HARVEY F. HARPEL, merchant and postmaster at South Perkasie, was born in Bedminster township, Bucks county, January 1, 1864, and is a son of Amos and Mary (Fulmer) Harpel. His paternal ancestor, Philip Harpel, a native of Germany, born in 1728, was an early settler near Ottsville, where he purchased a large tract of land partly in Bedminster and partly in Tinicum. He was one of the early members of Tohickon Lutheran church, and became a large landowner and a prominent man in the community. He died December 24, 1802, and his wife, Anna Maria, September 27, 1816, at the age of eighty-two years, eight months and three days. They were the parents of two sons: Philip and Conrad; and three daughters: Elizabeth, Magdalena and Margaret. The plantation of 279 acres was devised to Conrad. Philip the eldest son, settled in Tinicum where he died in 1843, leaving a son Philip R. Harpel, county commissioner in 1844; and daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Peter George, Mary Ann, and Margaret, wife of Jacob Wolfinger and another son, Joseph.

Conrad, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, inherited from his father the 280 acre farm in Bedminster and Tinicum, and lived thereon during his long life, dying in 1837. He was a very prominent man, filling the office of justice of the peace for many years, and doing an immense amount of public business, acting as agent, administrator and executor in a large number of estates. He married Lydia ______, born February 3, 1772, died June 25, 1857, and they left to survive them one son and heir, John Harpel.

John Harpel, like his father, was a prominent man in the community, and filled the office of justice of the peace for many years, and was treasurer of Bucks county in 1838. He was born on the old homestead in Bedminster, November 2, 1795, and died there May 20, 1866, and his wife Elizabeth ________, was born March 17, 1799, and died January 13, 1854. He married a second time, shortly before his death, Catharine _______, who survived him. John and Elizabeth Harpel were the parents of six chil-children: Amos, the father of the subject of this sketch, who was born October 25, 1825, and died February 14, 1872; Thomas C., the proprietor of the Ottsville hotel; Samuel, born August 14, 1831, died January 19, 1860; Lydia Ann; Levi, born September 15, 1840, died January 3, 1872; and Sarah.

Amos Harpel was born and reared on the plantation in Bedminster, and purchased it of his father in 1865. He, however, sold the greater part of it in 1867, and in 1869 purchased a farm in Hilltown, and removed there and lived there the remainder of life, dying February 14, 1872, in his forty-seventh year. He married Mary Fulmer and they were the parents of four children: Emma, wife of Lewis Keller, the well-known merchant of Bedminsterville, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Leidy F., a merchant at Church Hill, Bucks county who married Rachel Yost, and has one child, Maggie; Harvey F., the subject of this sketch; and Margaret, wife of Milton Afflerbach.

Harvey F. Harpel, born on the old homestead that had been in the family almost a century at the time of his birth, removed with his parents to Hilltown when a child, and was educated at the public schools there. He remained on the farm until sixteen years of age, and then entered the store of his brother-in-law, Lewis Keller, at Bedminsterville, where he filled the position of a clerk for seven and a half years. In 1888 he started in the mercantile business for himself at South Perkasie, where he still conducts a general merchandise store. He was appointed postmaster in 1889, and is still filling that position. In 1900 he built himself a fine residence at South Perkasie, and in 1901 built a new two and one-half story store building in which he is carrying on a fine business. Like his ancestors, he is a member of the Lutheran church at Tohickon (Church Hill). He married, in 1888, Lavinia C. Atherholt, daughter of Aaron D. and Erma (Strawn) Atherholt.

Text taken from page 404-405

Davis, William W. H., A. M. History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III