San Francisco County
Biographies
WILLIAM
ALONZO HARVEY, M. D.
The fine tradition of the medical profession in San Francisco have been most worthily upheld by Dr. William A. Harvey, who has at this date been engaged in the practice of his profession for forty-three years in this city, where he holds eminent and distinguished position.
Dr. Harvey was born June 20, 1868, in Monticello, Lewis county, Missouri, and is a son of the late Dr. John Wesley Harvey and his wife, Elizabeth Ann (Cottey) Harvey, who survives her husband. Members of the Harvey family, which is of Quaker origin, settled in Pennsylvania in a very early day, having come to America from England. Before the Civil war, the family moved into Missouri. However, they were abolitionists, and when hostilities began that state soon became untenable for them, and they went to Springfield, Illinois, where the grandfather of Dr. Harvey became a recruiting captain. Five of his sons also enlisted in the Union Army, and John Wesley Harvey had the honor to deliver the message of Lincoln’s assassination in April, 1865, to the provost marshal, Benjamin Westlake. The last named member of the family, father of the immediate subject of this biography, was born in Marion county, Indiana, near Indianapolis, and in that county attended school for a time, continuing his studies in Missouri and in Springfield, Illinois. In the latter city, he attended the local academy, and after the close of the Civil war he began the study of his chosen profession, that of medicine. He first elected to the presidency, and in that city he remained active training in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1884, he made his way westward to Chico, California, arriving the day before Cleveland was first elected to the presidency, and in that city he remained active in the practice of medicine for thirty-one years, becoming one of the best known physicians of the Sacramento valley. He died in San Francisco in 1919, when he was seventy-one years of age. His beloved wife, Elizabeth Ann (Cottey) Harvey, was born in Knox county, Missouri, a descendant of English forbears, who were early settlers in Kentucky. Her father, Jackson Cottey, removed with his family to Missouri prior to the Civil war, and for many years was a judge in Knox county and highly respected. He was a captain in a Missouri regiment during the war. Mrs. Harvey also had several maiden cousins, bearing the name of Cottey, who established a college for girls in Nevada, Missouri, after the Civil war. This institution, which is highly regarded, is yet in existence. Mrs. Harvey, who is now living, having passed her eightieth birthday, makes her home in Long Beach, California, with her married daughter. By her marriage, she was the mother of five children, three of whom survive, as follows: Dr. William A.; Emma, who is the wife of F. F. Mead, assistant city engineer of Long Beach; and Walter.
Dr. William A. Harvey received his early education in the public schools of Edina, Missouri, and at Oak Hill Academy. He had aspirations to obtain medical training, and he likewise knew well how to work. By his own earnings and the assistance his father gave him, he secured a most complete and valuable preparation for his professional career. He first studied medicine in the California Medical College, from which he graduated in 1888, and he next took a pharmaceutical course in the University of California, from which he received the degree of Ph. G. in 1890.
He then continued his medical studies at the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, and from this institution graduated in 1895. He returned to San Francisco, and his subsequent record is one of the most important in the history of the local profession. He has administered to generations of families in the bay district, is held in affectionate regard by hosts of friends and patients, and in high esteem and respect by his contemporaries. He was a member of the San Francicso board of health from January 1, 1904, to December 31, 1907.
In Red Bluff, California, on Christmas day of 1890, Dr. Harvey was married to Anna May Phillips, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and a daughter of the late Joseph Phillips and his wife, Jerusha (Warden) Phillips, both having descended from well known Boston families. Joseph Phillips was a veteran of both the Mexican and the Civil wars, and in 1874 settled in Red Bluff, California, where he followed his trade as mechanic. He died when eighty-eight years old. Dr. and Mrs. Harvey are the parents of three children. Hazel, the first in order of birth, is the wife of E. E. Purington, of Redwood City, California, and by her marriage is the mother of two children, Jean and Charlotte. Helen Elizabeth Harvey, who was second in order of birth, is the wife of R. L. Squires, of Redwood City, California, and the mother of three daughters: Barbara Lee, Adrian May and Nancy Ann. Third is William Wesley Harvey, who is married and has one daughter, Thelma. He is an orchardist in Corning, California.
Dr. Harvey is a Presbyterian, and in politics is a republican. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 44, F. & A. M., and Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a charter member of the Masonic Club and the Union League Club, and is past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Whenever opportunity has come to him, Dr. Harvey has found great diversion and pleasures in trout fishing, in hunting and in camping in the wild country. He has been sincerely interested through the years in the welfare of San Francisco, and may always be found in the vanguard of that army of men and women who champion the cause of this cosmopolitan community.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 336-341.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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