Wood County, West Virginia Biography of CHARLES P. HARVEY This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 535-536 Wood CHARLES P. HARVEY has been in the newspaper business at Parkersburg forty-two years. He has been editor, reporter, publisher and business manager, and probably no phase of the newspaper profession has escaped him. From the stand- point of continuous and active service he is probably the dean of the newspaper profession in West Virginia. Mr. Harvey, who is publisher of the Parkersburg Sentinel and president of the Sentinel Publishing Company, was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, February 5, 1855, son of Charles and Maria (Ebrecht) Harvey. His grandfather, Bernard Harvey, was a life-long resident of Ireland, where Charles Harvey was born. The latter came to the United States in 1833 and became a Pennsylvania farmer and also operated a large wheat warehouse. He was living at Cham- bersburg when that city was sacked and burned by the Confederates in the Civil war. Subsequently he removed to Washington County, Maryland, where he and his wife spent their last years. Charles P. Harvey was about eight years of age when Chambersburg was in the path of the destroying Confederate army. At the age of fourteen he returned from Maryland to Chambersburg and began a four years' apprenticeship at the printer's trade in the office of the Valley Spirit, whose editors were Duncan and Stenger. He also spent two winters in the State Printing Office at Harrisburg. In printing shops he supplemented the advantages he had received as a boy in the common schools. Mr. Harvey removed to Parkersburg in October, 1878, and for two years was associated as publisher with the West Virginia Walking Beam, a weekly periodical devoted to the oil industry. His associates were Van A. Zeveley, founder of the paper, and Watt Warren. The Walking Beam met an untimely death at the end of two years. After its obsequies Mr. Harvey found work with the Parkersburg Sentinel, and to that old and prominent West Virginia journal he has dedicated the best years of his life. He has been connected with every department of the paper, though primarily his interest is in the news and editorial department. The Sentinel was founded in 1875 by J. W. Hornor. At his death about two years later he was succeeded by his son, Rolla E. Hornor, who continued as publisher and editor of the Sentinel until 1909. The property was then sold to the Parkersburg Sentinel Company, of which Allan B. Smith was president until his death in 1918. Mr. Harvey succeeded Mr. Smith as president and general manager of the publishing company in addition to the duties he has long performed as editor. Of his character as a newspaper man Judge Tavenner says: "Charles P. Harvey is the dearest lover of truth of any newspaper man I have ever known. He finds no work too arduous in order to arrive at the truth. This characteristic he exemplifies not only as a newspaper man, but as a private citizen." It is noteworthy that Mr. Harvey has never taken a part in practical politics, though is a democrat when it comes to voting. He is a member of the Parkersburg Chamber of Com- merce, the local Kiwanis Club, the Benevolept [sic] and Protective Order of Elks, and is a Catholic. He married Miss Minnie McKone, of Piedmont, West Virginia. Their only son, Robert Emmet, was in the World war and died in 1920. Their two daughters are Marjorie Cecelia and Genevieve, the latter now Mrs. Merritt T. Duvereaux, of Portland, Oregon.