Simeon Hovey M.D. (1763 - 1837)

Born 10 Dec 1763 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut

Ancestors

Died 1 Jul 1837 at age 73 in Armstrong, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

A pioneer medical doctor in Perry Township, Armstrong County, PA, Hovey served as a surgeon with General Anthony Wayne during the Native American Wars which followed the Revolution; and for this service he received Donation Land on the west bank of the Allegheny River, north of present-day Parker, in what is now Hovey Township. He married Mary Ann "Polly" Truby, the widowed youngest daughter of Colonel Christopher Truby and his wife Sybilla Bauman of Greensburg, Westmoreland Co. PA. Although they had no children of their own, Hovey and his wife took responsibility for rearing the six orphaned Rohrer and Marshall children of Polly's sister Catharina Truby Rohrer Marshall, bringing them back to Armstrong County from New Lancaster, Ohio, in 1806.

Hovey served as the namesake for multiple family members and for others in the region, including his "grandsons" Simeon Hovey Robinson (two children of Elizabeth Rohrer Robinson had this name), Simeon Hovey Marshall and Simeon Hovey Bailey.

Note the following, from the chapter entitled PIONEER MEDICAL MEN (Volume I, Chapter 11, page 82); "History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania" by Robert Walter Smith (Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883):

"When Armstrong county was founded in 1800, Dr. Simeon Hovey was the only practicing physician and surgeon within its bounds. Dr. Hovey was a scholarly gentleman, a native of Connecticut, a good physician and a skillful surgeon for his day, and for several years he was the only medical adviser for the northern portions of Armstrong and Butler counties and the greater portion of Clarion and Venango counties. He located in the northern part of the county in 1797, and Hovey township bears his name."

His gravestone gives his date of death as 11 July 1837; however, an obituary in the Kittanning "Gazette and Columbian" dates his death as Saturday, 01 July 1837, As taken from Findagrave.com.

Sources

• The book of Daniel Hovey and His Descendants, page 146
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10686667/simeon-hovey