HARVEY (FAMOUS), WILLIAM HOPE "COIN" - Benton County, Arkansas | WILLIAM HOPE "COIN" HARVEY (FAMOUS) - Arkansas Gravestone Photos

William Hope "Coin" HARVEY (FAMOUS)

Coin Harvey (Monte Ne) Cemetery
Benton County,
Arkansas

William Hope "Coin" Harvey

Teacher Businessman Author Politician Arkansas Tourism Pioneer

August 16, 1851 - February 11, 1936

William Hope "Coin" Harvey was born in Buffalo, West Virginia, the fifth of six children born to Robert Trigg and Anna Harvey. Educated at Buffalo Academy, at the age of 16 he was teaching school for three months after which he attended Marshall College, and at age 17 taught school again for a period of three months. He then studied law with his brother, Thomas. With only a basic knowledge of law, he did pass the exams and was admitted to the bar in West Virginia. He opened a practice in Barboursville, and afterward practiced law in Illinois and Ohio. After representing a wealthy client, a victim in a murder case, Harvey began to mistrust great wealth, and developed a strong belief in coining money with silver at a much lesser cost than gold. This would increase employment in silver mines, relieving their debt. He also abhorred the practice of charging interest on loans, thus earning his nickname "Coin".

He married Anna Halliday June 26, 1876 at Gallipolis, West Virginia. They moved that year to Cleveland, where Mary Hope and Robert Halliday Harvey were born. In 1879, they moved to Chicago where a son Thomas William was born.

Moving to Ouray, Colorado in 1884, Harvey operated the Silver Bell, one of the most productive silver mines in the area. Abandoning mining in 1888, they moved to Pueblo, Colorado where he practiced law, sold real estate and helped develop the Mineral Palace exhibition hall.

Moving back to Chicago in 1893,he wrote the book "Coin's Financial School", a successful fictional story of a young financier presenting arguments in favor of silver coinage. Other publications followed, and he became the spokesman for the free silver cause.

Harvey served as campaign manager for William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic free silver candidate, but Bryan lost the election.

William bought what was later to become Monte Ne, Arkansas, and moved there. Harvey established the Ozark Trails Association to promote good roads, highway markers and maps. His main interest was promoting travel to Monte Ne, Southwest Missouri, Oklahoma, across the Texas panhandle into New Mexico. Much of this route became the famed U.S. Route 66.

In his late years as Monte Ne was getting in more and more debt, Harvey's health began deteriorating and he believed that civilization was on the verge of collapse. He began his plans to build a giant obelisk (referred to as "The Pyramid"), to serve as a time capsule for future human beings to see what society had been like at its peak. His attention turned from finishing construction on the pyramid to begin building an amphitheater which used most of his funds and with the stock market crash of 1929, all work at Monte Ne stopped and the Pyramid was never constructed.

In 1932, William formed the Liberty Party.

SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hope_Harvey

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1666

For additional information:
Lawler, Nan. “The Ozark Trails Association.” MA thesis, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, 1999.

Nichols, Jeanette P. “Bryan’s Benefactor: Coin Harvey and his World.” Ohio Historical Quarterly 67 (October 1958): 299–325.

Stokes, Harry A. “William Hope Harvey: Promoter and Agitator.” MA thesis, Northern Illinois University, 1965.

William H. “Coin” Harvey and Monte Ne Collection. Research Library. Rogers Historical Museum, Rogers, Arkansas.

*Obituary
Benton County Democrat
Thursday, February 13,1936

COL. "COIN" HARVEY DIED AT MONTE NE TUESDAY NIGHT----Col. W.H. (Coin) Harvey, aged 84 years and six months, one of the most colorful figures in the nation's history, died at 9:40 o'clock Tuesday night at his home at Monte Ne. Funeral arrangements were not completed awaiting of the arrival of his son today. He will be interred in a vault at Monte Ne beside his son, Hal, who died many years ago. Beside his wife of a second marriage, Col. Harvey is survived by a son, Thos. W. Harvey of Huntington, W. Va., the state in which his father was born Aug. 16, 1861, and one daughter.

Hal
1879 - 1903
Died Hugo Indian Territory while braking on a Frisco train

Contributed on 6/26/10 by wfields55
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Record #: 337132

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Submitted: 6/26/10 • Approved: 10/13/23 • Last Updated: 10/16/23 • R337132-G337131-S3

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