On 1 January 2023, Harvey annexed parts of five local service districts and devolved to an incorporated rural community;[4][5] revised census figures have not been released.

Harvey Settlement owed its origin to a party of Northumberland and Borders immigrants, recruited for Stanley (a community in York County north of the Saint John River) by the New Brunswick Land Company.

The party of 154 had arrived at Saint John from Berwick-upon-Tweed aboard the Snow Cornelius of Sunderland, and hailed mostly from northern Northumberland, many being from the town of Wooler[6] or its rural environs commonly known as Glendale.

Some friends and close relatives of the Cornelius settlers of 1837 arrived as chain migrants in the community beginning in 1840 (e.g., Briggs, Swan, Craigs, Moffitt), but the numbers were not large.

Other later arrivals, and members of the second settler generation, also obtained lands on the 1,500 acre (6 km2) Simonds and Beauchant tracts that straddled the road between Tweedside and Harvey.

The village's present-day business district was established near the station when hotels were built to accommodate train passengers, as well as several stores and mills to provide goods to people in the area.

A portion of the building was rescued from destruction and moved across Harvey Lake on the ice in winter where it is now a cottage in Herbert Cove.

Only 2 weeks previously on December 17, 1994, Via Rail ran its last passenger train (the Atlantic) through Harvey, after continuous service on the line from Montreal to Saint John from 1889 - 1978 by CPR and from 1978–1981 and since 1985 by Via.