Louis Powell Harvey (July 22, 1820 – April 19, 1862) was an American politician and the seventh Governor of Wisconsin. He was the first Wisconsin Governor to die in office.
Early life
Harvey was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, and moved with his family to Ohio in 1828.[1] He attended Western Reserve College and Preparatory School. He worked as a teacher for a time, and eventually moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, then named Southport, where he founded an academy. In Southport he associated with the Whig Party and edited a Whig newspaper, the Southport American (1843–1846). Lewis entered into correspondence
with a local society called the "Boannergians," in the Summer of 1841 at Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio and it became a chapter of Beta Theta Pi on August 9, 1841.
Cordelia A. P. Harvey, wife of Louis P. Harvey and First Lady of Wisconsin
On April 19, 1862, close to Shiloh, Harvey stopped overnight near Savannah, Tennessee. Late that evening, while trying to step from a tethered boat to a moving steamboat headed back north (a common but dangerous practice), Harvey fell into the Tennessee River and drowned, despite the strenuous rescue efforts of members of his party.
His body was found 14 days later, 65 miles downstream near Britt's Landing; his remains lay in state in the Wisconsin State Capitol, and he was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, in Madison. His wife Cordelia became a leading war nurse, honored with the rank of colonel by Abraham Lincoln.[2][3] She subsequently established veterans hospitals in Wisconsin, away from the war front, and a soldiers' orphans home.[4] She is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin.
^Toepel, M. G.; Theobald, H. Rupert, eds. (1962). "Wisconsin elections". The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1962 (Report). State of Wisconsin. p. 802. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
