Houle, Emile Cyrus

Emile Cyrus Houle was born June 5th, 1881 in Michigamme, Michigan and graduated, M. D., from the University of Michigan in 1904. Following brief stays at the Tamarack Hospital in Calumet, Michigan and the Mohak and Wolverine mines in Kearsarge, Michigan as Assistant Surgeon from 1904-1905 and 1905-1907 respectively, Houle became the Assistant Surgeon of the Sud Pacifico (S. P.) de Mexico Railroad Company on the west coast of Mexico in 1907 where he worked under George Emory Goodfellow, M. D. Over the next 10 years, Houle advanced from Assistant Surgeon to Chief Surgeon of the S. P. de Mexico Railroad Company before enlisting in the U. S. A. Medical Corps in 1917 for the WWI war effort. His military service included service in the 1st Battalion 20th Engineers, Dax, France and the Surgeon Camp, Dax, France, and a commission to Major, M. C., before discharge after 13 months of service in 1919. After his military service, Houle returned as Chief Surgeon of the S. P. de Mexico Railroad Company in 1919 where he stayed before resigning in 1926. His medical career continued as a general practitioner in his home, Nogales, until the 1950s. During his medical career, Houle contributed to and wrote a number of published research articles on a variety of topics, including yellow fever on the Mexican west coast from 1921-1925, and is credited with aiding in the eradication of malaria in Sonora, Mexico.

Houle was married to Loretta Fitzpatrick Houle and had two sons, Alan and Peter. Apart from his medical career, Houle was also an amateur archaeologist, his excavations having resulted in a collection of pre-Columbian statues which have since been donated to a state museum, many photographs documenting his finds, and a written narrative of his travels. His time with the S. P. de Mexico Railroad Company also offered Houle a unique perspective of the Mexican Revolution as it proceeded in Empalme, Sonora Mexico. This perspective is reflected in research gathered in conjunction with the superintendent of the railway and friend, Victor W. Bennett.

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