This book documents the lives of Oliver Jackson Harvey and his son, William Robert Harvey. Oliver was the seventh child and the fourth son, who was born during 1837 in Monroe County, Illinois. He and his wife, Martha E. Lorton, had twelve children, including William Robert, the first child who was born in 1855 in Bates County, Missouri.
In addition, Oliver Harvey and his wife are connected to twenty-five other families, including Lorton, McClenaghan, Polley, Snider, Blankenship, McGee, Morris, Guess, Canfield, Massey, Darby, Murphy and Wilson. William Robert Harvey and his wife, Amelia Mary Mills, are tied to the Mills, Patterson, Parmentier, Mitchell, Lucien, Waters, Marshall, Young, Bloodgood, Wingstrom, Beeson and Mason families.