BIO: Michael L. Hoover, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

                              CHAPTER LVI.

                        SILVER SPRING TOWNSHIP.

540  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  DR. MICHAEL L. HOOVER, P. O. Mechanicsburg.  The grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch lived in this county in an early day, and was a 
farmer and land-holder.  He married Miss Catharine Wonderlick, of 
Cumberland County, and had five children:  John, Elizabeth, Annie, Mary 
and Catharine.  He was a member of the Lutheran church.  John Hoover, 
his son, was born in this county in 1787, and married Lydia Leidig, of 
Lebanon County, Penn.  He was a farmer, a member of the Lutheran 
Church, and lived in the old homestead until his death, which occurred 
in his thirty-fourth year.  His widow lived to be seventy-seven.  To 
them were born four children:  Michael L., John L., Sarah A., and Sarah 
E.  Our subject, who was born in 1820, on the old homestead in this 
county, when young, learned the carpenter's trade. In 1844 he married 
Miss Mary, daughter of John W. and Catharine M. Millisen, of Dauphin 
County, Penn., and after marriage he began farming.  To this union were 
born ten children:  Anna C., Myers J., Eva J., Adams A., Sarah E., 
Margaret A., Laura V., John W., Clara A. and George M.  Mr. Hoover had 
sad trouble in raising his children, eight having sickened and died in 
early life.  The physicians employed were powerless to save them, and 
this determined Mr. Hoover to study medicine himself, to save the 
remainder of his family, if possible.  He bought medical books and 
studied hard, and in his own family became successful.  His friends and 
neighbors then pressed him to treat them, and gradually he gained a 
regular practice.  He never attended a medical school, though after he 
attained success he was urged to do so, and was offered a diploma if he 
would attend medical lectures for a short time.  Having gained his 
medical knowledge by his unaided efforts he preferred to continue in 
his own way, as he was uniformally successful.  The people had 
confidence in him, and his success justified his ideas.  His son, John 
W., married Miss Alice L., daughter of Isaac Sadler, of Carlisle, 
Penn.; Laura V. married George W. Hoover, of Churchtown, son of Jacob 
Hoover (have two children:  Guy H. and Frank J.); the youngest son of 
our subject, George M., is a student at Franklin and Marshall College, 
Lancaster, Penn.