Person:William Harvey (48)

William Harvey was the second son of the large family Caleb and Mary HARVEY reared in Cane Creek, North Carolina. (William wed Rachel TOWNSEND. See notes on Rachel.)

    In 1807, he wed Rachel Townsend, daughter of John and Elviry Townsend of Warren County, Ohio. They were married at the Miami Meeting of Quakers there and soon after emigrated to Indiana, settling on a quarter section of land in Wayne County. The Townsends had come to Ohio from Chester County, Pennsylvania where Rachel's ancestors had settled in the early 1700's when they immigrated from England. They were from Berkshire and had earlier lived in Gloucestershire where her first known forebear had been born in 1602. Her grandfather married into the Reynold family which dated back to 1505 in southeast England and first came to America in the early 1600's. (The Reynolds' and Townsends, page 60 in A Family History, by Donovan Faust.)
    William laid out the town of Centerville in Wayne county, and proceeded to take an active part in its development. The History of Wayne County records that "At Centerville, Indiana a bond was executed and signed by 21 citizens to furnish the county with a courthouse equal to the one at Salisbury." Among the signers were William HARVEY and his brother John; the date was 1817. The history also reports that, "The first religious society was that of the Friends, who in 1815, organized the the West Grove Monthly Meeting about 3 miles north of Centerville, and built a log meeting house." William HARVEY was one of the organizers; his brothers John and Robert were among the first members. Also in that early group was a Charles CANNADAY, whose daughter Malinda would later marry William's son John.
    While William HARVEY was organizing a new Meeting, two other HARVEYS were falling victim to the strictness of Quaker dogma. William's sister Sarah married Josiah Allen, a nonmember, whereupon the Whitewater Meeting of which she belonged declared, "Sarah Allen (formerly Harvey): Condemned is her marriage contrary to discipline." So, Sarah was excommunicated. About the same time family lore has it, that a cousin of William HARVEY's back at the Pennsylvania homeplace, was encountering similar difficulties. She was hoping to marry a young man of French extraction, who lived across the Brandywine creek a short distance away near Wilmington. But he was not a Quaker, and equally disapproved, his family operated a mill for making gunpowder for the military. Her family refused to allow such a union. The young man's name was Du Pont and his family's powder mill would grow into the largest chemical company in the world.
    In 1836, William HARVEY moved again, this time to Hamilton County, Indiana where he acquired land entered under government deed from President Martin Van Buren. His seven children all remained in the vicinity, all being farmers. William died on the farm at nearly 79 years of age; his wife Rachel, preceded him by five years.

From A Family History by Don Faust, 1997.

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
2. ↑ Harvey History "Book", by N. E. Almond, 12/99..