Harvey Family Papers

Dorothy Harvey Leonard was born April 19, 1925. She was a member of the Society of Friends and worked as a professional nurse from 1946 until her retirement in 1987. She was also a poet, writer, and family historian, creating A Quaker Family Calendar from 1988-2001. Dot died in 2007.

The Harvey family descends through Jesse Harvey, the son of Michael and Elizabeth, who was married to Kezia Ward in Center Monthly Meeting, NC, in 1786. Related families include Carter, Tregelles, Thorp, Palmer, Sharpless, Hampton, and many others.

The donor's parents, Cyril H. (1901-1981) and Ruth S. Thorp Harvey (1899-1962) were teachers at a number of Friends schools including Atlantic City, Friends Central, and Penn Charter. Cyril was the son of Adolphus Enoch Harvey and Lyra Tregelles Harvey. He was the grandson of Cyrus W. Harvey (1843-1916), a Kansas politician, Quaker minister, and editor of the periodical, The Western Friend. Ruth was the daughter of George Smedley Thorp and Anne Palmer Thorp of Media, Pa. Cyril and Ruth Harvey had four children: Dorothy Alice, born 1925; Ruth, born 1931; Cyril H., Jr., born 1933; and Mary Jane, born 1939 and died in 1958.

The family moved often, and Dorothy Harvey attended Atlantic City Friends School, Media Friends School, Friends Central, and graduated from Olney Friends School in Barnesville, Ohio, in 1942. She spend three semesters at Earlham College and earned a R.N. diploma from the Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing (U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps) in 1946, was licensed in December 1946, and earned a certificate in Psychiatric Nursing in Pennsylvania Hospital in 1947. She was later awarded a B.S. in Education and M.S. in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary area of expertise was in Psychiatric Nursing, and she also worked as an instructor and nursing administrator. She married John Leonard in 1950. They had one child, Diana Fell Leonard, and divorced in 1959.

Dorothy Leonard's distant cousin, Kathaleen Johnson Carter (1901-2002) was a commercial artist and family genealogist. She and Dorothy shared a passion for family history, and her genealogical papers came to Dorothy after Kathaleen's death.