Dr. Clayton Augustus Hoover
Information comes from Treasured Tidbits of Time Volume I by Jens Patrick Wilde
Dr. C A Hoover arrived in Bear Lake in 1882 and became the first permanent doctor of the valley. On July 28, 1882, four days after Dr. Hoover arrived, the railroad reached Montpelier. Hoover was well trained and the first surgeon in all of southeastern Idaho. He soon established a drugstore on the southeast corner of Lincoln and 4th street where it remained until 1891. At that time Hoover built a new drugstore on the corner of Washington between 8th and 9th. In the new building he also included a two room office and four beds for patients who needed to recover from minor operations.
Hoover was an extremely popular man and a top community supporter, as well as an excellent doctor. He traveled many miles on the railroad serving patients from Evanston to Pocatello. He served on the first village board in Montpelier, was the first county physician, a position he held for 24 years with the exception of a portion of a year when Dr. Warren West of Paris took over.
During those thirteen years Dr. Hoover had to contend with 13 major outbreaks of small pox, diphtheria, typhoid, cholera and measles. Three times the entire county was under quarantine and 17 times different portions of the valley were closed to all traffic. Severe episodes of diphtheria broke out in 1881 and again in 1883 just shortly after the good doctor arrived. The 1883 was considered to be the worst in the history of the valley. It was costly to the doctor in that his wife contracted the disease and died. Again in 1887 the disease broke out taking 22 lives in a two month period. During the 1883 time, Hoover had 31 cases under quarantine and doubly stressed because of his own wife's death from diphtheria and the responsibility of caring for his young son.
After the turn of the century, a variety of doctors arrived in Bear Lake and some proved to be excellent and well trained. At first the only communities that obtained the services of reliable doctors were Montpelier and Paris, but before long the other communities also had them.
Dr. Hoover never refused a call from a sick person and drove though wind, rain or snow all over Bear Lake Valley.
Dr. Hoover was born in 25 Feb 1853 in Washington DC, the son of William Hoover and Elizabeth Hough. He received his medical training from the George Washington School of Medicine and the Columbia Medical University in 1875. He married his first wife Johanna in Washington DC. He married his second wife Bessie R Brown 17 July 1894 in Liberty. He died in Blackfoot Idaho 29 Nov 1929 where he had served as superintendent of the Blackfoot State Hospital for several years.
Children of Dr. Clayton Augustus Hoover and Johanna E
1. Edward C Hoover b-Dec 1876 in Washington DC
2. Alfred Milton Hoover b-2 Apr 1884 in Montpelier; d-18 Jan 1952 in Emmett,
Idaho
Children of Dr. Clayton Augustus Hoover and Bessie Brown
1. Stewart W Hoover b-July 1895 in Montpelier;
d-1 Mar 1918 in WWI; br-St Mihiel Cemetery in France
2. Phyllis Hoover b-Jan 1898 in Montpelier
3. Clayton B Hoover b-31 Dec 1899 in Montpelier; d-27 Jan 1954 in Los Angeles
4. Moss G Hoover b-8 Jan 1910 in Blackfoot Idaho; d-6 Dec 1978 in Boise