Arthur Harvey

Arthur Harvey
Born	(1895-09-26)September 26, 1895 Edom, Texas
Died	March 22, 1976(1976-03-22) (aged 80) Corpus Christi, Texas
Ft. Logan National Cemetery	Denver, Colorado

Arthur Harvey (September 26, 1895 – March 22, 1976) was a businessman best known as the namesake of the neighborhood of Denver. He served in both World War I and II, retiring at the rank of major.^[1]

Early life[]

Harvey was born in Edom, Texas. He left school at age 16 to do manual labor at sawmill in Rusk County, Texas, building a brick plant near Garrison, Texas, and picking cotton. He made enough profit to invest in a crop of his own in East Texas.

World War I[]

Harvey enlisted in Henderson, Texas, in Company "F" of the Fifth Texas Infantry. He worked in the company office until he left for France in 1918. He was then transferred to the Second Division of the Regular Army where he was assigned to Company M, 9th Infantry (Harvey). He received battle stars at St. Mihiel, Champagne and Meuse-Argonne. Harvey was active from August 5, 1917, until August 18, 1919, and he was promoted from private to Sergeant.

The IRS and oil[]

After his discharge in 1919, he returned to Rusk County and married Elizabeth Gage of Laneville, Texas. He farmed for a year, but the failure of the crop forced him to sell the land. He became a railway postal clerk in 1920. From 1923 to 1926, Harvey worked as chief clerk in San Antonio, Texas. In 1926 he began working for the Bureau of Internal Revenue Intelligence Unit, handling fraud investigations.

In 1928 Elizabeth died. Shortly after, Harvey met Sylva Irene Vogelsong in San Francisco, California, where she was working for the IRS. They were married in 1929. In the years that followed they had two children: Arthur Herbert Harvey in 1931 and Sylva Anne Harvey in 1933. In the course of auditing oil business, Harvey became well versed in the then new industry. He invested in a percentage of a 36-acre patch in the East Texas Oil Field. In 1939, he reinvested the royalties in a new oil operation in Marion County, Illinois, which resulted in the discovery of the Tonti oil field, which produced several million barrels of oil.^{[citation needed]} Many of his subsequent prospects failed, but notable successes included patches in the East Long Lake field in Anderson County, Texas, and the Spraberry Trend near Midland, Texas.

World War II[]

Harvey volunteered for military service in World War II and was commissioned a captain in the Army Air Forces. As an intelligence officer for the 449th Bombardment Group, he served in Italy, France, Yugoslavia, and Romania. He retired as a major.

Post-war life[]

In 1948 he purchased a 320-acre ranch in Arapahoe County, Colorado, and in 1950 purchased another 160 acres. After several failed ventures including a refrigerated storage business, Harvey was forced to sell most of the land to a private developer.^[2] A planned community of 1,662 homes called was created on the land around his remaining two acres. In 1962, Harvey sold his home and moved to Dallas, Texas.

Harvey published the book Creed of an American Business Man.^{[citation needed]}

Harvey retired in 1967 and moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, with his wife. He died on March 22, 1976, and was buried in Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

See also[]

Further reading[]

• Crowell, Evelyn Miller, ed. Texas Edition: Men of Achievement, John Moranz Associates, Dallas, Texas, 1948. OCLC 2623957 pp. 66–67.
• Farmer, Garland R. Realm of Rusk County, Published by The Henderson Times, 1951. OCLC 1440757 pp. 185–188.
• "Prominent Businessman Of Denver in 1950s Dies." The Denver Post 24 March 1976, late ed.: 32.

References[]