THE AMERICAN PROGENITORS OF JOSEPH GRAFTON HOVEY

by his 2^nd Great Grandson,

Steven James Hovey

INTRODUCTION

During much of 1997 and the early part of 1998 I was instrumental in gathering personal histories and life stories written by many of my relatives for the purpose of compiling them in an electronic format. This task seemed prudent because the originals which I used as a source were in various stages of disrepair, many being old mimeograph copies which had become quite faded through the years since they were originally written for family reunions. My final efforts included the transcription of the works performed by my grandfather, Merlin Ross Hovey, to record the lives of his father and grandfather, respectively, James Alma Hovey and Joseph Grafton Hovey.

In September of 1934, M. R. Hovey wrote his biographical sketch of James Alma Hovey. During that same month, he donated the original hand-written Biography and Journal of Joseph Grafton Hovey to the Church Historian's Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for its archives. Prior to making this submission, he made a transcript of this record for his posterity. Finally, my grandfather arranged in 1952 to have this transcript re-typed by Fern Maxine Smith Hovey, my mother, prior to its publication and binding. Since 1952, this bound version has been photocopied and passed around repeatedly. In the early 1990's I obtained a copy of the Biography and Journal of Joseph Grafton Hovey in electronic format from another distant cousin. This copy was fragmented into four files. I have since reformatted the files, merged them, and translated them into a more up-to-date version for word processing. It was then that I discovered that the final 40 pages of text had never been typed. Now the work is complete and restored to the format in which it was typed on a typewriter back in 1952 -- only this time it is in a word processor.

My grandfather's work was not limited to the exact words that Joseph Grafton Hovey wrote. Among other things he included was an introduction to the book -- a section containing information from The Hovey Book. The Hovey Book describes the English Ancestry and American Descendants of Daniel Hovey of Ipswich, Massachusetts. The book was compiled and published in 1914 under the auspices of the Daniel Hovey Association, which is now defunct. M. R. Hovey's introduction only included a brief 2-page sketch outlining Joseph Grafton Hovey's ancestry.

Over the past few years I have obtained a copy of The Hovey Book, which has been out of print for decades. Following the completion of the work described above, I felt that it would be a valuable addition to what has already been completed to pick up where my grandfather left off and share with readers more detail regarding Joseph Grafton Hovey's ancestry, as supplied by the Hovey Book. Rather than transcribe the text of the Hovey Book, word-for-word, I have attempted to soften the prose which was used in the writing of the Hovey Book and add definitions to terms which were still in use at the turn of the 19^th Century when the Hovey Book was being written, but which is lost to common use today as we near the beginning of the 21^st Century.

I feel that some observations which I have made during all of this research is important to mention. Families often have their own petty jealousies, prejudices, disputes and biases. Usually these are only considered to be a problem of immediate or near-immediate families. However, in my study of the Hovey Book, I have found that certain prejudices can carry over through many generations and often color the objectivity of researchers doing the work on their own family lines. (Perhaps this speaks for the value of having researchers who are not family members and have no vested interest in perpetuating prejudices.) I have found that the accuracy and thoroughness of the records presented is often limited to New England descendants of Daniel Hovey. As his descendants began moving west, the records often become very limited in providing accurate or complete information about these children. In the instance of those who chose to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and migrate west, mention of this fact is conspicuously absent from the record. (Keep in mind that Joseph Grafton Hovey was not the only sibling of his immediate family to join the LDS Church. No doubt there were also others from other Hovey families who may have joined since then, as well.) With this observation, it is also important to note two facts relevant to the context of the time of the writing of The Hovey Book. First, it was prepared by Hoveys who were the elite of Boston society, many of whom were clergy in Protestant churches. Finally, the feeling among the general public relating to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the time the Hovey Book was written was still quite low. The collective memory of the national debates on the Church's former practice of Polygamy was still very current in the minds of the public at large. Nevertheless, there is still much of value from this book.

I have chosen to begin the narrative with the family of Joseph Grafton Hovey as a child, his father being Deacon Thomas Hovey.