Before you chomp into that next apple, pause for a moment to consider Charles Mason Hovey, Cambridge resident and world-renowned pomologist. He co-founded the American Pomological Society and wrote The Fruits of America in an effort to “reduce the chaos of names” and document consistency in naming fruits. As he was remembered:
“Horticulture on this continent is probably more indebted to him than to any living man.”
“The Gardeners’ Monthly and Horticulturist” (Meehan, 1886)
Charles M. Hovey was born on Brookline Street in Cambridge in 1810, the sixth of seven children born to Phineas Brown Hovey (1770-1852) and Sarah Stone (1769-1846). His father’s family first arrived on American shores in 1635, and six generations later Charles’ father was proprietor of a grocery store at the corner of Main and Brookline Streets and an investor in Cambridgeport properties. Phineas Sr. being one of 16 children, Charles had 15 aunts and uncles on his father’s side alone – – which may explain why there are so many Hovey’s in Cambridge. The City Directory for 1848 (the first one available digitally) lists 15 Hoveys. The family included several grocers (including Charles’ brother Josiah Dana Hovey, see below), real estate agents, fire engineers, architects, a carriage smith, and a bacon curer.
An earlier relative, Thomas Hovey, ran the prominent Hovey Tavern in Cambridgeport which was burned down in 1828. The lithograph below, made from a drawing Charles Mason made of the tavern, shows his considerable drafting skills:
Significantly, Charles’ father also owned a large garden, running from Massachusetts avenue at Pearl Street through to Franklin Street.
C. M. Hovey’s formal education appears to have ended with his 1824 Graduation from Cambridge Academy at the age of 14. By his mid- teens he was already enthusiastically gardening in his father’s garden. He took after the 18th century taxonomist Linnaeus, with a scientific approach to his interest, keeping meticulous notes and drawings on species and varieties. He did not want for energy: by age 19 he had a strawberry collection; and by age 24 he had created the first American strawberry derived from crossing varieties. Between 1832 and 1835 he had established his nursery in Cambridge, a seed store in Boston, and the first gardening magazine in America.
HOVEY & CO.
In 1832, at the age of 22, Charles and his brother Phineas Brown Hovey, Jr., (age 29) began their nursery with the purchase of one acre of land in Cambridgeport. Eight years later in 1840 they purchased 40 more acres on Cambridge St. Charles lived next door at 381 Broadway between Fayette and what would become Maple Street. The house/cottage that stood at 381 Broadway at the time Charles Hovey lived there no longer exists. The home was torn down in 1893 to make way for a new house constructed for then-owner owner John McFarlane.
The nursery was divvied up into sections with pears and other fruit trees planted along its interior “lanes.” By 1848 the property included four greenhouses, each of which were 84 feet long. The size of his nursery was so staggering it is difficult to comprehend. The Cambridge Chronicle reported “Of pear trees it shows 1000 health and beautiful specimens growing in avenues, embracing about 400 varieties; while of these trees in stocks and ready purchasers, there are about 50,000. Of peaches, there are some 8,000 trees; of apples 200 varieties, and 30,000 trees for sale; of plums nectarines, apricots, cherries, about an equal number. (July 13, 1848).
Hovey specialized in the hybridization of plants, in particular was camellias. He developed a Camellia Japonica and named it for his wife, the “Mrs. Ann Maria Hovey.”
“…the whole neighborhood is scented with their odor, and an array of smaller flowering plants beautifully arranged the greenhouses and outdoors.” (Cambridge Chronicle July 13, 1848)
The Hovey strawberry, “regarded as the foundation of the New England strawberry industry” was grown on large scale until about 1890. It was “the first American strawberry variety that resulted from a planned cross, and it is an ancestor of most modern varieties.” (University of Vermont)
Apparently, one need not go directly to the nursery to place orders. Here is an unlikely sales agent:
Two years after starting the nursery, in 1834 Hovey and his brother Phineas B. (also a horticulturist) opened
A “Horticultural Seed Store” at 79 & 81 on Cornhill (previously called Market Street) in Boston. It was conveniently located just below the offices of the Mass. Horticultural Society at #81 Cornhill.
Eventually the store moved to 53 North Market Street, opposite Faneuil Hall:
THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
Hovey was a regular exhibitor at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society from as early as 1831, two years after the society was founded. By 1833 he was an official member. He served on numerous committees, in particular the Committee on the Library, and won countless weekly exhibition prizes. He served as President from 1863-1867. During that time, he oversaw the construction of the new hall for the society, laying the cornerstone and dedicating it in 1865 at 100-102 Tremont Street, at the corner of Bromfield St, opposite the Granary Burying Ground:
PUBLICATIONS
America’s first magazine dedicated to horticulture was started by Charles and his brother Phineas Jr. “The American Gardener” appeared on the scene in 1835. Later the name charmingly changed to “The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs.” Hovey remained its editor until 1868 when it ceased publication. (Hutchinson)
Perhaps most impressive is Hovey’s two-volume quarto, The Fruits of America, with luscious chromolithographs by William Sharp which he published between 1848-1856.
FAMILY LIFE
In 1835 Hovey married Ann Marie Chaponil. (1814-1871). The couple had five daughters and one son. Only three of their children survived past the age of 33. Tragedy came to Hovey’s door in the 1870’s when in quick succession he lost his wife to consumption in 1871, two daughters in 1872 (one also of consumption) and a third daughter lost to consumption in 1878. Their son followed in his father’s footsteps and became a horticulturist in California.
THE DEMISE OF THE NURSERY
After Hovey’s death, the nursery was taken over by William E. Doyle (1843-1916), Cambridge democratic politician, alderman and prominent florist in Boston. Recognizing the value of the Hovey name, he referred to Hovey in all advertising, but renamed the nursery “Doyle’s Conservatories,” which he operated at #1509 Cambridge Street until around 1914.
Then, in the 1890’s land on Cambridge Street began to be sold off for residential development. Doyle put through Camellia Avenue on the west of the Hovey estate and Leonard Ave on the east. By 1893 he had built eight houses on Leonard Street, with ten more in the works.
The street names Hovey, Myrtle, Magnolia and Camellia Avenues mark the neighborhood bounds of the nursery. By 1894 the site for the Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables had already been laid out.
In 1895, the Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables was established by the sisters of Charity of Montreal, whose founder was Marguerite d’Youville.
The name evolved over the years to the Youville Hospital, Youville Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, and finally, in 2009, the Spaulding Hospital of Cambridge. Click here to read our blog post and learn about the history of the former Holy Ghost Hospital.
DEATH
Charles Mason Hovey died of heart disease on September 1, 1887
He is buried in Lot 4205 on Mound Avenue in the Mt. Auburn Cemetery
Hovey had been an Honorary member of the Royal Societies of London and of Edinburgh, and President of the Cambridgeport Horticultural Library Association
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer, Kathleen Fox.
SOURCES
“A Taste for Horticulture B. June Hutchinson” Arnold Arboretum
Ancestry.com
Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography
Cambridge Public Library Digital Newspapers and Atlases
Friends of Mount Auburn. 2012. “Charles Mason Hovey (1810 – 1887).” Mount Auburn Cemetery (blog).
January 16, 2012.
Grubinger, Vern. n.d. “History of the Strawberry.” Uvm.Edu.
Hutchinson, B. June. 1980. “A Taste for Horticulture.” Arnoldia 40 (1): 31–48.
Kevles, Daniel J. July/August 2011. “Cultivating Art.” Smithsonian Magazine, July/August 2011.
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and Robert Manning. 1880. History of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society. 1829-1878. Boston, Mass.
Meehan, Thomas. 1886. The Gardeners’ Monthly and Horticulturist.
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Wikipedia
Wilson, James Grant, and John Fiske (eds). 1888. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton & Co.