joshua Harvey, died next and was buried in the same place and so on, until it became necessary to enlarge the lot.
    Our Preparative Meeting was kept up and faithfully attended for some time. The neighborhood becoming so thickly settled it became necessary, we thought, to have a Monthly-meeting, so our Preparative sent up a request to Center Monthly-meeting, held the 15th of Second month, 1817. There was a committee appointed at that time, who visited our meeting, but reported they thought the time had not yet come, so it went on until the Fifth month, 1818. We made another request for a Monthly-meeting to be held alternately at each place.  A committee was  appointed to make us another visit, which they did, and reported they believed it right the request be granted. So it was sent to the Quarterly-meeting, and there united with, and Springfield Monthly-meeting was established, opened and held the 26th of Twelfth month,1818. At this meeting our friends Richard Pierce and Mary Fallis, gave their intentions of marriage with each other.
     I have been particular in tracing old Springfield from the beginning, which may seem rather tedious to some, but for the satisfaction of others who have been desirous to know something of our getting along in those ancient days.
    As I have mentioned in the above the names of the first settlers, I will annex the names of the second pioneers: John Hadley, Jacob Hale, William Harvey (brother to the first settler), John Holliday, Nathan Mendenhall, John Newlin, Eli Madden, George Madden Sr., George Carter, Samuel Adam, David Harlan, Henry Andrew, Reuben Green, Nathan Stalker, Jonathon Harlan, Thomas Kersey, John Talbert, John Fallis, Isaiah Fallis, Jesse Hiatt, Joseph Stratton, William Osborn, John Johnson, Jonathon Fallis, Mahlon Stratton, John Sheridan, Adam Reynard, , Samuel Chew, Thomas Rich, Isaac Stout, and Samuel Harvey. The following names were among the first settlers: Joshua Nickerson, Preserved Dakin, James Birdsall, William Haines.

Eighth month, 1872. R.H.

1. ↑ Harvey History "Book", by N. E. Almond, 12/99..