Garfield County CO Archives Biographies.....Van Cleave, Harvey Milton 1845 - 1926 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 12, 2006, 9:17 pm Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado The place of nativity of H. M. Van Cleave, a highly esteemed and successful farmer of Garfield county, residing on an excellent ranch of his own located fifteen miles north of the village of Debeque, is a native of the state of Indiana, where he was born in 1845. His parents were Benjamin and Nancy (Van Cleave) Van Cleave, cousins, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Kentucky. They maintained a residence of many years in Indiana, where they were prosperously engaged in farming. The father died in 1879, aged sixty-three; the mother had preceded him to the other world some sixteen years, dying in 1863, at the age of forty-five. Their offspring numbered eleven, of whom H. M. was the fifth born. He remained at home attending the district schools and working on the farm until he reached the age of eighteen, then in 1863 enlisted in the Union army for a term of three years or during the war as a member of the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry. He served until the close of the contest and was in several important engagements. Being mustered out at Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1866, he returned to Missouri, but soon afterward moved to Iowa, where he was busily employed in farming during the next twelve years. At the end of that time he came to Colorado, and locating at Leadville, engaged in prospecting and mining until 1884, when he settled on the land he now occupies and turned his attention to farming and raising stock. His land is in the midst of the fertile region watered by Roan creek, and its fertility and productiveness fully justify the hopes of its early occupants of whom Mr. Van Cleave was one. He has seen the region transformed from almost primeval wilderness to a state of advanced cultivation and enriched with all the blessings of a progressive civilization; and he has aided materially to bring about the change and build up the industries with which the section is now so abundantly crowned. Among the people of this portion of the county none is more widely known or more highly esteemed; and none is more worthy of the public regard and approval. Additional Comments: From Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905 Harvey died in 1926 and was buried in the Debeque Cemetery, Mesa County, Colorado. Benjamin C and Nancy Griffin (Van Cleave) Van Cleave were the parents of the at least following children (taken from census records): Eunice Elizabeth Van Cleave (1838-1928), married Asa Bradford (d 1868, Dallas County, Iowa) and had two children: Lillie Belle Bradford and William Harvey Bradford. Lillie married Levi McMullen on December 25, 1882 in Dallas County, Iowa. William married Mary Griffin on January 20, 1890 in Perry, Dallas County, Iowa. Later in life, Eunice lived with her brother, Harvey, in Colorado where she is buried in the Debeque Cemetery, Mesa County. John T Van Cleave, born November 29, 1840 in Montgomery County, Indiana, married Matilda Jane Ellliott on November 29, 1865 in Polk County, Iowa. Jesse W Van Cleave, born about 1843 in Indiana Harvey Milton Van Cleave, the subject of the above biography Matilda J Van Cleave, born about 1848 in Indiana Louisa C Van Cleave, born about 1850 in Indiana L C Van Cleave (a daughter), born about 1856 Missouri Rebecca C Van Cleave, born about 1858 in Missouri File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/garfield/bios/vancleav274gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/ File size: 2.8 Kb