Hanny Clyde Harvley (1887-1946)

From the History of South Carolina, Volume IV, 1920.

  Today's write-up takes us to Greenville, South Carolina, and Hanny Clyde Harvley, a three-term mayor of that city. Despite serving three terms in office, little could be found on Harvely's life, apart from a biographical notice and portrait in the 1920 edition of the History of South Carolina. H. Clyde Harvley (as most sources list him) was born in Modoc, South Carolina December 17, 1887, a son of Jesse Kendrick and Ida Nancy Adkins Harvley. He attended the Coronaca High School and married on March 24, 1906, to Ms. Blanche Barber (1882-1845) and later had three children, Helen (1908-1997), John (1909-1976), and Hanny Clyde Jr. (1910-1977).

  Following his marriage Harvley was engaged in the railroad business for several years, working as a telegraph operator and station agent. In March 1913 he became a "local representative" for the Charleston and Western Carolina Railway and was eventually transferred to Greenville. The 1920 History of South Carolina notes that within some months of relocation Harvley "manifested an interest in politics and public affairs that attracted notice to him." 

  In 1915 Harvley was elected to the Greenville City Council, and during his two years of service here accomplished much good for his new city of residence, helping to push legislation to establish a sinking fund for Greenville to help reduce the city's debt. He is also "given credit for inaugurating the great beautiful white way of Greenville, considered to be the last word in street lighting and the best to be found anywhere in the South." Harvley's ability and ambition as a councilman eventually culminated in his election as Mayor of Greenville in 1917, "being one of the youngest men in the country to fill the mayor's chair in a city the size of Greenville". Harvley's three terms as mayor (1917-1923) brought about changes in the city, being the "first mayor of Greenville to open a municipal coal and wood yard" and "brought about the municipal ownership of the water works", which were also enlarged during his term.

  Both before and after his service as mayor Harvley was affiliated with many local fraternal organizations, holding memberships in the Greenwood Blue Lodge #91 of Free and Accepted Masons, the Cyrus Chapter #22 of the Royal Arch Masons, the Improved Order of Red Men, the United Order of American Mechanics, the Hejaz Temple of the Mystic Shrine and the Poinsett Club. 

  On February 13, 1945, H.C. Harvely's wife of nearly forty years died age sixty-two. A little less than a year after his wife's death, Harvely himself succumbed to an unknown illness on February 4, 1946, at age fifty-nine. Both were later buried at the Springwood Cemetery in Greenville, which is also the resting place of Harvely's mother and two of his children.

Harvely as he looked during his later years, from the greenvillesc.gov website.