-------------------------------
biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
HARVEY LUCAS resides on section 23, Prairie Township, and is a well-known citizen. He was born in Cortland County, N. Y., Dec. 22, 1826. His father, Simeon Lucas, was a native of Connecticut, while his mother, Eunice (Glazier) Lucas, was a native of New York. Both died in Cortland County. Harvey Lucas, of whom we write, was reared on his father's farm, and received a better education than country boys usually obtain. In 1850 he took Horace Greeley's advice and came West, locating near Galesburg, Knox Co., Ill., where he remained six years, and then came to Mahaska County, Iowa, moving to his present farm of eighty acres in 1860. On the 4th day of March, 1857, Mr. Lucas married Izah Bradbury, who was born May 30, 1837, in Oxford County, Me., and daughter of Silas C. and Lydia (Hadley) Bradbury, both of whom were also natives of that county. Two children have been born to them: Silas B., May 28, 1859, and Helen M., Sept. 14, 1864. Mrs. Lucas is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a woman who is universally esteemed. Mr. Lucas has held the office of Township Clerk for six years, and other minor offices for a shorter period of time. He follows mixed farming, and has been reasonably successful in life. Since coming to this county he has taught five terms of school, giving satisfaction in every instance. Harvey Lucas, though not numbered among the earliest settlers, has yet lived in Mahaska County for thirty years, and in the meantime has witnessed the most important changes that have occurred. At that time the county was very thinly settled; not a mile of railroad had been here built, very few manufacturing institutions had been set running; free schools were almost unknown, and, in fact it was but little better than a wilderness. Now all is changed. Railroads, telegraph and telephone wires cross almost every township, manufactories are in motion; coal mines are being developed, and an air of bustling activity prevails. All this he has witnessed, and in much of it he has borne a part. As a citizen he stands high in the estimation of all.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy