Albion Interactive History / People

Dr. Horace May Hovey, 1815
 
    Died 1877

Memories
Dr. Horace May Hovey
By May Hovey Lamastus

My father, Dr. Horace May Hovey was born in Chautauqua County, New York, March 22, 1815, and was married to my mother, Caroline M. Grosvenor, April 16, 1837. They came to Michigan in May, 1837, and settled at “The Forks” (Albion). My father practiced medicine here until his death, January 18, 1877. My mother was born in Canandaigua, New York August 13, 1818, and died in Albion December 19, 1903.

The early settlers endured many hardships and often would have suffered the lack of food, if the Indians had not supplied them with wild game and fruits. The early pioneers had a garden near where the market place is and each family had their space in it to raise vegetables.

My mother attended several course of medical lectures with my father and when he was making his calls, often she would prescribe for his office patients. She often went and cared for my father’s patients when very ill, as there were no nurses, and often several members of a family would be ill at the same time. She loved to care for the sick, and often helped prepare the dead for burial as there were no undertakers here in the early days of Albion.

Other physicians in 1844 were Doctors Osborne (Mrs. F.M. Northwood’s father), Crosby, Van Ostrand, Tuttle, Stoddard, Wilbery, and Collins. I am not sure whether Dr. Wheelock was still practicing or had retired.

Source: Krenerick, Miriam. Albion’s Milestones and Memories. Albion, MI: Art Craft Press. 1932. 80