Harvey Jay Parish was born in Taylor County, Iowa on February 5,1862. At four years old he travelled with his mother by rail over the then new Union Pacific railroad to Carney, Nebraska, and from there by stage to join his father at Namaqua, a settlement on the Big Thompson River on the far west side of what is now Loveland, who came ahead of his family the year before.
The family lived in a log cabin on the banks of the river and young Harvey became quite the expert with the rifle. At age 11 he shot and lolled Ills first antelope. As a cow puncher in his boyhood days Harvey rode over every foot of ground between the Big and little Thompson rivers. Often, he stood on what is known as the twin mounds and with a spy glass in hand viewed the scene when there was nothing to mar the view over the brown prairies except herds of cattle and horses and bands of antelope.
