Caledonia

HARVEY, Alexander

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, pp 282-284
(extracted from a section on the history of Barnet, Caledonia County, Vermont)

Col. Alexander HARVEY was born in May 1747 in the parish of Gargunoch, [the 
parish of Gargunnock in the County of] Stirlingshire, Scotland. His 
credentials represent him as "descended from creditable and honest parents; 
that he had an education suitable to his station, and that he was, in his 
conduct and behavior, in every respect virtuous, obliging, and modest." Mr. 
HARVEY and John CLARK were the agents of a company of farmers in the shires 
of Perth and Stirling, appointed to search out and purchase a large tract of 
land in America for the company to settle. [Col. Alexander HARVEY was agent 
of the Scotch company that settled in Barnet.] He left his father's house 09 
May 1774, and they [Col. Alexander HARVEY and John CLARK] sailed for America, 
and landed in New York 22 July [1774], in company with John GALBRAITH, Thomas 
CLARK, and others, who came to Barnet [Caledonia County, Vermont; Barnet 
dates from 1763, and was part of the New Hampshire Grants]. The agents 
proceeded to Albany [Albany County, New York] to examine lands near 
Schenectady [Schenectady County, New York], but the quantity for sale was not 
sufficient. They proceeded by Ballstown [Saratoga County, New York], 
Saratoga [Saratoga County, New York], and Salem [Washington County, New 
York], to Cambridge [Washington County], New York, but not obtaining their 
object, crossed the Green Mountains and came [up the Connecticut River] by 
Charlestown [Sullivan County, New Hampshire], Hanover [Grafton County, New 
Hampshire], and Newbury [Orange County, Vermont], to Ryegate [Caledonia 
County], one half of which Gen. [James] WHITELAW [agent of the Scotch Company 
in Ryegate] had purchased from Dr. [John] WITHERSPOON, and examined the other 
half of the town, as they were instructed by the directors.

They then came to Barnet [Caledonia County, Vermont], where they arrived 27 
August [1774], in company with Solomon STEVENS, the brother of Samuel 
STEVENS, both of whom were proprietors of the town. [Solomon, Samuel, 
Willard, and Simon STEVENS were all brothers; Solomon STEVENS surveyed Barnet 
in 1774.] The next day they went and examined 7.000 acres of land in the 
southwest part of the town, attended by Mr. STEVENS and a guide. In Col. 
HARVEY's journal (now before the writer) he says, "there are six or seven 
settlers in the township on the river, and a few in the back parts of the 
town." They offered Mr. STEVENS one shilling sterling per acre, but he asked 
eighteen pence, and gave them a letter to his brother in New York, "with whom 
they might treat at large." Returning by Albany to New York, they went by 
Philadelphia and examined lands on the Susquehanna and Schuylkill Rivers, and 
then returned to New York, where they arrived in October 1774. They offered 
Samuel STEVENS one shilling an acre, but he demanded sixteen pence. But 08 
November they "agreed with Mr. STEVENS to pay fourteen pence sterling for 
each acre of 7,000 acres of land in Barnet, lying on the Peacham line, to 
extend five miles on said line, and to pay one half of the money in November 
1775, and the other to be paid them, or to bear interest for such time as it 
remained unpaid." His [Col. Alexander HARVEY's] journal, under date of 23 
November 1784, says: "Accordingly, received a bond of Samuel STEVENS of 
£1,600, 6s. 6d. sterling, that we were to receive a complete deed for 7,000 
acres of land in Barnet, with a covenant of warrantee deed to pay and 
receive at November 1775; at the same time, we granted a bond to said Mr. 
STEVENS, of equal sum, to fulfill the promises on our part. The bond was 
sealed on both parts, and signed and delivered before two witnesses." Having 
made out an account of their proceedings to send to the company, John CLARK 
sailed for Scotland 11 December 1774, and took the record with him. The 
whole sum they agree to pay was £408, 6s 8d, which was ultimately paid, and 
the receipt for payment is recorded in the town books, and Col. HARVEY 
received deeds from Samuel, Willard, and Enos STEVENS, for the 7,000 acres 
purchased.

Having bought some tools and furniture, and hired some persons to work for 
the company, he [Alexander ("Colonel") HARVEY], in company with Claud STUART, 
Robert BROCK, John SCOT, John McLAREN, and Robert BENTLEY, sailed from New 
York, 23 March 1775, and came by New Haven [New Haven County, Connecticut] to 
Hartford [Hartford County], Connecticut. Having bought provisions at these 
places, Mr. [Alexander] HARVEY left Mr. [Claud] STUART with Mr. [Robert] 
BENTLEY to assist him in bringing the "lumber up the [Connecticut] River in 
boats, and he [Mr. HARVEY], with the rest of the company, came a foot by 
Charlestown, Newbury, and Ryegate to Barnet, where they arrived 21 March 
1775. His journal says they "came along the Peacham line two and a half 
miles, struck across the breadth, came to the pond, camped all night near the 
pond, and cleared some part of the ground." The next day they returned to 
Ryegate, "the snow being too thick to work," and then to Newbury, where they 
bought wheat, beef, and pork, and hired a horse to carry their provisions to 
Barnet; returned through Ryegate, where they tarried some days, and bought 
sugar and other articles, and in company with John McLAREN and Robert BROCK 
returned to their camp in Barnet 03 May [1775]; and on 04 May built another 
camp; on 05 May viewed a proper place for improvements, and on 06 May cut 
down and burnt up wood; on 07 May, Claud STUART, John SCOT, and Robert 
BENTLEY arrived, after a long and bad passage up the Connecticut River to 
Newbury.

They cleared some land, sowed some grain, and planted some potatoes and 
beans. They prepared logs and raised a house, 11 June [1775] with "the 
assistance of Mr. [James] WHITELAW and four men from Ryegate." In July he 
[Alexander HARVEY] went to New York "to draw money to carry on the work, and 
to receive letters from the company," and on the way back he bought a cow of 
Col. BELLOWS. In October he sowed some wheat, and Peter SYLVESTER and Mr. 
KIMBALL harrowed it in with their oxen. On 28 October he "raised another 
house for two dwellers," which was completed in November, and which was 
inhabited by Robert McFARLANE. "About the thirteenth of the month [November 
1775] snow came on so as to continue," and "14 November cut a road to Stevens 
Mills." During 1775 he received authority from the Directors of the 
Company in Scotland to increase his purchase of land to 12,000 acres. He 
purchased a number of lots in other parts of Barnet, but the Revolutionary 
War commencing the next year, impeded the operations of the Company, and the 
emigration of its members from Scotland.

The site where he [Alexander HARVEY] first camped and built his first house 
in on the farm of Jeremiah ABBOTT, and situated a few rods above the stone 
house built by William BACHOP. Afterwards he built a house of hewn logs on 
the Hazen Road, in which his [Alexander HARVEY's] son Claud [HARVEY] lived 
before he built a new house. In 1796, however, he sold his farm on the north 
side of Harvey's Mountain, and moved down the Hazen Road, and lived on the 
south side of the mountain, where William McPHEE now lives, and where he 
[Alexander HARVEY] died 14 December 1809, aged sixty-nine years. He was a 
man of good abilities, widely known, and highly honored; a member of the 
State Conventions of 1777, and of all the sessions of the Legislature, from 
the first session in 1778 until 1788, and a member of the Council of Censors, 
1791. He was Associate Judge of Orleans County from 1781 to 1794, and long 
and early honored with office by the town of Barnet. The Legislature 
appointed him one of the trustees of the County Academy, and he was president 
of the board of trustees until his death. The Government also appointed him 
to build a fort on the Onion or Lamoille River, which he declined. He and 
Gen. [James] WHITELAW were attorneys appointed by Dr. WITHERSPOOIN, for the 
sale of lands which he owned in Ryegate, Newbury, and Walden.

He [Alexander HARVEY] possessed a public spirit, was generous and facetious, 
and exerted himself for the good of the town, county, and state, having taken 
an active part in declaring the State independent, and forming its 
constitution and government. He was chosen colonel of the regiment formed in 
this part of the country. As a proof of his "good will and favor to Mr. and 
Mrs. GOODWILLIE," he gave them a donation of some acres of land adjoining 
their own. John FOWLER, one of the first four men who settled in the town 
[Barnet], named one of his sons for him, and the colonel gave him a lot of 
land situated in the northeast part of the town, and Harvey FOWLER is entered 
in all [of] WHITELAW's charts of Barnet.

On one occasion during the Revolutionary War, when soldiers were drafted in 
Barnet, the lot fell on George GIBSON, a man of small stature, who said he 
would join the army, adding, "Who knows but I may be the means of 
establishing the independence of the United States?" Col. [Alexander] HARVEY 
observed that he never knew a means so small to produce an effect so great. 
A member of the Legislature, who was a great hero and patriot, boasting of 
his mother and six brothers, triumphantly asked the company if ever they 
heard of such a mother having seven such sons. Col. HARVEY replied he had 
read of a woman who had seven just such sons, and what was very remarkable, 
they were all born at one birth! "Who was she?" asked the hero. "Mary 
Magdalene," replied the Colonel, "who was delivered of seven devils all at 
once!"

On 05 October 1781 he [Col. Alexander HARVEY] was married by the Rev. Peter 
POWERS to Jennet BROCK, a daughter of Walter BROCK, Esq., of Barnet [Caledonia 
County, Vermont], and who was born in Scotland, 10 October 1767. They [Col. 
Alexander and Jennet (BROCK) HARVEY] had sixteen children, three of whom died 
when young. Eight sons and five daughters were married, most of whom lived 
in Barnet, of whom two sons and two daughter are now [text published 1867] 
deceased. His son, Hon. Walter HARVEY, was thirty-six years a justice of the 
peace, a member of the executive council in 1835, and a representative of the 
town [Barnet] in 1824, 1825, 1829, 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1844, and was 
associate judge of the county [Caledonia] in 1850. His son, Hon. Robert 
HARVEY, was a member of the State Senate in 1838 and 1839, associate judge of 
the county in 1848 and 1849, and member of the council of censors in 1834 and 
1835, and a representative of the town in 1853 and 1854. His son, Claud 
HARVEY, Esq., was representative of the town in 1832 and 1833. His name-son 
[son named after him], Alexander HARVEY, Esq., is married to a granddaughter 
of Gen STARK, the hero of Bennington, and was high sheriff of the county 
[Caledonia] in 1843. His son, Peter HARVEY, Esq., was the friend and 
associate of Daniel WEBSTER, and is mentioned in his life. Col. HARVEY's 
descendants are numerous. His widow [Mrs. Jennet (BROCK) HARVEY] was married 
by Rev. David GOODWILLIE to Gen. [James] WHITELAW, of Ryegate, 29 August 
1815, and died 28 December 1854, aged eighty-nine years. [Col. Alexander 
HARVEY had died on 14 December 1809, aged sixty-nine years, as given above.]

[The following, extracted p 282 relating to the baptism of Col. Alexander 
HARVEY's oldest child:] "Gen. WHITELAW, who was the agent of the Scotch 
Company in Ryegate, on his way thither in 1773, called on Rev. Thomas CLARK, 
a Scotch clergyman belonging to the Associate Presbyterian Church, and 
settled in Salem, Washington County, New York, and Col. [Alexander] HARVEY, 
agent of the Scotch company that settled in Barnet, on his way to town in 
1774, called also upon him. To this clergyman, John GRAY, of Ryegate, 
traveled on foot one hundred and forty miles to obtain his services. He 
[Rev. Thomas CLARK] gave them a favorable answer, 08 April 1775, and came and 
preached some time in Barnet and Ryegate in the latter part of the summer of 
that year [1775]. He revisited these towns two or three times during the 
Revolutionary War. Dr. [John] WITHERSPOON, president of Princeton College, 
who owned lands in Ryegate, Newbury, and Walden, and whose son was settled in 
the north part of Ryegate, visited this part of he country three times, 
first, probably in 1775. In 1782, he [Rev. Thomas CLARK] preached in Ryegate 
and Barnet, and baptized Col. [Alexander] HARVEY's oldest child"

[The following extracted p 285 about Walter HARVEY:] "Mr. BEVERIDGE [Rev. 
Thomas BEVERIDGE, a minister and member of the Presbytery of Pennsylvania] 
came and preached in Barnet [Caledonia County, Vermont] Sabbaths 26 July and 
02 August [1789], and baptized several children; one of these was Walter 
[HARVEY], son of Col. [Alexander] HARVEY."

Submitted by Cathy Kubly