This was in todays Muskogee Phoenix...ceremony will be March 10th.

For the past 100 years, the body of Lewis Franklin “L.F.” Harvey has lain in and unmarked grave in Greenhill Cemetery.


Monday, that will change. Muskogee’s Fraternal Order of Police purchased the marker that will distinguish Harvey’s grave.

Harvey, 45, was a Muskogee police officer who was killed in the line of duty on March 10, 1908. Monday, a ceremony will be held to place the headstone that will commemorate Harvey’s life and death.

“Someone told me there wasn’t a headstone out there,” said Sgt. Pete Liimatta of the Muskogee Police Department.

The city had purchased a section of four plots at the time of Harvey’s death but no marker was ever placed on his grave, and there are no other graves around Harvey’s, Liimatta said.

“He’s the only person buried there,” he said.

Harvey, who came to Muskogee from New York, had been a firefighter with the Muskogee Fire Department before becoming a police officer.

The Muskogee Police Department, Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department and Muskogee County Emergency Medical Service each will provide honor guards at Monday’s ceremony. Police Chief Rex Eskridge and Fire Chief Derek Tatum will place wreaths, and Police Chaplain Guy Parrish will speak.

Saturday, members of Harvey’s family were located, said Sgt. Bobby Lee.

Three of Harvey’s great-grandchildren, Shirley Roth, Gloria Berner, both of Muskogee and their brother, Jim Hoover of Fort Gibson were located by Lee’s stepfather, Doug Hendricks, who spent the entire morning at the Muskogee Public Library doing research.

“Their great-grandmother, Mary Truber, was married to Mr. Harvey when he got killed,” Lee said of the three siblings.

The siblings were contacted Saturday.

“I’m trying to make arrangements to have them picked up in police cars to attend the ceremony,” Lee said. “They’re real excited.”

Accounts of Harvey’s death in the Muskogee Phoenix and the Muskogee Times-Democrat vary slightly, but both had the basics of the story.

Harvey was working the night beat around 10:50 p.m. He and Jesse G. Cox, a waiter at the Ruby Restaurant, were walking south on North Third Street and were seen entering an alley on the west side of the street just north of what is now Club Lunch.

A few seconds later, Harvey was shot twice by Cox with a .45-caliber revolver. One bullet struck Harvey in or below his right eye, and the other struck him in the abdomen.


Cox, 34, walked to the Ruby Restaurant, 214 W. Broadway (now an empty lot), threw the gun on the counter and told the people there to call the police — he had killed Harvey.

Cox was arrested and appeared in front of a justice of the peace March 12, 1908, for a preliminary hearing. He pleaded not guilty, and Cox was ordered to stand trial. The trial began June 16, 1908.

Cox testified that Harvey had threatened him because Harvey wanted Cox’s girlfriend, believed to be a prostitute, to leave town.

After considerable debate, jurors acquitted Cox.


If you go

WHAT: Ceremony honoring L.F. Harvey

WHERE: Greenhill Cemetery, York and North streets

WHEN: 10 a.m. Monday

Here is a link to a story on the actual ceremony..

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/local_story_071004052.html