*Post written by James Wethington, library assistant of the University Archives and Special Collections.

Photograph was taken in 1849.

Born in Mt. Vernon in 1821, his parents died when he was young; however, he studied law and passed the bar in 1843.  He served in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War and American Civil War.  His career grew when Hovey was elected as a delegate for the Constitutional Convention in 1850 for Indiana’s new constitution.  He would go on to be an Indiana Supreme Court Justice (1854-1855), US Ambassador to Peru (1866-1870), US House Representative for Indiana (1887-1889), and Governor of Indiana (1889-1891). He died during his term as governor on November 23, 1891.