Alva Review-Courier -

As we saw in a previous article, each U.S. territory elects a delegate to the United States House of Representatives. These delegates serve on committees and participate in debates but they are not allowed to vote. Currently, we have six such non-voting delegates in Congress.

Some (but not all) U.S. states were territories before attaining statehood. Such was the case with Oklahoma, which became a territory in 1890 and remained so for 17 years. During that time, four men served as Oklahoma’s delegate to the U.S. House.

Interestingly, Indian Territory was never allowed to have a Congressional delegate. The U.S. government was not interested in Native Americans (who were not considered citizens and, therefore, could not vote) having a voice in Congress.

The first delegate to Congress from Oklahoma Territory was David Archibald Harvey. A Republican, he was elected in November 1890 to serve for the last four months of the Congress then in session and for a full two-year term thereafter.

Thus, Harvey served from Nov. 4, 1890, until March 3, 1893. He ran for re-election in 1892 but was defeated in the Republican primary.

An interesting fact about Harvey is that he was a naturalized citizen, having been born in the small town of Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, Canada, in March 1845. His family moved to Ohio in 1852 and young David grew up there.

In September 1861, five months after the start of the Civil War, 16-year-old David Harvey enlisted in the Union Army and served until the war ended in April 1865.

After the war, Harvey studied law and passed the Ohio bar exam in 1868. He relocated to Kansas the next year. From 1871 to 1881 he was the city attorney of Topeka; from 1881 to 1889 he was a county judge.

Harvey moved to Oklahoma in 1889 and claimed some land near Oklahoma City during that year’s land run. The following year, he was elected to Congress. We will look further at David Harvey’s life and career next week in Part 2 of this story.