Ottawa County Oklahoma Biographies
David A. Harvey
David A. Harvey was born at Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, in 1845. His parents migrated to Ohio when he was six years old. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, leaving the army after three and one-half years of continuous service, at the end of the Civil War. He then entered Miami University. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1869. He located at Topeka, Kansas, where he practiced law and served as city attorney and probate judge. He early became interested in the Oklahoma movement and was active in the agitation for the opening of Oklahoma for settlement. He located at Oklahoma City, April 22, 1889. He was nominated for delegate to Congress by the Territorial Republican convention at Guthrie, October 18, 1890, and on November 4, he was elected to both long and short terms, taking his seat when the Fifty-first Congress re-convened in December, 1890, and serving till the end of the Fifty-second Congress, March 3, 1893. Mr. Harvey subsequently located at Miami, where he still lives (1908). (Source: "A History of Oklahoma" by Joseph B. Thoburn and Isaac M. Holcomb, Doub & Company, San Francisco, 1908, Page 186 - Submitted by Jim VanDerMark)JAMES FOUNTAIN ROBINSON
1865-1929Any history of Oklahoma would be incomplete without a sketch of the life of James Fountain Robinson, mine operator, builder and publisher of Miami, Oklahoma, whose death occurred Nov. 20, 1929, at Denver, Colorado. He was born in Anderson County, Kansas, Jan. 25, 1865, a son of the late John Wesley Robinson and Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson, nee McLaughlin. Members of his immediate family include his widow, Mrs. Catherine Robinson, two daughters, Mrs. Roy T. Wills of Miami and Mrs. Clair E. Youse of Baxter Springs, Kansas, and his son John A. Robinson of Miami. He had two brothers T. L. Robinson of Miami and S. D. Robinson, who died recently, and a sister Mrs. Annie Green, who also lives in Miami. Mr. Robinson's father was a farmer and stockman. The family moved from Kansas when he was a small boy to Barton County, Missouri, near Lamar, where his boyhood was spent on a farm. On August 21, 1884 he was married to Miss Catherine Green at Lamar, where he was engaged in the grocery business with a brother, T. L. Robinson. On account of competition with fourteen other concerns and the limited capital of the brothers the store was sold and his family remained in Missouri whilst he came to what was then the Cherokee Nation of the Indian Territory, seeking a new business field, where for two or three years he engaged in drilling wells. As soon as possible he sent for his family and established his home in what is now Ottawa County. In a short time he embarked in the grocery business with Charles M. Harvey, now of El Paso Texas and later one of his associates in the Commerce Mining and Royalty Company, as a partner. He was also engaged for a time in the real estate and insurance business. It was in the lead and zinc mining industry, however, in which he established himself as one of the leading business men of Northeast Oklahoma. His first experience in the mining business, however, had been for a short while in Idaho and Colorado. He also had an interest at one time in a lead and zinc mine in Joplin, Missouri. When rich lead and zinc deposits were discovered in what is now Ottawa County, he and his associates Charles M. Harvey, G. L. Coleman and A. E. Coleman acquired lands and leases which later proved to be valuable mining properties. The Northeast Oklahoma Railroad, the Miami Baptist Hospital, the Northeast Oklahoma Junior College, and many local religious, educational and business institutions, which he and his associates founded and helped build, caused him to be readily ranked as one of the foremost citizens of the State. Under his direction the Miami News-Record became one of the leading daily newspapers of Northeast Oklahoma. He was also largely instrumental in the consolidation of the two largest national banks of Ottawa county and the erection of the new banking home of what is now the First National Bank, although he did not live to see its completion. It has been said that through his resourcefulness and readiness to assume risk and responsibility no patron of any Miami bank ever suffered a loss of his or her deposit. Early in life he became a member of the Baptist church. During the days of the old Indian Territory the influence of the church was a less dominating factor in his life but with the increase of his family and home ties came a desire for closer relationship with the church. The accumulation of wealth seemed to strengthen these ties and for many years his interest in religious affairs made him one of the outstanding leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. He loved his own denomination greatly, but his generosity knew no bounds of denomination, race or creed. Few churches, schools or hospitals in need of funds ever appealed to him in vain. He enjoyed many close personal friendships and held the respect and esteem of all with whom he came in contact. He disliked display and discouraged extravagence and many attributed his success to the fact that he loved the simpler things of life and always placed the common good above personal gain.
Source: Chronicles of Oklahoma Vol 9 #3 pages 353-354
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