A Writer's Journey: Amazing! by T. W. Harvey, Author & Historian

 

Guest Post 7

April 18, 1995, 8:00P.M

Shaker Heights, Ohio

Amazing!

Well, it’s been some time since I wrote about what has been going on with the letters. I did return to Loganberry’s Book Store right after the first of the year and picked up the Shelby Foote trilogy, some 2,000 pages about the Civil War. Professor Robinson, the retired history guru, also showed me Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson and Bloody Shiloh by Wiley Sword, so my library is starting to fill up. But, I still had to figure out what I was going to do with the letters.

I knew they were written by my  great-grandfather, Thomas S. Armstrong, and were postmarked from all over the southern states, but I didn’t know the story, yet. I needed a plan to unravel the Armstrong’s story. That was first and foremost. Then, I had to learn about the Civil War. Foote, McPherson, and Sword could help with that. Also, I had no idea about what was going on in Muskingum County, in general, and Zanesville, in particular, not to mention Norwich, Hopewell, and Fultonham as the fighting began and raged on. So, a visit there was in order.

The plan evolved. I would read first thing in the morning and take notes about events in the places the letters were written. Background was important, I thought. Later in the morning, I would go for my daily run, about six miles through the Shaker Lakes, out around Laurel School and Hathaway Brown, two private schools, west down Fairmount Boulevard where my folks used to live, and back to Shaker Square.

Then, after lunch, it was to be time to transcribe the letters, one by one, taking each folder out of the acid-free box, handling with surgical gloves. OK, now you think that was easy? It really hasn’t been. Even though they are in mint condition and the handwriting is excellent, reading them and then typing is damn hard work, thank you. I am finding as I plod through them, I can do about two a day before I run out of steam. I quit about 6 P.M. and drive over to Paula’s for dinner and maybe watch a little of the Cleveland Indians’ game on the tube before coming back to the condo and a good night’s sleep.

Cataloging the letters took a lot of time in January, so the transcription process was delayed. Further, there were a couple of other things that got in the way as well. My son, Doug, had gone off to college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last September and came home at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then, a month ago, he and I went to New Smyrna Beach, Florida for his Spring Break and some golf. He’ll be back in May for the summer. Now that I don’t see him much, out visits have become very special.

Additionally, there was some new thing called the Internet, and he asked me to get something called an “email” account on something called a website at a place called CompuServe. He said that while he was at school we could correspond on our computers and not have to use the telephone. The marvels of technology. A lot of my friends have gotten email accounts, too, so my morning research has been delayed until I read all of what they had to say and respond if I so choose. Doug and I email each other just about every day.

After we returned from Florida in mid-March, Paula and I were talking about the project, and she asked about possibly going to Zanesville once the snow melted to do research or at least check out the geography of Muskingum County. That led to our first road trip which we took last week, armed with clipboards, paper, and a Kodak Instamatic camera. After a 3 hour ride south on I-77 and west on I-70, the first stop was the county seat of Muskingum County, Zanesville, to find out if there was an historical society. There was, over on Jefferson Street, west across the Y Bridge over the Muskingum River in Putnam, a city right next door to Zanesville. The Society was housed inside the Stone Academy, a building that had been there for almost 200 years. I knocked on the door and found there was nobody home, so we took off to Norwich, where we thought my great-grandfather’s family had a farm.

Now, Norwich was 14 miles east of Zanesville with the National Road, Route 40, actually splitting the little town in two. After parking the car, we found a schoolhouse, the Post Office, a Methodist church, and a general store. Paula actually stood on my shoulders to peer inside the locked church. She said it looked like no one had been there in a long time. That was about it, except for a graveyard out behind the church, and it was interesting that there was no one walking around the town. Paula sketched out Norwich on a pad of paper, but it was at the Post Office where we had some luck.

We told the gentleman in the green visor and apron, behind the barred window, that we were trying to find the Armstrong’s’ farm from way back in 1860, having no idea where it was. Simple, he said, and told us to back to the Court House where we could find real estate records as far back as they were kept.  That got me to thinking that maybe we could find the Porter farm over in Hopewell Township as well. Thanking him, it was time for lunch and back to Zanesville where we found a diner on Putnam Avenue for a BLT and a glass of iced tea.

The next stop was Hopewell, 9 miles west, which we found to be just like Norwich, except the National Road ran north of town. It was pretty quiet there as well. Even the Post Office was closed. So, it was back to the Court House, but we didn’t have time to do the research on the properties, so we headed to the Stone Academy. This time, we were met by the curator, Mrs. Dale Curry. After an hour of conversation, I realized that she would be a most valuable resource.

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is a retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

https://twharvey.net/

 

A Writer's Journey: It Begins! by T. W. Harvey, Author & Historian

Guest Post 6

November 19, 1994, 3:00P.M

Shaker Heights, Ohio

It Begins!

          Whoa, that was one helluva movie. I went to see “Gettysburg” last Sunday afternoon at the Richmond Mall by myself. Paula decided to play tennis instead, and she was probably right. A lot of blood and guts in the Battle of Gettysburg, men losing arms and legs. Scene when Sergeant Kilrain died was heart-wrenching. The charge by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain’s 20^th Maine regiment was so real, first holding down the extreme left flank, at least that’s what they called it, then charging down the hill with bayonets since they had run out of ammunition. Killed, wounded, and captured a whole bunch of Confederate soldiers who had fought valiantly in my opinion. And, the music. Amazing. I bought the CD, and it’s playing right now. Boy, do I have the Civil War etched in my mind. I gotta see it again, just to get the feel for it once more. Loved the way the soldiers talked, both North and South. Pickett’s Charge was gruesome but looked really real. Tom Berenger as General James Longstreet. Beard was fake, but he was really good. Wow!

          Well, with that in mind, I decided to get to work on the letters, so, on Monday, after my run, I spread them out on the dining room table and began to look at them to get the dates they were written. The handwriting was perfectly legible and beautiful, and, as I worked my way through, I kept a legal pad with the name of the author and date it was written. When done with each one, it and its envelope, if there was one, went into an acid-free folder which went into the acid-free storage box. After each set of ten, I went into my study, made sure the Avery labels were aligned in my IBM Ink-Jet printer, typed in the author’s name and the date the letter was written, and printed them out for placement on the tab of a file folder. Tedious, yes, but I was learning something.

Most of them were written by Thomas S. Armstrong, my great-grandfather, to Francis Porter, who was my great grandmother. Some are addressed to her in Hopewell, Ohio and some to Clinton, Illinois. I have to find out about that. Then, there were some written by George W. Porter, also to Francis, his sister, as some of the salutations noted. But, I am still curious. She must have kept them and then stored them in the crates, but that begs the question. How in the hell did the letters get from Clinton, Illinois in 1866 or so to Cleveland Heights, Ohio in 1994? I’m beginning to think I will never know for sure, but maybe there’s some way I can figure it out.

Armstrong’s letters were written from places like Camp Goddard; Fort Donelson; Shiloh; Winchester, Virginia; and Libby Prison, wherever that is, or was. Porter’s were from the same places, except that after Shiloh, he wrote from Milliken’s Bend and Grand Gulf, Louisiana; Vicksburg, Mississippi; Kennesaw Mountain and Resaca, Georgia; and Atlanta. There was also one from Savannah. That’s in Georgia, too, I think. I wonder what story they tell, but they must be different. Armstrong in prison, I guess, and Porter near Atlanta. I thought I better get some books to tell me just what went on back then.

I finished cataloging the letters on Wednesday, wondering about the story, but right then, at 2 o’clock that afternoon, I had another matter to attend to. You see, after I put the box in a black trash bag to keep out the light, I drove down to the Western Reserve Historical Society to talk with Mrs. Hendershott about books that would provide me with the background that would help me understand the Civil War. She didn’t waste a moment, once I got the question out.

“The Shelby Foote Trilogy,” she said matter-of-factly. “There’s three books, The Civil War: A Narrative… For Sumter to Perryville, then Fredericksville to Meridian, and finally Red River to Appomattox. Seven hundred or more pages in each one. That’ll keep you busy, Mr. Harvey.” I asked where I could obtain them.

“Loganberrry Books. It’s relatively new in my neighborhood in Shaker. On Larchmere.”

“Wow,” I said, “I can walk over there from my condo. If they don’t have Foote’s work, can I have them order it.”

“Surely.”

So, on the way back to my condo at Shaker Square, I found Loganberry Books, parked in the back and walked in.

There was an older gentleman, with white hair and glasses, putting books on the shelves. I approached him and asked if they had Shelby Foote’s Trilogy on the Civil War. I loved his answer… "Not right now, young fella, but I can get it for you.”

Well, now, I’m 47 years’ old, and he called me “young fella.” I just asked him to order the set of three for me and was told to come back in a week. He’d have them ready. Turns out he had been a history professor at Case Western Reserve University, retired, and was asked by the owner of Loganberry to help out. Lucky for me, he accepted. Wonder if he knows anything about the Civil War.

Stopping here. The Ohio State – Michigan game is on in an hour, and I need to get to Paula’s place to watch it.

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is a retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

https://twharvey.net/

A Writer's Journey: Now What? by T.W. Harvey, Author

Guest Post 5

November 12, 1994, 10:00P.M

Shaker Heights, Ohio

Now What?

          Now, this was an interesting day, a Saturday in mid-November in blustery, gray Cleveland, Ohio. Thankfully, Ohio State beat Indiana this afternoon, 32 – 17, but I didn’t watch it. You see I wanted to continue my work with the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland about the letters in the crates. By the way, things had gotten interesting with Paula as we had continued to see each other, but she wasn’t interested in hanging out at the library of the Historical Society. So, I had gone down there by myself as I had on previous Saturdays.

I had met the curator of the Archives, Mabel Hendershott, on my first visit a couple of weeks ago when I first mentioned that I had found the letters and wanted to know how to protect them. Mrs. Hendershott provided the wisdom that I did not have. That’s when I got the lecture.

Scribbling on a legal pad as quickly as I could, she told me the first thing I was to do was to get a box of surgical gloves for handling the letters. Next, I had to go to the Burrows Bros. stationery store to get a box of acid-free file folders and acid-free storage boxes. Oh, and I wasn’t to forget labels for the file folders that I could run through my printer to identify each letter. Then the next stop was Russo’s market to purchase a box of black polyethylene trash bags in which to keep the box, keeping light out. She then asked me the most important question, “Just what are you going to do with the letters?”     

I told her once again about the “Lincoln letter” and that I had a feeling there might be a book in those crates. But that meant I would have to transcribe them into WordPerfect files in some sort of order, most likely chronologically by author, to see what the story really was.

Well, today, I reported to Mrs. Hendershott that I had done everything that she had assigned and had even bought two boxes of 3½” by 3½” floppy disks (well, they weren’t really floppy; they were plastic, but everyone calls them floppy) and a case to store them. So, now I have 24 disks on which to store the letters, using my word processing system called WordPerfect. This let me type up the letters and store them on disks so I could retrieve them if necessary and not have to type it over again like I would have had to do with a typewriter.

Quite relieved, she seemed to approve of my approach and very nicely asked if she could be of any more assistance. I politely said that I didn’t think so, thanked her for the education, and quietly walked out into the brisk November air, the gray skies of Cleveland suggesting snow. As I drove back to the condo at Shaker Square this afternoon, I felt really good, but wondering if there was really a book in those two crates, just waiting to be published.

A couple of hours ago, I got off the phone with Paula, having told her about my afternoon, and she asked, matter-of-factly, “Do you know what you are getting yourself into?”

“Well, no,” I had responded, “but I gotta find out. You want to go to a movie tomorrow afternoon. It’s supposed to be pretty good. About the Civil War.”

“What’s it called?” she asked.

“Gettysburg.” I replied, It’s playing out at Richmond Mall. I’ll pick you up at 1.”

“No, thanks. I’ll pass. I’m gonna play tennis at the Chagrin Valley courts.”

“It’s gonna be cold.”

“No, it’s indoors, dummy!”

With that, I said to myself, “Well, nobody’s called me ‘dummy’ for quite a while, if ever. The hell with her. I’m going to see Gettysburg tomorrow.” Just so you know, she was kidding with the “dummy” comment.

          The condo is a mess, especially the small bedroom I am using for a study. I’ll clean it up tonight. Wonder what that movie is gonna be about. The battle of Gettysburg, but that’s all I know.

          Supper came and went around 7 this evening. Then I gave some order to the study, putting the acid-free boxes right by my chair in front of my PC, labels for the file folders on my worktable on the right. Floppy disks in their cases right beside the computer. I’m ready to begin this adventure.

          About an hour ago, I tired of the sit-coms and thought I would watch something else. Standing by the TV, I clicked around on the dial. Landing on the new cable channel, Turner Classic Movies, I said out loud, “Damn, it’s Midway with Heston, Glenn Ford, and Fonda.” ‘Night all.

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is a retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

https://twharvey.net/

A Writer's Journey: THE Letter by T.W. Harvey

Guest Post 4

October 8, 1994, 2:00P.M

Shaker Heights, Ohio

THE Letter

T.W. Harvey, Author

    Wow, it is hard to believe that a year has passed by but work with banks has kept coming in, albeit slowly, but there was a major interruption of my investigation of what story the letters told. All I knew was that they were written by my father’s relatives, and that he was the grandson of Thomas S. Armstrong.

    Based on my book, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, a fellow by the name of Jim Davidson of Irwin Professional Publishing had called and invited me to Chicago to discuss a new book. So, I figured why not? I had time between engagements, now that I was consulting with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the 4^th District, if you will, so we spent an afternoon in November, 1993, talking about what they wanted.

    Banking was undergoing a technological transition, and they wanted me to come up with a strategy to help banks navigate through the regulatory changes that were forcing new business models, but still under the watchful eye of the Fed.

    Now, I had been in banking from 1977 through 1991 and had seen the changes in the industry and had also become acquainted with the Total Quality Management movement (TQM) advanced by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. TQM basically rested on the idea that if organization could understand their customers’ expectations and exceed them with quality service, they would keep those customers and attract new ones, thus increasing revenue and decreasing costs. Jim and his team loved it and offered me a contract, with a nice advance, on a new book.

    Back in Cleveland, I started working on The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in the New Financial Services Marketplace. But, that has limited my consulting activity, but there has been another interruption.

    A month or so ago, on Labor Day weekend, my brother, Steve, and his wife, Barbara, were in town from their home in Manhattan Beach, west of Los Angeles, right on the Pacific. A whole bunch of folks were going to the cottage in Rock Creek that weekend, but, along with my folks’ friends, George and Ginny Bodwell, and their daughter, Paula, we arrived on Saturday afternoon. Nobody else would be there until the next day. The Bodwells couldn’t stay to see the rest of the guests on Sunday, so it was just us and them for the rest of the day.  When the parents decided to play bridge, Barbara, Steve, Paula, and I jumped into the Cutlass to find something better to do. I drove over to the quaint little town of Ashtabula Harbor, right on Lake Erie, where we walked around and got an ice cream cone. It was then that I told them about the letters, and they all seemed really interested.

    To make a long story short, I waited two weeks before I screwed up the courage to call her and finally did. We talked about the letters and agreed to grab a burger and a beverage at our favorite watering hole with some friends. That went well, and we thought that we would like to see each other again. So, last Saturday, the 1^st, which turned out to be very cold and wet, we drove out to Rock Creek, having lunch at my favorite diner in Jefferson, Ohio, not too far to the east of the cottage.

    When we got to the cottage and went in, I lit a small fire in the fireplace and pulled the crates out from under the table where they had been for a year. Even with all the activity of the summer, guests of my parents out there every weekend and me and my friends taking over for Memorial Day and the 4^th of July, nobody had said a word about the boxes under the main serving table up again the wall on the west side of the great room.

    Opening one of the crates, I knew I would have to get it secured again since the clambake was scheduled for next Saturday, October 15, but we decided to look at the documents. I was thumbing through some of them, becoming even more curious than I had been before. Just then, Paula let out a gasp.

    “You better come see this,” she said, looking a little shaky. I put down what I was reading and walked over to her. She handed me a letter, the second paragraph of which follows…

April 20, 1865

The city was crowded with persons, thousands of them from distant cities, nearly

the whole population were out. Every prominent point on Pennsylvania Avenue

the line of procession was occupied by those who wished to obtain the best view.

You will see a description of the whole affair. It was the most extensive affair I ever

saw. I was at the funeral of Abraham Lincoln. But one thing I regret is I never

saw him. We returned on the train last evening. The bells were ringing in Annapolis

when we got here.

          Thomas S. Armstrong

      I said something a little inappropriate for a first real date, and I was almost shaking. My great-grandfather had been at the funeral of Abraham Lincoln.

    We put the letter back in the crate, sealed it, and took it and the other one back to my new condo in Shaker Heights. As I drove, I thought, “You know, there just might be a book in those crates.”

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is a retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

https://twharvey.net/

A Writer's Journey: Finding the Letters T.W. Harvey

A Writer’s Journey: Finding the Letters

By T.W. Harvey

…continued from A Writer’s Journey #2 here

After my 12 mile run yesterday morning and some lunch, I took off to the family cottage in Rock Creek, Ohio, some 50 miles east of Cleveland Heights, with the crates sitting safely in the back seat of my dark green 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass. It always took an hour to get to the cottage, and it was a perfect early fall day with the sun shining brightly, the temperature about 70, and the Ohio State – Washington game on the radio. I’ve been a Buckeye fan for as long as I can remember, recalling that my Dad listened to the games back in the 1970s and, ever since, Saturday afternoons in the fall have meant listening/watching the Scarlet and Gray.

I arrived at the cottage a little after 2 and took the crates into the great room where I put them on the floor under the table we use for setting out the buffet we usually had on Saturday nights during the summer and at our annual clambake in October. Since it was such a great day weather-wise, I decided that the crates could wait and walked down the steps to the dock where I uncovered the boat, a 21 footer with a 150 HP Mercury

engine, and headed out to the lake. It was a beautiful day out there, not too many other boats and no chop in the water at all. Once out of the cove where the cottage was, I pushed the throttle down and let the engine scream as I sped south toward the dam about five miles south at the end of the lake.

After about half an hour, I pulled back into the cove and drove slowly toward the dock in front of the cottage. Securing the boat, I put the cover back on and walked up the path back into the cottage and poured a glass of ice tea. Now, it was time to see what was in the crates. First, though, I had to get the Ohio State game on the TV. Whew, they were ahead.

Sliding one of the crates out from under the table, I pried the lid loose from where Norm Fassbender had replaced it and opened the old box. Now, I knew there were some letters in the crates, but I didn’t know how many or what story they might tell. Gingerly, I lifted a handful of the documents out of the crate and placed them on the table, thinking that I should have archivists’ gloves on. You see, these documents had not see the light of day for 129 years, and I didn’t know how they would react to being touched or by sunlight. But, I decided to chance it, pulling the curtains closed and picking each one up with a tissue.

I had planned to spend the night as I did from time-to-time now that my folks were living at Judson Manor. That was a good thing on this day as I was transfixed by the letters and the minutes turned to hours. So, here’s what I found. By my count, there were 249 handwritten letters with their envelopes, all posted in the mid-1800s from places like Norwich, Ohio; Camp Zanesville; Fort Donelson, Kentucky; Shiloh, Tennessee; Winchester, Virginia; and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Many were addressed to Miss Francis Porter of Hopewell, Ohio and, later, of Clinton, Illinois and some to Mr. Jacob G. Armstrong of Norwich, Ohio. As I looked them over, I saw that they were written by Sergeant Thomas S. Armstrong and Sergeant George Porter whoever they were. But, in reading the letters, I figured out that Jacob Armstrong was Tom’s brother and that Francis Porter was George’s sister.

So, then I was getting really curious. I knew a little about the War of the Rebellion, the Civil War, if you will, and it occurred to me that maybe these fellows were actually in the war and were sending letters home about their experiences. But, who could tell me, for sure? And, why were they in the basement at my parents’ house in the first place? However, the one thing that was becoming clear was that there could be a connection between Thomas Armstrong and my father, Robert Armstrong Harvey.

What a day. I had found 249 letters from my relatives which I am now thinking might tell a story about the Civil War that had never been told before, and Ohio State won, 21 – 12 over Washington. It was getting dark, time to cook up a burger on the grill on the deck and have a cold one. There was another game on ABC, so it was time to put my feet up, have supper, and relax.

This morning, after a shorter run and breakfast, I drove straight to Judson Manor in Cleveland’s University Circle to ask my parents about the letters. Over lunch in the main dining room, neither one of them had any knowledge of the crates or their contents. Actually, they were quite surprised at the whole thing, but my Dad did give me some information that I hadn’t known. Sipping his coffee, he told me that Thomas S. Armstrong was his grandfather and also that he had never met him. His grandad had died in 1909, four years before he was born. He went on to say that his mother, Mae Armstrong Harvey, was one of four children of Thomas and Francis Armstrong.

Francis Armstrong??? Had Francis P. Porter married Tom Armstrong? Did that mean that George Porter was his brother-in-law?

Now, I am really interested in the story of my family in the Civil War, but my banking client, the Savings Bank of Utica, kept calling.

To see the Paula B. And Thomas W. Collection of Civil War Letters at Ohio Wesleyan Unversity's online archive, click here!

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is a retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

https://twharvey.net/

The Crates: T.W. Harvey Author

The Crates

By T.W. Harvey

August 17, 1993, 7:00 P.M.                         

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

          Right around 2:15 P.M. this afternoon, Tuesday, August 17, 1993, there was a knock on the door of my study. You see, I am working at my parents’ house since they have moved to Judson Manor, a retirement community in the University Circle area of Cleveland. They wanted me to prepare the house for sale, so I just brought my computer and work files to the Cleveland Heights home while the work to empty the house went on.

          Three years ago, I started a small consulting company, Value Concepts, Inc., to help small-to-medium-sized banks improve their productivity and profitability and was working, this afternoon, on a report for the Savings Bank of Utica, a client in upper New York state. My career to this point had consisted of five years with a small firm, Educational Dimensions, Inc., which had two large contracts for a social science textbook series for Grades 7 through 12. And, then, after taking my M.B.A. in Finance at Case Western Reserve University, I accepted a position in the Finance Division of Union Commerce Bank which was merged into Huntington Bancshares five years later. It was time I found a “real job” my father had lectured, so it was a perfect fit.

          After the merger into the Huntington, which I managed by the way, I took an offer from Society Corporation to develop and implement strategies for acquiring and merging in other banks which we did quite well, buying banks in Dayton, Canton, Toledo, and two in Cleveland. That ended in 1990 – 1991 when Society became part of Key Corp, and I was out of a job again. It has always struck me as interesting that I put myself out of work twice, once at Union Commerce and the other at Society. But then, it was time to become an entrepreneur, and I formed Value Concepts, Inc. The Savings Bank of Utica was my first client and, obviously, a very important one.

      So, there I was this afternoon, diligently typing away on my Commodore PC, and there’s a knock on the door. I invited whoever it was to come in, and in walks Pete Zanetti, one of the men who was helping discard things that we didn’t want or need as we were getting ready to sell the house. He told me that there were two crates down in the basement and asked what I wanted to do with them. Beats me, I said. So, we went down the stairs and through the kitchen to the basement stairs. When I got down there, Pete’s associate, Norm Fassbender, was looking at the crates, each one 18 inches long, 9 inches wide, and 12 inches in height. Oddly, on the side of one, in large, faded black, cursive lettering were the words “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too.” Now, I kind of remembered from history classes that this was the slogan of some president back in the mid-19^th century but really didn’t pay too much attention to it. But, it was a sign.

          Norm asked me what I want to do with them. My response was to open them up and see what’s inside. So, he took out a claw hammer and screwdriver and broke into one of them, breaking the cover in two. The crate had been nailed shut with 3-inch square heads. He handed a couple of them to me. They sure were old. Looking inside the crate, it was full of paper, old paper I could tell by picking one document up.

          Being a history buff as well as a finance guy, I was curious to find out what the documents were and noticed that they were mostly letters in their envelopes. One postmark said “Libby Prison, Richmond, Va.,” and the envelope was addressed to a “Miss Francis P. Porter.” Well, I had no idea who that was and asked Pete and Norm to seal the crate up and then take both of them out to the garage. I wanted to take them to our summer cottage on a lake in Ashtabula County, Ohio, to look at later. Right now, the Savings Bank of Utica was first and foremost on my mind. It was paying the bills.

          But, before they sealed the crates and carried them to the garage, I opened the envelope to Miss Porter and unfolded the letter inside. It was handwritten, friendly enough, dated July 28, 1863, and was from a Thomas S. Armstrong. Now, I am really curious for my father’s middle name was Armstrong and am wondering what else was in those crates. I would have to wait until the work with the Savings Bank of Utica was complete to find out.

To see the Paula B. And Thomas W. Collection of Civil War Letters at Ohio Wesleyan Unversity's online archive, click here!

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

An Interview with Author T.W. Harvey

An Interview with Author T.W. Harvey

by Gina McKnight

From Ohio, USA, welcome Monday Creek Publishing Author T.W. Harvey! With the recent launch of his first historical fiction Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War, we celebrate T.W.’s hard work, dedication, and passion for writing.

GM: What is the premise for your new book, Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War?

TWH: Based on 180 letters sent home from 1861 through 1865 about his experiences in the American Civil War, a young teacher, from south-central Ohio, must make a decision about serving his country as the American Civil War escalates in mid-1862. Thomas Armstrong had enlisted in the 78^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in November 1861, with his brother, Wilbur, and four of their friends, answering the call of President Abraham Lincoln to put down the rebellion of the southern states that had seceded from the Union in the winter of 1860 – 1861. None of them really knew what war entails, only having heard stories about the Mexican War that occurred in the 1840s, but they, like thousands of other young men, felt the call of duty and honor to fight to preserve the Union.

And, fight they did, first in reserve at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February, 1862, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border and then at the bloodiest battle of the war, the Battle of Shiloh, in southwestern Tennessee, in early April of that year. The problem was, for Corporal Armstrong, he was too sick with tuberculosis to actually pick up his rifle and engage the enemy with the rest of the 78^th, and subsequently, he was sent home to die by his friends. But, now, he had seen the elephant, that is, he had experienced what battle was like with thousands of men killed, wounded, or captured. As he watched the fighting, he could hardly comprehend the horror the men on both sides must have felt walking to within several yards of each other and then opening up with fire from their guns and then screaming for help from a surgeon or deliverance from God.

Corporal Armstrong did make it home to Zanesville, Ohio, and, under the care of his family, returned to good health but that presented another problem. Another regiment was being formed there in Muskingum County, the 122^nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the officers of which suggested that he join them, understanding that they would go east into Virginia to protect the northern portion of the Shenandoah Valley. The question became, would he go back into the army to see the elephant once again, knowing full well he could be killed, wounded, imprisoned, or die of disease.

Honor and duty won out again, this time strengthened by his complete faith and trust in God regardless of the outcome.

The letters that we have from him then describe his experiences in the 122^nd as the Civil War continues until the Confederate surrender on April 9, 1865 and form the basis for the story I tell in Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

GM: Describe the writing process and how you manage thoughts/ideas.

TWH: All fictional writing projects start with an idea or a story with non-fiction based on a goal to be achieved. That is not to say, however, that the audience cannot learn from fiction which is one of the reasons for publication of Corporal Armstrong’s story in Seeing the Elephant. In this case, the idea was easy to formulate since a friend who knows a great deal about the Civil War simply said one day, “We all know about the battles, we all know about the great generals on both sides, but we don’t know much about the experiences of the ordinary soldier, the common man on both sides who enlisted to fight for his country quite willingly while knowing that there was a good chance that he would die."

Now, adding to this was Corporal Armstrong’s capture after the 2^nd Battle of Winchester and his imprisonment for almost two (2) years. Nothing had been written about that which made the story I was to tell easier to conceptualize.

Again, the letters that he wrote to his family provided the basis for the story, but a great deal of research had to be done in order to tell it accurately. But since I knew the chronological sequence of events, finding primary and secondary research in various libraries and historical societies was likewise made easier than starting with a blank piece of paper.

The most difficult thing a writer faces, at least for me, is that blank piece of paper or computer screen. Then, again, I was fortunate to have contacted Jeff Shaara, the author of four brilliant books about battles in the Western theater. In email correspondence, he said, “Most people who contact me don’t have a story. You do, so write it.”

So, with over 1,000 pages of research and the letters, I knew, generally, what the story was, and that’s when the creativity took over.

The first decision was to make the book fiction or non-fiction. I could have just transcribed the letters and put them in chronological order and let that be it. But, since I hadn’t done fiction, I chose to write an historical novel which allowed me to create conversations between the characters, to present their thoughts about the events at hand, and to fill in between the dates of the letters which was a great deal of fun to do.

When I wrote the two non-fiction books, while I conducted research in the morning, the best time for me was writing in the afternoon, after my daily exercise and lunch. So, in this book, I generally wrote from about 2:00PM to 5:30PM or so, always making sure that I had written the first line of the first paragraph I would start with the next day. This allowed me to get to know the characters very well and to think about the events that would transpire when I opened the file the following afternoon. It was amazing, and somewhat unexplainable, as to where some of the thoughts originated since many times I would have an idea that fit the circumstance about which I was writing and really had no definitive research to support it.

The most important thing was to get the story on paper, that is into the storage disk. I found that when I read it, I would make changes, additions, subtractions, and other revisions when each chapter was complete. Then, when I was satisfied, I would give a printed copy to my copy editor who would generally return it within one day. Then, I would make the proper corrections, save it the chapter, and then send it to the three people I had asked to review each one for its historical accuracy. Upon receiving their thoughts and comments, I would make the changes that I thought were appropriate, save it once again, and send it out for their comments. Only when they agreed that it was acceptable would I put a printed copy in my notebook and move on to the next chapter.

GM: Who is your favorite author?  

TWH: Through a circuitous series of events, I became an English major in college and was introduced to the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway who, up to the time I started Seeing the Elephant, were my favorite authors in American literature. In class, I was taught to think critically about the message that was being sent, who the characters represented, and what the events really meant in Hemingway’s and Fitzgerald’s words. I was also taught about their private lives as well as their professional ones in the 1920s and 30s in the case of Fitzgerald and into the 1950s for Hemingway.

As I think about it, perhaps it was the faculty’s enthusiasm about the two of them that was contagious and encouraged me to read everything they had written and then to write my senior thesis on Fitzgerald’s and John Updike’s work on the theme of escape, made popular by T.S. Eliot.

Some years later, after we had discovered the letters of Corporal Armstrong, I attended a showing of the movie, Gettysburg, which I came to understand was based on the book, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. I picked up a copy, read it, and realized the depth and the quality of the writing, deciding that if Armstrong’s letters told a story like the one Mr. Shaara had told, I would try to write that story.

And, then, as I was starting to think that could become something I really could do, I came across A Blaze of Glory, The Fateful Lightning, A Chain of Thunder, and The Smoke at Dawn, written by Mr. Shaara’s son, Jeff. Needless to say, after reading them, I came to admire Jeff Shaara’s work which became a model for me.

GM: What are you currently writing?

TWH: In addition to the letters Thomas Armstrong wrote to his family about his experiences in the Civil War, his best friend, George Porter, wrote letters to his family as well about his experiences which were quite different than Armstrong’s. In fact, after the war, Armstrong married Porter’s sister, Francis.

Porter’s story centers on the experiences of the 78^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the battles in the Western theater from Fort Donelson, to Shiloh, Vicksburg, the Atlanta campaign, through South Carolina, and ends at the surrender of Major General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. He served as the Aide-de-Camp to General James McPherson, and then, after McPherson was killed at the Battle of Atlanta, served in the same capacity to General Mortimer Leggett. As such, throughout the march from Vicksburg to Appomattox, Porter would be in meetings with Generals McPherson and Leggett, their commanding officer, General Oliver Howard, and also General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Ulysses S. Grant.

Thus, the title of the next book is tentatively Riding with Sherman which will be completed by early 2020.

GM: Do you have advice for novice writers?

TWH: Determine why you want to write and what the subject matter will be. Will it be fiction or non-fiction?

Determine your audience.

Be relentless in your research. Learn as much as you can about the subject. Has anyone else written the same story?

          Do not be afraid of just starting your story. An outline will help

          Do not be afraid of getting criticized. That’s how you learn.

          Have outside experts to read your work as you go.

          Make sure that your grammar and spelling are excellent.

          Have someone serve as an editor.

If for the general market, research publishing houses that work with the subject matter.

Be prepared to do book signings and lectures about your work.

If academic, find first tier journals that deal with your subject. Offer to present your work at a conference.

GM: List ten items about yourself that may be of interest to your readers.

TWH: Play written in 4^th grade chosen to be performed at my elementary school.

Undergraduate degree in English – senior thesis Eliot’s Theme of Escape as Seen in the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Updike

Master of Business Administration

Career in banking and finance, including publication of articles in banking journals and presentations at banking conferences

Publication of Quality Value Banking in 1992

Discovery of 250 letters written by ancestors of their experiences in the Civil War

Publication of The Banking Revolution in 1996

Join faculty of Ashland University 1999 – retired 2013

Doctor of Business Administration 2004

Publication in banking and finance journals and presentations at management conferences

Toured all major battlefields of the Civil War, tracing the movements of the 78^th O.V.I. and the 122^nd O.V.I.

Publication of Seeing the Elephant 2018

Connect with T.W…

www.twharvey.net

Cover Art by Fine Artist Erica Magnus

 Available from Barnes&Noble and Amazon.com