Person:Harvey Parker (3)

!Harvey was a grocer and he owned two stores. He had a large home and it connected to Parker's Grocery Store. The store was on Mint St. He and Blanche had alternated between living in Charlotte and Indian Trail, NC. Harvey was a Methodist. He frequently wore a round, black hat. In the 1900 Census of Tattnall Co., GA, Harvey was living in Reidsville as a lumber manufacturer, working at his father's saw mill. By 1910, he had moved back to Charlotte in Mecklenburg Co., NC and was living on Graham St. as a General merchandise merchant. In the 1920 Census, he had moved to Union Co., NC, living on Davis Gold Mine Road, in Vance township. By then he was a farmer. He had gone to college at Rutherfordton, NC. He loved to travel and went to New York several times to visit. Blanche was a "homebody" and didn't accompany him. Harvey's granddaughter, Shirley Haywood Taylor, related some of her memories of Harvey and Blanche and their home. Shirley wrote: "...we used to have great family "occasions" when we would all get together and have great times. Mostly at Christmas or Thanksgiving, etc. at grandmother's big old house on Mint Street in Charlotte. They would set a huge table in the dining room and the adults would eat first and we would all play on the big front porch that wrapped around the house, with huge windows almost down to the floor, so we could see them all in ther eating, before we could get at it. Or if it was cold (at Christmas) we would get the treat of playing in the "Parlor." It was very stiff and formal in the manner of that day, with a huge fireplace and Victorian mantle up to the ceiling. The sofa and chairs were hard and stiff and covered with something like horsehair which had stiff bristles and scratched when you sat on it. But we could explore the photographs, and the old piano, and the old black-page photograph albums. When we finally got to the table there would still be plenty to eat, with fried chicken and potato salad, and all kinds of vegetables, and grandmother's biscuits which I have NEVER been able to duplicate. They had a taste like no other, and she didn't cut them, but molded them in her hand and they were as big as your palm. Nothing was better on a late Sunday afternoon, while visiting, than to get one of those biscuits with a chicken thigh in it. My sister would whisper in Grandma's ear asking if she had any sweet potato pie which was Billie's favorite. So then grandma would take us to the kitchen and up in the wooden cabinets would be all kinds of good things left from dinner...and before you left at night, Grandpa would take you into the store, (there was a doorway cut from their little bedroom and the back wall of the store.) It was a small little neighborhood grocery, but it held treasures for us...and grandpa would let us pick a couple of big cookies from out of the big glass jars with hinged lids." Harvey died in a hospital following a two day stay. The death certificate says he suffered from "complete heart block". He served on the Governor's Board of Charlotte from 1915-1917. An article and picture appeared in the Charlotte Sun in the 29 May 1955 edition that included him. His obituary appeared in The Charlotte News on 24 April 1946. It read: "H.M. Parker Dies In City: Well Known Merchant Succumbs in Local Hospital After Illness Of Few Days...H.M. Parker of 1220 South Mint Street died in a local hospital yesterday afternoon at 2:15 o'clock after a few days illness. Mr. Parker had been in declining health for about two years. He had lived in Charlotte and was a well known merchant here for 40 years..." His funeral service was held at Shiloh True Light Church in Mint Hill, where he was buried next to his wife. He was living at 1220 South Mint Street at the time of his death. At one time, Harvey was in business with the man who started the current chain of Belk Department Stores. Harvey's wife, Blanche had an Uncle Moses Walters. Moses was married to one of the daughters of James Belk. Harvey's daughter, Ruth, "always said that Grandpa said that he was Scotch-Irish - and that was the sum total of what anyone knew!"