Date Original
1893-1949
Description
This collection contains correspondence, both personal and professional, writings, photographs, and memorabilia of Laurence Harvison.
Biographical/Historical Note
Laurence Watts Harvison was born in Newark, Arkansas, on November 15, 1893, to William Hiram and Emma Watts Harvison. Hiram later became terminally ill with tuberculosis and the family moved to Sulphur Rock, Arkansas. Laurence was four years old when his father died. His mother moved the family close to her sisters at Junction City, Arkansas. There, Emma met and married Samuel Lee Muse, who owned and operated a general store. Laurence Harvison attended school in Junction City and in 1908, entered Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville, Arkansas. He graduated in 1912. The next year he taught in Clarendon, Arkansas, and then entered Austin Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas. By 1916, he received his Bachelor of Divinity and enrolled in McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. In 1917, Harvison was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church. He served as minister at the Mount Pleasant Church in Kingston, Ohio. When the United States entered World War I, Harvison joined the United States Army and the Chaplain Corps. He was discharged on February 20, 1919. After the war, Harvison served as the minister at Murdoch and Pleasant Plain churches in Ohio. He married Lydia Barr Crouse in Kingston, Ohio, on May 7, 1920. In 1922, he pastored the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. Harvison received a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Cincinnati in 1925. A daughter, Nancy, was born the same year. In 1930, Harvison became minister of the First Federated Church of Cincinnati, a merger of the Sixth Presbyterian Church and the McKendree Methodist Church. His last church was the Federated Church of Harvey, Illinois, in 1941. He died in Chicago on February 2, 1949.
Physical Description
Document, 8.5" x 11"
Geographical Area
Arkansas
Language
English
Identifier
MS.000571
Resource Type
Text
Collection
Laurence Watts Harvison papers, MS.000571
Publisher
Arkansas State Archives
Contributing Entity
Arkansas State Archives
Recommended Citation
Laurence Watts Harvison papers, Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Rights
Use and reproduction of images held by the Arkansas State Archives without prior written permission is prohibited. For information on reproducing images held by the Arkansas State Archives, please call 501-682-6900 or email at state.archives@arkansas.gov.
Disciplines
United States History
