A familiar figure in South Ambler's Italian community, Doctor Mary, as she is known, is exhausted, but pleased to have saved the life of Domenic, the only child of Antonio and Maria. In spite of the language barrier, she is able to show Maria how to sponge her little boy's face and bathe him in lukewarm water at regular intervals.

The year is 1901, and now, with the sun still not able to reach over the tall buildings, Doctor Mary emerges from the modest home of one of the immigrant workers to find her horse and buggy have been brought to the front of the house from blacksmith Edward Berry's stable. Assured by the doctor that their son will be well again, Antonio shows his appreciation by placing a sack of hot peppers and tomatoes on the seat beside her. This is payment for the doctor's watch through the night which resulted in breaking the fever that made him well again. He wanted so much to give her a small bottle of his home-made dandelion wine but felt it might not be a proper gift for this little Quaker lady.

Antonio now enters his home to find Maria preparing a hearty breakfast. Another day is dawning in South Ambler and soon he will be at work in Doctor Mattison's paper plant just minutes away from home.

Italian men on their way to work at the plant tip their hats in respect to the little doctor in black, well-known in their community. Crossing the railroad that separates the Italian settlement from the rest of Ambler, she heads for her Butler Avenue home. Her children will be up by now, preparing for school. Fortunately, husband Dr. Charles Hough was able to be with them while she was at her patient's bedside. On those nights when both parents are called out, a nurse is available to care for the children. Driving to the carriage house behind their home, she turns over horse and buggy to stable boy Jeff Carr.

Both Mary and Charles took interest in providing medical care for the poor in Ambler, often receiving only a dollar or less. Fresh-picked produce, a dozen eggs still warm from the nest, or even a live chicken, were not unusual as payment.

Mary P. Hallowell was born in 1858 in Horsham Township, where her ancestors had settled in 1724. Here she attended the Friends' School. Graduating from Swarthmore College in 1878, she entered Women's Medical College in Philadelphia, receiving her diploma in 1881. Following graduation, she interned at Staten Island Hospital in New York for six months. Mary was one of the first female physicians in Montgomery and Bucks Counties.

Following her 1887 marriage to Charles B. Hough, the couple resided in their brand new Ambler home on Butler Avenue in "Doctors' Row". Here they practiced medicine together, raising their four children, William, Israel, Margaret and Tacy. After practicing for fifty years, Doctor Mary retired in 1931. Although continuing to see some patients after retirement, she was able to spend more time in research for her second love, an intense interest in preserving the early history of Ambler and vicinity. At first just a hobby, this developed into a strong desire to preserve all this for posterity. Largely through the efforts of Harry Hellar Kelly, publisher of the Ambler News, she was persuaded to furnish her stories in serial form in his newspaper for about a year. The popularity of these articles led to the publication in 1936 of her 54-page book "Early History of Ambler 1682-1888". This has proven to be an extremely valuable source of material concerning Ambler's early years, and the most comprehensive compilation of local early history ever written. Years of research are represented in this popular book.

In 1941, having contributed much as both physician and historian, Doctor Mary Hough became ill while vacationing at Cape May. She died soon after at the Hospital of Women's Medical College at the age of 83 years.