Louis P. Harvey

Louis Powell Harvey (July 22, 1820 – April 19, 1862) was an American politician and the seventh Governor of Wisconsin. He was the first Wisconsin Governor to die in office.

Louis P. Harvey
7th Governor of Wisconsin
In office January 6, 1862 – April 19, 1862
Lieutenant	Edward Salomon
Preceded by	Alexander W. Randall
Succeeded by	Edward Salomon
6th Secretary of State of Wisconsin
In office January 2, 1860 – January 6, 1862
Governor	Alexander W. Randall
Preceded by	David W. Jones
Succeeded by	James T. Lewis
President pro tempore of the Wisconsin Senate
In office January 9, 1856 – January 14, 1857
Preceded by	Eleazer Wakeley
Succeeded by	Vacant (1857) Hiram H. Giles (1858)
Member of the Wisconsin Senate from the 18th district
In office January 11, 1854 – January 13, 1858
Preceded by	John R. Briggs, Jr.
Succeeded by	Alden I. Bennett
Personal details
Born	Louis Powell Harvey July 22, 1820 East Haddam, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	April 19, 1862 (aged 41) Savannah, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Hill Cemetery Madison, Wisconsin
Political party	Republican Whig (before 1854)
Spouse(s)	Cordelia A. Perrine Harvey
Profession	teacher, editor, politician

Early life

Harvey was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, and moved with his family to Ohio in 1828.[1] He attended Western Reserve College and Preparatory School. He worked as a teacher for a time, and eventually moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, then named Southport, where he founded an academy. In Southport he associated with the Whig Party and edited a Whig newspaper, the Southport American (1843–1846). Lewis entered into correspondence with a local society called the "Boannergians," in the Summer of 1841 at Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio and it became a chapter of Beta Theta Pi on August 9, 1841.

Career

In 1847, Harvey married Cordelia Perrine and they moved to Clinton in Rock County, Wisconsin, then to the nearby hamlet of Shopiere. He helped organize the Republican Party and was a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Senate from 1854 to 1858, Wisconsin Secretary of State from 1860 to 1862, and finally Wisconsin's governor in 1862.

In April 1862, having served only a few months as governor, Harvey organized an expedition to bring medical supplies to Wisconsin troops, wounded in the Battle of Shiloh, who were being cared for in hospital boats on the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. Harvey visited and cheered troops at Cairo, Illinois, Mound City, Illinois and Paducah, Kentucky.

Death

Cordelia A. P. Harvey, wife of Louis P. Harvey and First Lady of Wisconsin

On April 19, 1862, close to Shiloh, Harvey stopped overnight near Savannah, Tennessee. Late that evening, while trying to step from a tethered boat to a moving steamboat headed back north (a common but dangerous practice), Harvey fell into the Tennessee River and drowned, despite the strenuous rescue efforts of members of his party.

His body was found 14 days later, 65 miles downstream; his remains lay in state in the Wisconsin State Capitol, and he was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, in Madison. His wife Cordelia became a leading war nurse, honored with the rank of colonel by Abraham Lincoln.[2][3] She subsequently established veterans hospitals in Wisconsin, away from the war front, and a soldiers' orphans home.[4] He is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin.

Lieutenant Governor Edward Salomon succeeded Harvey.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Gubernatorial Election, 1861[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 5, 1861
	Republican	Louis P. Harvey	53,777	54.18%	+0.97%
	Democratic	Benjamin Ferguson	45,456	45.80%	-0.80%
		Scattering	25	0.03%
Total votes			'99,258'	'100.0%'	-11.97%
	Republican hold

References

1. Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 665.
2. WER: Mrs. Cordelia A. P. Harvey
3. Highlights at the Wisconsin Historical Society
4. Gravesite of Cordelia Harvey
5. Toepel, M. G.; Theobald, H. Rupert, eds. (1962). "Wisconsin elections". The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1962 (Report). State of Wisconsin. p. 802. Retrieved November 2, 2019.

External links

• Capsule biography - Wisconsin Historical Society
• Louis Powell Harvey bio - Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry website, from Military History of Wisconsin (1866)
• Governor Louis Harvey, Wisconsin State Historical Society
• Louis P. Harvey at Find a Grave