Medical History Vignette

Dr. Lewis Johnstone Lovett was born in Kentville in 1867, the son of Henry and Annie (Johnstone) Lovett. After graduating from Acadia University with a BA in 1888, Lewis entered the University of New York Medical School from which he graduated with his MD in 1891. Learning that Dr. Frederick S. Kinsman was moving his practice from Bear River to Digby, Dr. Lovett established a medical practice at Bear River in 1892. In 1896 he married Josephine Marshall, the daughter of Alpheus Marshall, a leading merchant and shipbuilder in Bear River.

As was common to all country doctors, Dr. Lovett’s practice covered a very wide area in western Annapolis County and eastern Digby County. In addition to the village of Bear River, he visited patients in the communities of Clementsvale, Guinea, Greenland, and Victory in the east and Deep Brook, South Range, and Smith’s Cove to the west. He also provided medical attendance to the First Nations community at Bear River and about 200 people in the settlement at Lake Jolly, eight miles south of Bear River, where the Clark Brothers operated a large sawmill and woodworking plant. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Bear River had six shipbuilding yards and six lumber mills and Dr. Lovett was constantly being called upon to treat fractures and cuts to arms and legs and to perform amputations. He represented Digby County in the House of Commons from 1921 to 1925.

Dr. Allen E. Marble
Chair, Medical History Society of Nova Scotia