BIO: Harvey A. McKILLIP, native of Martinsburg, Blair County, PA Contributed July 3, 2005 for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joy Fisher Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _______________________________________________ Author: Biographical Publishing Co. HARVEY A. McKILLIP, a distinguished attorney-at-law and a highly respected citizen of Bloomsburg, was born in Martinsburg, Blair County, Pa., and is a son of Charles A. and Delilah (Skyles) McKillip. Our subject received his intellectual training in the common and high schools of his native town, after which he was engaged in clerking for some time. He then formed a partnership with his brother, and they were engaged as photographers in Bloomsburg. As our subject was of studious habits he put in his spare moments reading law. By hard and continuous study he mastered the profession and was admitted to the bar in 1891. He immediately after entered practice and was successful from the start. He is a fluent and ready speaker and has the happy faculty of being able to repeat a fact once learned, and his wonderful memory stands him in good stead in the practice of law, as he can readily recall the statutes of the law without reference to his books. His ability is well known and he has a large practice, mainly private counsel. He is a man of sound judgment, probity, broad intelligence and many sterling qualities, and has the respect and esteem of the community at large. As a citizen Mr. McKillip is interested in everything that promotes the good and welfare of the community. He is an attendant at the Presbyterian Church. Besides his law practice he is interested in some of the manufacturing industries of Bloomsburg and is a director in the Bloomsburg Brass & Copper Company. Mr. McKillip was united in matrimonial bonds to Mary C. McKelvey, a daughter of Dr. James Boyd McKelvey, who is one of the oldest and most prominent physicians and surgeons in Bloomsburg. Dr. James Boyd McKelvey was educated in the common schools of Bloomsburg and in Lenox Academy at Lenox, Mass. He also took a complete course in Williams College, from which institution he graduated in 1845. He then read medicine under the preceptorship of the late Dr. John Ramsay of Bloomsburg, Pa., and later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a diploma as a physician and surgeon in 1849. He immediately after entered upon practice at Mifflinville, Pa., where he remained for some time, and then moved to Kentucky, Pa., later going to Arkadelphia. Ark. After engaging in practice there for one year, he returned to Bloomsburg, where he has since remained, and has had a wonderfully successful practice. December 25, 1851, he married Mary Elizabeth Abbett, a daughter of George and Mary (Craig) Abbett. Ardently American in his ideas, Mr. McKillip has taken a leading part in Republican politics and has been honored by his party in receiving the nomination for the State Assembly, and for two years has been chairman of the county committee. Mr. McKillip is very prominent in the Masonic fraternity in the state. He is a past officer of the State Grand Council, Grand Chapter, Grand Commandery, and A. C. of Constantine, an active member of the Grand Cross of the U. S., and is a Thirty-third Degree Mason. He is yet a young man, an untiring worker, and, from the records of the past, we do not hesitate to predict a brilliant future for him. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District Published by Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899) This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/