Medfield’s Most Despicable Character

Like most small towns, Medfield’s history is also filled with unsavory characters, despised by the law-abiding citizenry, but perhaps no one fits this description more than John F. Harvey.

Harvey was born in 1842. It is said that “his early home influence growing up tended to recklessness and at a very early age he took a dislike to honest labor.”

By the time he was a teenager he left home in search of adventure and went to sea. There the negative influence continued as Harvey was soon involved in the illegal but profitable slave trade. While the slave trade, the importation of slaves into the United States, was illegal after 1807, slavery itself was still legal.

The government made half-hearted efforts to stop attempts to bring slaves into the country by ship but for many the illegal importation and sale of slaves continued non-stop. Africans illegally brought to slaveholding states could still legally be sold and enslaved. Penalties merely consisted of fines. With the authorities turning a blind eye and refusing to enforce their own law, the illegal slave trade flourished for several decades leading up to the Civil War. In addition to the illegal importation of slaves, Harvey’s captain and crew resorted to piracy on the high seas, raiding and robbing smaller and unarmed vessels.

When the Civil War broke out in April of 1861, John Harvey was 19 years old. On Feb. 22, 1864, at the age of 22, Harvey enlisted in the 59th Massachusetts, Company G, as a private. Harvey and the Massachusetts 59th were engaged in some of the most horrific battles of the War. Under the leadership of General Grant, the Massachusetts 59th took part in the Battles of The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg.

In the Battle of Cold Harbor, alone, over 7,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded in the first 50 minutes of fighting. It was here that Harvey actually displayed rare courage, valor and discipline, distinguishing himself in battle. All his positive heroics came crashing down, however, on the night of Nov. 30, 1864; while on furlough, he decided he had had enough and he deserted, never to return to the Massachusetts 59th. His war record was now blackened and he was forever labeled a deserter.

Later, after the war was over, Harvey returned to Medfield where he befriended Charles Stain. Stain is an entire story in itself. It is said that Stain, who lived on Philip Street, had his own gang but according to local reports was harmless, probably at worse a petty thief. 

Stain made nationwide headlines in the fall of 1887 and winter of 1888, however, when Boston and New York newspapers picked up on a story surrounding the murder 10 years earlier of J. Wilson Barron, treasurer of the National Bank and State Savings Bank of Dexter, Maine.

The unsolved bank robbery and murder of Barron now suddenly was thrust into the news when Stain son, Charlie and John Harvey testified that David Stain and his gang were the ones responsible for the robbery/murder. It became sensationalism at its worst.

According to the NY World, the story “created a national sensation unequaled by any tragedy since, except the assassination of President Garfield.” Harvey testified that Stain and his gang had terrorized Medfield and the surrounding towns for years.

Said Harvey: “They blew safes open, robbed express offices, broke into stores and dwelling houses and held men up in the road in ‘Hold up your hands!’ style.”

Harvey testified that they robbed the Needham Depot, had broken into a dry goods store in Weymouth where they stole a lot of canvas cloth as well as money and that they had robbed a safe in Mansfield. Harvey and Stain’s son Charlie further testified that David Stain was also responsible for another murder, that of Horatio Messenger of Norfolk. According to Harvey:

“They seized Messenger and demanded him to tell them where his little hoard of money was secreted. He refused to divulge its hiding place, whereupon they beat him terribly, gagged him and bound him with rope to his bed. They proceeded to search the house for the money, and at last found about $1,800. They then went away, and in the morning the old man was found dead, gagged and bound, and everything in the house was turned upside down.”

In 1876, both the hat factory on North Street and the Second Congregational Church (today the United Church of Christ) burnt to the ground. Harvey testified that it was David Stain who torched both buildings in revenge for the minister and hat factory owner speaking out against him terrorizing the town.

 With the testimony from Charlie Stain and John Harvey, David Stain and his son-in-law Oliver Cromwell Smith were charged with the murder of Bank Treasurer J. Wilson Barron.

Despite Medfield testimony that contradicted Harvey’s statements, especially concerning the burning of the church and hat factory, and eye-witness accounts placing David Stain in Medfield on the day of the Barron murder, the Maine jury found them guilty. In 1888, the two were sent to the Maine State Prison at Thomaston. They appealed the decision but it was denied.

 John Harvey died in 1890 and 10 years late in 1900, David Stain’s son Charlie, serving time himself in prison, changed his story and told authorities that he and Harvey had fabricated the entire story. He was feeling guilty and needed to confess. The reason for the lie was perhaps to shift the blame to make David Stain look guilty and take pressure off crimes perhaps committed by themselves.

Further testimony stated that David Stain and Oliver Cromwell Smith were not involved in the many other local accusations, including the Messenger murder in Norfolk. After 13 years in prison, with the new evidence, the two were pardoned on Dec. 31, 1900 by Governor Powers of Maine. By Charlie’s account he and Harvey were in fact liars.

The following obituary was written about John Harvey and appeared in the newspaper when he died in October of 1890:

“Of John F. Harvey who died of heart failure at the Massachusetts General Hospital, it can truly be said, his was a wasted life. His epitaph should be “unwept, un-honored and unsung.” He had a  roving disposition and longing for adventure, and it is no wonder that he became a pirate and a slaver, and finally a burglar and common thief…As a member of the 59th Mass Regiment, he was specially commended for valor and daring, yet he spoiled it all by deserting just before the army was mustered out. Having a fair education and being well read, he applied himself to the study of ways and means of getting a living without work. And it must be allowed that he succeeded admirably, but at the expense of reputation and everything else that people hold dear. His remains were placed in the family lot in Vine Lake Cemetery, Medfield and, by his own request, his relatives were not notified and no service was held. We do not think that the last part of this request should have been complied with. It was heathenish. One of our pastors should have been asked to read the Scripture and offer prayer.”

 John F. Harvey lies today in an unmarked grave in the Harvey family plot in Vine Lake Cemetery that over looks Main Street (Rte. 109). At the time of his death, there was no service, no one was present during the burial except the undertaker and no stone is there today to mark where he lies. He is hidden away from sight but maintaining a depraved and sad reputation that still hangs over him 121 years later.