By Brete Murphy · November 9, 2026
Twice Master of Cornucopia Lodge and also a member of Mizpah, George U. Harvey brought public officials into a Flushing lodge room before becoming Queens’ borough president. His story joins military service, combative politics and a Masonic life remembered by both lodges at his death.
← Queens History Blog · Cornucopia Lodge No. 563: Lodge History · Related: Garret J. Garretson of Mizpah Lodge
On Monday evening, April 8, 1946, more than five hundred people gathered at the Reformed Church at Roosevelt Avenue and Bowne Street in Flushing for Masonic rites honoring George U. Harvey and Dr. Joseph N. Wickham.
The service belonged to two lodges.
Mizpah Lodge No. 738 of Elmhurst and Cornucopia Lodge No. 563 of Flushing sponsored it jointly. William F. Schweitzer, Mizpah’s secretary, conducted the service, with Frank Cromley of Cornucopia serving as chaplain.
Both men being remembered had belonged to both lodges.
Harvey had also served twice as Master of Cornucopia.
By his death, Queens knew him as a decorated soldier, a combative alderman and the borough president who had held office from 1928 to 1941. The Masonic record supplies another view of that public life.
It places him in the East at Flushing, arranging an evening in which borough officials explained their work to the brethren.
It places him speaking before other lodges and appearing among Queens Masons outside the meeting room.
And at the end, it places the two lodges together, conducting the old service for a man whose public offices had not displaced his fraternal affiliations.
From Galway to the Confectionery Trade
George Upton Harvey was born in County Galway, Ireland, on August 15, 1881.
His family moved to Chicago when he was a child.
His father, Thomas F. Harvey, founded The International Confectioner, a trade publication for the candy business. George worked in that world before taking up work as a correspondent and photographer for an Army and Navy journal.
When Thomas Harvey died in 1923, the New York Times identified him as the father of “Alderman George U. Harvey, of Flushing.”
By then, the son’s public identity was firmly attached to Queens.
Flushing remained his home through much of his political career. Newspaper references place him on Myrtle Avenue in the late 1920s and later on 32nd Avenue.
Cornucopia’s temple on Northern Boulevard belonged to the same local landscape.
The lodge was not simply an organization reached through a distant address. It was part of the community in which he lived and held office.
Read Cornucopia Lodge No. 563: Borrowed Aprons and the Making of Flushing →
Seven Men and a Machine-Gun Position
Harvey served in France as a captain commanding Company A of the 308th Infantry, 77th Division.
The action for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross took place near the Vesle River on August 23, 1918.
According to the military citation identified in the author’s research, he led a patrol of seven men against a machine-gun position under heavy fire. The attack resulted in the capture of two machine guns and a prisoner.
The supplied citation account states that all seven men accompanying him were wounded.
A later New Yorker profile gives a different casualty description. The accounts should not be silently combined.
The essential point is the documented recognition of Harvey’s leadership under fire.
The decoration was presented in April 1929, after he had become borough president. Newspaper reports describe Major General Hanson E. Ely presenting it on Governors Island, with Harvey then identified as a major in the Infantry Reserve.
Later memorial references used the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Those titles belong to different stages of his military association. His rank during the 1918 action was captain.
The Alderman in the East
After the war, Harvey took a position with the State Income Tax Bureau in Jamaica.
In 1921, he won election to the Board of Aldermen as a Republican from Queens.
The following year, he served as Master of Cornucopia Lodge.
His civic and Masonic roles met in an unusually direct way.
In March 1922, responding to the Grand Lodge’s encouragement of instructive meetings, Harvey arranged “Queens Public Servants’ Night.”
He invited borough officials to the Flushing Masonic Temple.
The newspaper reports named Deputy Police Commissioner John Anderson Leach, magistrates, Municipal Court Justice John Hetherington, the sheriff, the commissioner of public works, another alderman, a Board of Education member and the officer responsible for the police telegraph bureau in Queens.
Each explained the work of his office.
It was a civics lesson delivered through introductions, not an abstract lecture on government.
The Master was also an alderman. His invitation brought officials into a room where the brethren could hear what those offices did.
The event does not establish that the lodge endorsed Harvey’s party or political program.
It does show a specific use of his position in the East: assembling public servants and making their responsibilities the evening’s subject.
Read Brother John Anderson Leach of Advance Lodge No. 635 →
A Second Term as Master
Harvey served again as Cornucopia’s Master in 1925, according to the lodge information supplied by the author.
That was also the year he ran unsuccessfully for president of the Board of Aldermen.
His political voice was already combative.
Newspaper coverage followed his attacks on Mayor John F. Hylan’s taxicab proposals and his description of the police commissioner as “the little Czar of Centre Street.”
His Masonic appearances continued after his second year in the East.
In April 1926, a newspaper announced that Worshipful George Harvey of Cornucopia would address Service Lodge at a communication in the same Flushing temple.
The notice establishes the planned appearance. It does not supply a full account of the address or its subject.
It nevertheless places him within the network of lodges sharing the building.
Read Service Lodge No. 1009: Flushing, Charity and a Shared Masonic Home →
Smokers, Sewers and a Special Election
Masonic buildings also accommodated political organizations outside lodge meetings.
In early 1928, the Hollis Republican Club held a smoker in Harvey’s honor at the Masonic Temple on 191st Street.
Harvey and his counsel spoke about “the sewer situation.”
The phrase referred to the scandal surrounding Queens sewer contracts that ended Maurice Connolly’s long tenure as borough president and led to his imprisonment.
Harvey was a prominent participant in the campaign against the administration.
His newspaper appearances that spring included complaints about opposition within Queens Republican circles to the inquiry.
A June notice also announced him as a speaker before Cambridge Lodge.
These events should remain distinct.
A Republican club’s use of a Masonic building does not make the gathering a lodge function. An announced lodge address does not establish its content without a report or text.
Together, the references show the settings through which Harvey’s public career moved.
In November 1928, he won the special election to complete Connolly’s term.
He was Queens’ first Republican borough president since the 1898 consolidation of New York City.
He won again in 1929, 1933 and 1937.
A Borough President in a Changing Queens
Harvey’s years in office coincided with major changes in the borough.
The parkways, the Whitestone Bridge, the airport at North Beach and the 1939 World’s Fair reshaped its transport connections and public landscape.
He supported bringing the fair to Queens.
These projects involved many officials, agencies and sources of funding. Their occurrence during his administration should not become a claim that he alone conceived or delivered them.
The borough presidency placed him within the government of that transformation.
It also gave greater visibility to his political language.
His opposition to Tammany was part of his public identity. His anti-Communism included rhetoric that contemporary critics described as advocating violence.
That record belongs in the biography alongside military distinction and public office.
The Rhetoric That Drew Criticism
In January 1938, journalist Karl Schriftgiesser criticized Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for endorsing Harvey in the preceding campaign.
Writing in The Atlantic, he described Harvey as a reactionary and stated:
“Mr. Harvey is the man who openly advocates the driving out of Communists at the end of a rubber hose.”
The sentence is Schriftgiesser’s contemporary characterization. It is not a transcript of a speech reproduced in this article.
It nevertheless documents a serious criticism made during Harvey’s public career: that his anti-Communism extended beyond political opposition into advocacy of coercion.
The lodge record does not resolve that controversy.
His Masonic affiliations should not be used to excuse the rhetoric, nor should his personal statements automatically be attributed to either lodge.
The biography requires both distinctions.
Harvey held offices in public life and in Masonry. Neither record erases the other.
[Read Karl Schriftgiesser’s “Portrait of a Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia” →](Portrait of a Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia
Portrait of a Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia By Karl Schriftgiesser
The Atlantic covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more, through its articles, podcasts, videos, and flagship magazine.
Among the Queens Brethren
The public man did not appear at every Masonic occasion.
When Queens Masons gathered at the Hotel Pennsylvania for their charity ball in November 1929, newspaper coverage noted that Borough President Harvey was absent, “although a member of Cornucopia Lodge.”
The observation establishes an absence, not its motive.
Two months later, a Brooklyn Daily Times photograph showed him with a party of Queens Masons departing on a Bermuda tour.
The two notices supply ordinary contrasts in a life otherwise dominated by campaigns and disputes.
Sometimes the borough president did not attend.
Sometimes he appeared among the brethren on a journey.
Membership continued through those smaller occasions as well as the formal offices.
Defeat and Retirement
Harvey lost the borough presidency to James A. Burke in 1941.
He retired to a farm at New Milford, Connecticut.
The obituary accounts describe his unsuccessful attempt to return to Army service during the Second World War, his service as a private in the Connecticut State Guard and his work as a welfare officer for a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
On April 6, 1946, he helped fight a brush fire near his home.
He suffered a heart attack and died that afternoon, aged sixty-four.
His body returned to Flushing.
Two Lodges Conduct the Rites
The Masonic service on April 8 honored Harvey and Dr. Joseph N. Wickham, a Flushing surgeon who had died the same Saturday.
Both had belonged to Mizpah and Cornucopia.
William F. Schweitzer conducted the rites with Frank Cromley serving as chaplain.
The American Legion’s Queens commander followed with the Legion’s service.
The following afternoon, about five hundred mourners attended Harvey’s funeral at St. George’s Episcopal Church on Main Street, with others outside.
Borough President Burke was among them.
At Flushing Cemetery, members of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post fired three volleys.
The newspaper accounts describe his widow, Gladys Peck Harvey, accompanied by family members.
The services gathered several identities around the same death: soldier, public official, family member and brother of two lodges.
The joint Masonic arrangement was not merely a decorative addition to a political funeral.
It reflected affiliations the two institutions recognized as their own.
What the Lodge Record Adds
Queens remembers Harvey in a Whitestone playground and in a memorial associated with Lost Battalion Hall.
Those commemorations emphasize public service and military identity.
The Masonic notices add another set of scenes.
They show an alderman presiding in the East, officials explaining their duties to the brethren, a proposed visit to another lodge and two organizations conducting his rites together.
They do not supply a complete account of his beliefs or establish that his conduct always matched a fraternal ideal.
Their value is more specific.
They place the public man inside institutions that formed part of his local life.
In 1922, Harvey brought public servants into Cornucopia’s room and asked them to explain their work.
In 1946, Cornucopia and Mizpah came together to conduct the service for him.
Between those evenings lay a contentious public career. The lodge record does not smooth it away.
It gives the biography another room in which to examine it.
Sources and Research Notes
1. Lodge Membership and Offices
Cornucopia Lodge No. 563 and Mizpah Lodge No. 738 membership information supplied by Brete Murphy.
The supplied information identifies Harvey as:
- A member of both lodges.
- Master of Cornucopia in 1922.
- Master of Cornucopia again in 1925.
Direct register references and archival links were not supplied.
The joint 1946 rites provide additional contemporary evidence of the relationship between the two lodges and the men commemorated.
2. Early Life and Public Career
NYC Parks, “Harvey Park: George U. Harvey Playground”.
Supports the outline of his Irish birth, childhood move to Chicago, family trade-publication background, military service, tax-bureau appointment and electoral career.
New York Times, August 23, 1923: Thomas F. Harvey obituary.
The precise birth date follows the author’s supplied biographical research.
3. Military Service and Decoration
Distinguished Service Cross citation, War Department General Orders No. 12, 1929, identified in the author’s research through Military Times Hall of Valor and Home of Heroes.
Exact recipient-page URLs were not supplied.
New York Times, March 22 and April 20, 1929.
Support the award and presentation sequence.
“On the Up,” The New Yorker, May 1930.
Provides a contemporary profile and account of the action, but differs from the supplied citation summary regarding casualties among the seven men.
The article does not combine those conflicting details. The official citation should control once checked directly.
4. Queens Public Servants’ Night
- Brooklyn Daily Times, March 31, 1922: “Flushing Masons Hear Talks by Queens Officials.”
- Brooklyn Eagle, March 31, 1922: “Officials Attend Meeting.”
Support the event, Harvey’s role and the participating officials.
The meeting is not treated as evidence of a lodge endorsement of his party.
5. The 1925 Political Controversies
New York Times, March 22 and 24, and July 12, 1925.
Support the taxicab and police-commissioner disputes.
6. Service Lodge Appearance
Brooklyn Daily Times, April 25, 1926: “Service Lodge to Hear Harvey.”
An advance announcement. A report of the completed appearance would strengthen the account.
7. The 1928 Campaign and Other Appearances
- The Chat, March 3, 1928: Hollis Republican Club smoker.
- Brooklyn Eagle, June 4, 1928: Cambridge Lodge appearance.
- New York Times, April 11, July 11, November 7 and 17, 1928: inquiry and election coverage.
Political-club use of a Masonic building is distinguished from a lodge-sponsored event.
8. Political Criticism
[Karl Schriftgiesser, “Portrait of a Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia,” The Atlantic, January 1938](Portrait of a Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia
Portrait of a Mayor: Fiorello La Guardia By Karl Schriftgiesser
The Atlantic covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more, through its articles, podcasts, videos, and flagship magazine.
The article quotes Schriftgiesser’s characterization of Harvey’s rhetoric and identifies it as such.
The original research also names “Germany: Hitler v. Everybody,” Time, May 3, 1937. Its specific claims concerning German press coverage are not repeated here without a directly checked text.
9. Masonic Social Notices
- Brooklyn Daily Times and Brooklyn Eagle, November 23, 1929: Queens Masonic Association charity ball.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, January 21, 1930: “Queens Masons Start on Trip to Bermuda.”
The 1929 absence is not assigned a motive.
10. Defeat and Death
- New York Times, November 5, 1941.
- New York Times, April 7, 1946.
- Daily News, April 7 and 8, 1946.
Support the electoral defeat, retirement, later service and death.
11. Masonic Rites and Funeral
- Brooklyn Eagle, April 9 and 10, 1946.
- Daily News, April 8, 1946.
Support the joint rites, participating lodge officers, Legion service, church funeral and cemetery observances.
Attendance figures are newspaper estimates.
The detailed identification of individual family members should be checked against the original notices before expanding the family section. The supplied research also includes a February 10, 1946 wedding notice that may help clarify the family chronology.
12. Public Memorials
NYC Parks, George U. Harvey Playground history.
The author’s research also identifies the Lieutenant Colonel George U. Harvey Memorial Plaque at Lost Battalion Hall Recreation Center, dedicated October 7, 1946.
A direct plaque-history link was not supplied.
A Note on Interpretation
The connection between public office and lodge service is the article’s organizing interpretation.
The documented 1922 event occurred while Harvey was an alderman and Master, not borough president.
Military bravery, political office and lodge membership are treated as separate aspects of his life.
His political rhetoric is not attributed to Cornucopia or Mizpah without evidence that either lodge adopted it.
The joint funeral rites establish institutional participation at his death; they do not, by themselves, prove the nature or intensity of every earlier affiliation.
Continue Reading
- Cornucopia Lodge No. 563: Borrowed Aprons and the Making of Flushing
- Garret J. Garretson: First Master of Mizpah Lodge No. 738 and the Judge Queens Would Not Let Go
- Brother John Anderson Leach of Advance Lodge No. 635
- Service Lodge No. 1009: Flushing and Masonic Charity
- The Lodges That Built Queens: Series Overview
← Cornucopia Lodge No. 563 · Related: Garret J. Garretson · Queens History Blog →
