Butte County
Biographies
JOHN WESLEY HARVEY, M.D.
JOHN WESLEY HARVEY, M.D. As a physician and surgeon Dr. John Wesley Harvey has contributed to the health and sanitation of many parts of California, but since January 24, 1896, has made his home in Chico, where he has a large general practice and many warm friends. Experience has made of him a skilled diagnostitian and cautious prescriber, and his success in dealing with obstinate and complicated disorders has won deserved recognition. Dr. Harvey was born on a farm near Indianapolis, Inc., August 23, 1846, and comes of a family established in the Hoosier state as long ago as 1810 by his paternal grandfather, Michael, who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Wayne county, Inc. He married a Miss Julian, an aunt of George W. Julian, who for twenty years was a member of congress in Indiana. Both of the grandparents came from old and prominent Quaker families.
Elias Harvey, father of the doctor, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1808, and in time engaged in farming in Hamilton county, Inc., where he married Elizabeth Thornbrough, a native of Indiana. Her parents, who came from New Jersey and were of German Lutheran stock, removed to Grundy county, Mo., in 1859. Mr. Thornbrough became a large farmer and extensive stock-buyer and trader there, but in 1861 settled on a farm in Brown county, Ill. While there he was commissioned a recruiting officer in 1863, ranking as captain, and organizing Company D, Eighty-fourth Volunteer Illinois Infantry, Company B, Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, and a company which formed a part of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Infantry. After the war he returned to Missouri and engaged in farming in Knox county, afterward owning and managing a general merchandise business at Edina. Later still he returned to farming near the town, and died on his place in October, 1872. He had ten children, six sons and four daughters. While he was recruiting companies for the war he saw three of his own sons don the blue and depart for the scene of action. These were Oliver W., Thomas J. and Milton S. Of the three remaining sons, Michael lives in Kansas, William is deceased, and the youngest is the present physician of Chico.
Dr. Harvey qualified for his life work in the public schools and at Grand River College, Grundy county, Mo., which he entered in 1860, completing his high school course in Mount Sterling, Ill. During 3868-69 he attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk, Iowa, and later attended the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating with the degree of M.D. in 1870. In the fall of 1870 he located in Fairfield, Iowa, and in 1872 removed to Memphis, Mo., where he practiced until going to Edina, Mo., in 1875. For nine years he engaged in a general medical and surgical practice, and in 1884 came to California and practiced medicine at Red Bluff. Two years later he entered the Medical College at Oakland (since removed to San Francisco), graduating therefrom in 1887, after which he located in Vina, Tehama county, as physician for the Southern Pacific Improvement Company. In March, 1888, he located in Anderson, Shasta county, and in 1892 began to practice in Stockton. The fog enveloping that city brought on asthma, and in 1894 he returned to San Francisco and remained there until January 24, 1896. From then until the present time he has ministered to the physical woes of Chico, and while preferring the realm of surgery, engaged in a general practice in the town and surrounding county.
Politically the doctor is a Republican, and has served as chairman of the Republican central committee. Fraternally he is connected with the Blue Lodge, F. & A.M., the Chapter and the Commandery, all of Chico. In the line of his profession he is identified with the State Eclectic Medical Society. In Missouri, in 1867, Dr. Harvey was united in marriage to Elizabeth Cottey, a native daughter of Missouri, and two sons and one daughter have been born of the union: William A., a practicing physician of San Francisco, a graduate of the California Medical College and the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons; Emma A., an educator, living at home; and Walter C., who is a graduate of the California Medical College of San Francisco, and who is in partnership with his father. In whatever city or town Dr. Harvey has lived since entering professional ranks, he has won the sincere esteem of the community, not only because of his professional and practical knowledge, but because of his many fine personal traits, which include tact, optimism, large-heartedness and sincerity.
History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California
by Prof. J.M. Guinn, Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago,1906
John Wesley Harvey, M.D. – pages 382-385
(Transcribed by Betty Wilson)