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History of John Harvey and Malinda Canaday Harvey
John HARVEY homesteaded a tract of rich
land in the northeast part of Hamilton County, Indiana, the deed for which was
signed by the then President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.
He married Malinda CANADAY in 1833. She was the seventh of the ten
children of his father's friend from Wayne County days, Charles CANNADAY. The
four children of their marriage, when grown, all lived on adjoining or nearby
farms.
For their final home, John built a very substantial two-story brick
house on his farm. The walls were a foot thick, and the bricks used in its
construction were made on the property. It remains in the family to this day,
the home of Carolyn Johnson who compiled much information about Malinda
CANADAY and her descendants. A glass compote originally belonging to Malinda,
is a prized possession of the Carolyn.
In many ways, John was a stern man, but apparently loving with his
children and grand- children. The stories recalled by the family about this
patriarch of the Hamilton County HARVEYS are legion.
John HARVEY was one of the most progressive and successful farmers in
the community. For instance, he owned the first reaper in the township. A
story is told that while demonstrating the machine he severed the end of a
finger except for a strip of flesh. He asked that someone finish cutting it
off with his pocket knife. When everyone demurred, he said "If thee will
not, I will." And he did.
John and Malinda HARVEY lived their lives conscientiously according to
the strictest precepts of the Society of Friends. They were pillars of a
Meeting organized in 1837 and held in the home of John's brother Caleb until
1840. At that point, a small log meeting house was built on John HARVEY's
land; it was called the West Grove Meeting. At first, the church had a
partition through the middle, the men sitting on one side and the women on the
other. The service held there consisted of one hour of silent meditation.
John's grandson, Cyrus, recalled attending this church as a boy and having to
sit quietly on the straight, hard wooden benches until his legs went to sleep.
Not a word was spoken for what seemed to him an interminable time. His main
interest was in heedfully watching his grandfather, for church was over when
John HARVEY rose put on his hat and walked out.
A story often told illustrates how devoted John was to his austere
Quaker philosophy. It concerns Jessie Kimmel HARVEY, wife of his grandson
Cyrus. Jessie, a pert curlyhead, was an accomplished pianist, having studied
in Chicago before her marriage. She owned a beautiful black walnut Steinway
piano, the only one in the neighborhood. Naturally, many young women in the
community implored her to give them lessons, to which she agreed in order to
supplement her young husband's income. This was a grave concern to John who
adored Jessie but felt she was wronging both herself and her students, as
music to him was the work of the devil. Being fond of him and wishing to
respect his beliefs, she always stopped the lessons whenever she saw him
coming. But one day he surprised her, and she never forgot the look of
infinite sadness on his face as he put his arm around her and said,
"Jessie doesn't thee know that thee are going straight to hell?"
As John and Malinda grew older and the new generation became more
liberal in its thinking, including songs and other forms of expression in
worship of which they could not approve, they withdrew from the meeting house
to their own sitting room for meditation. Each evening, when he came in from
the fields, they spent a time sitting opposite each other in front of the
fireplace with hands held in a position of supplication and deep in spiritual
thoughts.
They had a granddaughter who, perhaps because her mother had died when
she was only six weeks old, became a special favorite. Her name also was
Malinda, and she loved to cross the field from her home for a daily visit with
them. But if she came at their time of meditation, she was required to come in
and sit quietly until it was over. Although only a very young child, little
Malinda soon learned to peek in the window before making herself known. She
wore very long dresses, and if the tops of her high-buttoned shoes
inadvertently showed, her grandmother admonished her with "Linnie, put
thy dress down." The bond of affection was very strong between the two,
but Linnie could never remember being kissed by her grandmother because
"It would make thee vain."
An accident later in life left John with a frozen knee, which required
him to use a cane. Then one day, when he was opening the barnyard gate to let
his horses to the water trough, some of the colts ran over him. The trampling
broke loose his still knee joint, allowing him to throw away the cane.
Over the years, John became increasingly deaf. He learned to read lips,
but men speaking to him had to be clean shaven.
After Malinda's death in her 68th year, John Harvey became a very lonely
man who rarely left his home. He missed her very much and could not hear, so
most of the time he sat in meditation. A rigid Quaker to his last day, he
ordered that at his death, no ceremony be performed, no silver or bright metal
be on his casket, no flowers be brought, and his body be taken to the cemetery
in a wagon rather than a hearse. He died at age 82.
With his death, an era of the strictest social, moral and religious
discipline was closed. John HARVEY and his antecedents were peaceable people
of plain dress, who tolerated no dancing, frivolity or music, nor were they
permitted to marry a non-Quaker or enter a church of another persuasion. Often
the victim of religious persecution because of their unique beliefs, they
wished to be left alone to worship in their own way, allow others to do the
same, but not to impose a doctrine or intermingle.
Despite the rigidity of their beliefs, John and Malinda were
progressive, prosperous and happy.
From " A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust," 1997
by Don Faust.
John & Malinda are resting in the
Methodist church cemetery, Aroma, IN, in row 2, GS1. According to county
history (Haines, 1915, page 261), John Harvey and two other men, built the
first public road through Aroma about 1838. They used several teams of oxen,
plowing the road until it was in useable condition. The village of Aroma was
named by William Haworth, who settled to open a store. He settled on the name
because of the smell of forest flowers. Some people scoffed at the name and
nick-named it "Toadlope", after the croaking frogs in nearby Duck
creek.
Contributed by N. Massey, Sept., 2000.
Donated by J.P. Smith
Pam Arnold
  
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