Harvey Wesley Hardy (October 29, 1825 â January 10, 1913) was an American politician who served as the seventh mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1877 to 1879.
Harvey Wesley Hardy was born on October 29, 1825, to Samuel Hardy and Polly Parker in Perry, New York, and his family moved to Gainesville, New York, in 1830. Hardy attended public schools until he was seventeen, then attended Wesleyan Seminary, and graduated from Genesee Community College. Afterwards, he became superintendent of schools in Gainesville and then Wyoming county superintendent. On June 6, 1855, he married Charlotte Abbott and would later have four children with her. In 1868, he moved to Aurora, Illinois, and then moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1870, where he operated furniture businesses in both places.
Hardy joined the Whig Party and later joined the Republican Party shortly after it was founded. In 1877, he was elected as mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, and then again in 1878, donating his first $300 municipal salary to fund the Lincoln Public Library. During his tenure as mayor, he created a $1,000 liquor license fee. During the 1884 presidential election, he joined the Prohibition Party and supported former Kansas Governor John St. John. In 1884, he ran for the Nebraska Senate and for governor in 1886 with the Prohibition nominations. During the 1896 presidential election he supported William Jennings Bryan.
Hardy died in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 10, 1913.