DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

HARVEY, ALEXANDER, merchant; b. 2 June 1827 at Aberdeen, Scotland, eldest child of Alexander Hervey (Harvey) and Ann Charleton; m. in 1864 Margaret Stuart of Hamilton, Canada West, and they had two sons and two daughters; d. 7 March 1886 at Hamilton.

Alexander Harvey immigrated to Hamilton with his parents and younger brother John in 1854. He worked as a clerk first at Mount Healy, Canada West, and then in Hamilton, where he opened his own retail flour and feed store about 1858. R. G. Dun and Company quickly gave him a sound rating, and within two years he had doubled his worth to $4,000 and had broadened his business into wholesale groceries. In 1864 he and John Stuart, his wife’s brother, formed a partnership, Harvey, Stuart and Company. Stuart brought $12,000 into the firm which had a total estimated worth of over $25,000. In 1869, with assets of $178,000 and liabilities of only $66,000, the partnership purchased additional premises and expanded into the wholesaling of crockery.

In the early 1870s Stuart grew progressively more interested in railway development and paid less attention to the details of the business. He became involved in the capitalization of the Hamilton and Lake Erie Railway Company, and was joint security for a large amount. In 1876 Harvey decided to withdraw from the partnership, taking $40,000 as his portion. He then formed a successful business, Alexander Harvey and Company, with Robert Nicholson Sterling, who invested $3,000, as junior partner. Harvey’s assets at this time were estimated at $130,000 and included his home and two commercial buildings.

Harvey was involved in various other developments in Hamilton. He was a director of the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway Company, but, in connection with his brother John, was mainly concerned with insurance and financial institutions. Both brothers held directorships in the Dominion Fire and Marine Insurance Company, the Mutual Life Association of Canada, and the Hamilton Provident and Loan Society, which Alexander helped to found in 1859. In 1872 he was one of the founders of the Bank of Hamilton and became a provisional director. He was an early supporter and member of the council of the Hamilton Board of Trade and was also a director of the Commercial Travellers’ Association of Canada in Toronto.

A Presbyterian, during most of his life Harvey supported the MacNab Street (Presbyterian) Church. At his death his estate, exclusive of real estate, was valued at $61,400. The estimate of his qualities as a business man by R. G. Dun and Company at the time of the dissolution of the partnership in 1876 may well stand as his epitaph: “a very reliab[le], capable man, inexpensive & cautious & free from enta[n]glements & is believed to be quite good for anything he will undertake.”

Frederick H. Armstrong

Baker Library, R. G. Dun & Co. credit ledger, Canada, 25: 208F, 228P, 241, 299. Scottish Record Office (Edinburgh), Old Machar parish (cathedral) baptismal register, Aberdeen, 2 June 1827. Wentworth County Surrogate Court (Hamilton, Ont.), will and inventory of Alexander Harvey, 26 June 1884, 3 May 1886. Hamilton Spectator, 8 March 1886. Hamilton directory (Hamilton), 1856–73. The mercantile agency reference book for the British provinces . . . (Montreal and Toronto), I (1864): 136. V. Ross and Trigge, Hist. of Canadian Bank of Commerce, III: 64–65, 67, 152.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Frederick H. Armstrong, “HARVEY, ALEXANDER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 29, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/harvey_alexander_11E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/harvey_alexander_11E.html
Author of Article:   Frederick H. Armstrong
Title of Article:   HARVEY, ALEXANDER
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1982
Year of revision:   1982
Access Date:   March 29, 2024