Memoir Summary
This is the never-before-seen memoir of the U.S. Navy surgeon Charles Thomas Hibbett (1851-1930), who served from 1875 to 1913. Though this was ostensibly written for his daughter Alice, about age 23 at the time, Dr. Hibbett occasionally addresses "the reader." His first wife, Florence Wilson of Petersburg, died in September of 1892 when Alice was less than one year old. No mention is made of Alice's care or living situation during Hibbett's extended absences. He did not remarry for several years; his second wife, Gladys McDow (1883-1974), of Nashville was some 30 years his junior. The document was only recently discovered, and has been contributed to the U.S. Naval Institute Memoir Collection by the descendants of Dr. Hibbett. More details on him follow: Charles Thomas Hibbett was born in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, on 23 November 1851. He attended the University of Virginia and Jefferson Medical College, obtaining an M.D. degree. He served in the US Navy as a surgeon from 1875 until 1913. He died 30 March 1930. He was married in 1886 to Florence Wilson of Petersburg (1866-1892). Their daughter and only child Alice Coke was born 3 November 1891 in Norfolk. Alice married Henry Edwards Mecredy of Roanoke on 29 September 1914 at Farmville, Virginia. Her only child, Henry Edwards Mecredy Jr., was born 2 June 1916 (died 8 September 2006). Alice died on 14 April 1919 in the postwar influenza pandemic.
