HENRY O. TOVEY, ENS, USN
Henry Tovey '15
Lucky Bag
From the 1915 Lucky Bag:
Henry Oliver Tovey
Watseka, Illinois
"Hot" "Savvy"
A MAN small in body, but large in both heart and knowledge. A quiet, conservative, lovable type, who would have been in his prime as a confrere of Addison and Congreve. It has been the fortune and misfortune of Henry to toil through three years of writing, correcting, and generally making this Lucky Bag.
Olivay was generally recognized in the beginning of our course here as one of 1915's savoirs, so that studies have offered him no great amount of worry. His good fortune in this respect likewise proved to be the good fortune of his classmates individually and collectively, for it was this that enabled him to devote his time to helping others and to editing this Bag. Not the least of Hot's troubles has been the keeping straight, (to some extent,) of Jack, for four years.
Hot was not able to take the one foreign cruise that his classmates made, on account of a serious illness at the end of his second class year, but he took his adversity with a smile, which is generally characteristic of the man.
No inducement has been great enough to make him blossom out as a fusser, but on his few sallies into the social whirl he has shown great ability in this line. He is far more at home when discussing something serious like Dante's " Inferno" or Dick Merriwell's last game at Fardale.
If he stays in the naval service, success will inevitably crown his efforts, and those of us who are not so fortunate as to be his shipmates will greatly miss one of our classmates who has proven that he can be a sincere friend. Of all the men in 1915 to take up service in the bigger navy this little man will be one of the first to give a good account of himself.
Star (4, 3, 2, 1). Editor-in-Chief Lucky Bag.
Henry Oliver Tovey
Watseka, Illinois
"Hot" "Savvy"
A MAN small in body, but large in both heart and knowledge. A quiet, conservative, lovable type, who would have been in his prime as a confrere of Addison and Congreve. It has been the fortune and misfortune of Henry to toil through three years of writing, correcting, and generally making this Lucky Bag.
Olivay was generally recognized in the beginning of our course here as one of 1915's savoirs, so that studies have offered him no great amount of worry. His good fortune in this respect likewise proved to be the good fortune of his classmates individually and collectively, for it was this that enabled him to devote his time to helping others and to editing this Bag. Not the least of Hot's troubles has been the keeping straight, (to some extent,) of Jack, for four years.
Hot was not able to take the one foreign cruise that his classmates made, on account of a serious illness at the end of his second class year, but he took his adversity with a smile, which is generally characteristic of the man.
No inducement has been great enough to make him blossom out as a fusser, but on his few sallies into the social whirl he has shown great ability in this line. He is far more at home when discussing something serious like Dante's " Inferno" or Dick Merriwell's last game at Fardale.
If he stays in the naval service, success will inevitably crown his efforts, and those of us who are not so fortunate as to be his shipmates will greatly miss one of our classmates who has proven that he can be a sincere friend. Of all the men in 1915 to take up service in the bigger navy this little man will be one of the first to give a good account of himself.
Star (4, 3, 2, 1). Editor-in-Chief Lucky Bag.
Loss
Henry was "lost at sea March 22, 1917, off Cape Cruse" [note: unable to determine where exactly this is; somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, likely near the United States]. He was aboard the battleship USS Maine (Battleship No. 10).
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Henry mostly went by his middle name Oliver. He graduated from Watseka High School in 1910. He visited John Moore in June, and they attended the Western Conference track meet at Urbana.
At one time, Henry was employed with John S. Sheldon of Loda. John’s father, also John S., was engaged in banking and other enterprises. In 1897, he assigned everything to his creditors, and later disappeared from a Chicago hotel. He was declared legally dead in 1909.
In September, 1912, Henry visited John Moore in Champaign, and he also met with the Hon. Joseph G. Cannon at Danville. Cannon was known as “Uncle Joe” Cannon, who had been Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Henry graduated fourth in his class at the Naval Academy.
Henry's father Fred worked in the Farm Loan Department and was also the public administrator and public guardian of Iroquois county. Henry’s mother was Ida. In 1910, his brothers were Fred, who was a steno in a law office, and William who was employed by the census department. Their grandmother Emma Higgins lived with them. In the 1900 census, the last name was misspelled as Touey. His other grandparents were Henry Tovey and Harriet Oliver.
From "Technology's War Record" (Massachusetts Institute of Technology):
Henry Oliver Tovey
Ensign, United States Navy
Born in Watseka, Ill., January 8, 1892.
Prepared at the Watseka High School and was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1915 with distinction.
Entered the Institute in 1916 and attended until December of that year.
Studied in the Course in Naval Architecture.
In December, at his own request, he was assigned to the U.S.S. "Maine." While delirious from fever he wandered about the ship on the night of March 22, 1917, and fell overboard. As the ship was in the submarine zone and was running without lights, it was impossible to rescue him.
He has a memory marker in Illinois.
Photographs
From the 1915 Lucky Bag
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1916
January 1917
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
