William P. Harvey was bom March 15, 1843, in the village of Kappa, County Galway, Ireland. In 1851 he came with his parents to America.

He was reared in the Roman Catholic faith. In his seventeenth year he became acquainted with the Rev. George Hunt, and by him was led to Christ and baptized into the fellowship of the Baptist Church at Maysville, Ky.

The subject of this sketch, besides attending the public schools in Mason county, Ky., spent two years at Maysville Seminary, three years at Georgetown College and two years at Kentucky University, where he graduated in 1865.

He was licensed to preach by the church at Maysville in 1861, and was ordained to the full work of the ministry by the church at Harrodsburg in 1872. For ten years he was pastor, and the Lord greatly blessed his labors. For over three years he was Secretary of the Sunday-school and Colportage Board of the General Association of Kentucky Baptists.

He was for one year Superintendent of Missions in the Eastern District of Kentucky. For one year also he was vice president of Georgetown College.

In every position held by him he was honored with a successful administration.

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[p. 405]

In 1887, Dr. Harvey, associated with Dr. T. T. Eaton and Mr. J. B. McFerran, bought the Western Recorder. Under their leadership the paper has become a great power in the denomination, and refers with satisfaction to its record of fidelity and loyalty to Baptist principles.

Afterward he was prominent in the organization of the Baptist Book Concern, raising a paid-up capital of $100,000, of which he has been President and Treasurer since the organization.

Dr. Harvey is one of the best-known men, not only .in Kentucky, but all over the South, and everywhere he enjoys the respect and confidence of the brotherhood. Mississippi College honored him with the title of D. D. We publish at the close of this sketch his able discussion of "Baptists in History."
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[Ben M. Bogard, editor, Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith, 1900, pp. 404-405. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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