Prominent among the practitioners of medicine and surgery in Liberty county is found Dr. John Augustus Lovett, who has been engaged in the practice here since 1898. Although he has reached a high place in his profession and devotes the greater part of his attention thereto, he is almost as equally well known in business circles, being particularly interested in the development of oil fields. He belongs to the class of pushing, virile men who have done so much to promote the welfare of Eastern Texas. Dr. Lovett was born January 14, 1852, in Holmes county, Florida, and is a son of Dr. Thomas Jefferson R. Lovett

Joshua Lovett, the grandfather of Dr. John A. Lovett, was the son of a Welshman who emigrated to America with several brothers. The grandfather was a shoemaker by trade and an emigrant from Georgia to Alabama where he settled at Geneva and there passed the balance of his life working at his trade, bearing the reputation of being a sober, industrious man and steadygoing citizen. He married Miss Covel and they reared a family of children, among them being: Alexander Covel, Thomas Jefferson R., Mrs. Sarah Brigman, Frank, who enlisted in the Confederate army during the Civil war from Louisiana, and subsequently became a school teacher; George, who served in the army of the Gray and met a soldier's death on the battle field; Elmira who married Mr. Broxton and lived in Florida, and one who became the wife of Mr. Creel and spent her life in Florida.

Dr. Thomas Jefferson R. Lovett was born at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1828, received good educational advantages and early chose the profession of medicine for his life work. He was married in Coffey county, Georgia, to Ellen Knight, daughter of Speer Knight, a native of that county, and after their marriage moved to Holmes county, Florida. There they resided until 1855, when they went to Vernon Parish, Louisiana, in which locality Dr. T. J. R. Lovett passed away in 1876, the mother surviving until 1888. They were the parents of two children: Dr. John Augustus, of this notice, and William, who died as a boy in Louisiana in 1866.

Dr. John Augustus Lovett was three years of age when taken by his parents to Vernon Parish, Louisiana. He received his education in the public schools of Pennington, Texas, and began his independent life as a teacher in the public schools of Louisiana. As a youth of seventeen years he commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of his father and subsequently took lecture courses in the University of Alabama, at Mobile, being graduated therefrom March 17, 1876. He immediately entered practice in his home community in Louisiana, but in 1888 came to Hill county, Texas, and opened an office at Abbott, which was his field of endeavor for some ten years, his advent in Liberty occurring in 1898, since which time he has continued to carry on his profession here. Through extensive reading and investigation he keeps in touch with the modern trend of thought, experiment and advancement in the medical profession, and is today recognized as one of the most able and learned physicians in Liberty county. He comes of a democratic family and took the Gold Standard end of that organization when the party split in 1896. He was in the Palmer and Buckner state convention as a delegate from Hill county, and voted for delegate to the national convention. He has served as county health officer in Liberty county, Texas, and in Louisiana he was surgeon for the T. and P. Railway Company. He is local surgeon of the Southern Pacific Railway Company here in Liberty. Dr. Lovett is a Mason and belongs to the Chapter at Dayton. He and his wife are Methodists and were brought up in the faith of that church.

On September 14, 1876, Dr. Lovett was married to Miss Berrilla Word, daughter of James H. and Berrilla (Sanders) Word. Mr. Word was born in Bedford county, Tennessee, and his wife in Barwell District, South Carolina. He was a stockman and died in 1884 in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, where he settled in 1844. Mrs. Word died in 1895 and was the mother of five children, as follows: Hugh W., James H., Thomas, Mrs. Lovett and Samuel, of whom Thomas and Samuel are deceased. Dr. and Mrs. Lovett have the following children: Stella, wife of Jesse Beaver, of Hillsboro, Texas, with a daughter—Helen; Thomas Word, of Cuero, Texas, who married Eloise Lusk, and has. one child—Thomas Lusk, and Miss Berrilla Beatrice, of Liberty, a teacher in the public schools of Dayton.

In the development of this Liberty section for oil Dr. Lovett is president of the West Liberty Oil Company, a director in the Quintett Oil Company and president of the Trinity Oil Company. He was the discoverer of the Patson Oil field of Hardin county and also discovered the Dayton field. He was interested there with the Parafine Oil Company and has holdings in that field at this time. He was the promoter of the First State Bank of Liberty and the first bank to be established at Cleveland, but withdrew from both. He was also the establisher of the first bank at Smiley, Gonzalas county. A glance over his history will show that his life has been one of untiring industry and consecutive progress. Endowed by nature with keen intellectual powers, he has so developed his talents as to grow in usefulness as well as in learning and in a profession which many regard as the most important to which a man can give his energies, he has made for himself a creditable name, gaining a goodly measure of professional and financial success

[Source: "A history of Texas and Texans", Volume 3, By Francis White Johnson, Ernest William Winkler, 1914 - Submitted by K. Torp]