Hubbard family papers

The Hubbard Family Papers center primarily on John Hubbard and his son, Thomas Hamlin Hubbard, but also concern other members of the Hubbard family and related families: the Barretts of Dresden, Maine, the Fahnestock and Holbrook families of Pennsylvania, and the Curtis family of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

John Hubbard was born in Readfield, Maine, on March 22, 1794, the fifth of twelve children of the elder John Hubbard and Olive Wilson Hubbard of New Hampshire. Hubbard was a student at Monmouth Academy for a short time, but most of his college preparation took place under private tutoring at home. Following graduation from Dartmouth in 1816, Hubbard studied medicine under his father and attended medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1822. He practiced medicine in Dinwiddie County, Virginia (1822-1829), and Hallowell, Maine (1829-1869). Hubbard married Sarah Hodge Barrett (1796-1891) of New Milford, Maine, on July 12, 1825, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. The couple had six children: Hester Ann Hubbard (1827-1836); a son who died in infancy (b. January 21, 1829); Virginia Hamlin Hubbard (1831-1918); Emma Gardiner Hubbard (1834-1877); John Barrett Hubbard (1837-1863); and Thomas Hamlin Hubbard (1838-1915). As governor of Maine (1849-1853), John Hubbard signed the Maine Law (1851), outlawing liquor traffic; he also advocated for free lands in Maine, agricultural schools, reform schools, and education for women. He died on February 6, 1869.

Thomas Hamlin Hubbard (Bowdoin 1857) was born in Hallowell, Maine, and prepared for college at Hallowell Academy with his older brother, John Barrett Hubbard (Bowdoin 1857). He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1861 but left the practice of law in 1862 to become Adjutant of the 25th Regiment, Maine Volunteer Infantry, Union Army. Hubbard retired from the military as Brigadier General of Volunteers on July 13, 1865, resuming his law practice in New York City. He served as a member of the Board of Overseers (1874-1889) and the Board of Trustees (1889-1915) of Bowdoin College. Hubbard was manager of the estate of Mark Hopkins, which included interests in the Southern Pacific Railroad (1888), and was associated with other railroads here and abroad. He was also president of International Banking Corp. (post 1904) and had business interests in Central Red Water Creek Range, a cattle and horse ranch in Glendive, Montana. Hubbard was married on January 28, 1868, to Sibyl A. Fahnestock (b. 1842) of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They had five children: John Hubbard (b. 1870); a son (b. 1871) who lived for only nineteen days; Thomas Hamlin Hubbard (1874-1879); Sibyl Emma Hubbard (b. 1877); and Anna Weir Hubbard (b. 1878).

Virginia Hamlin Hubbard was educated at Hallowell Academy until she went to Abbott Institute in New York City (1846-1847), and from there to Gorham Female Seminary (1847-1849). Upon graduation from Gorham, Ms. Hubbard embarked on a teaching career, starting at Gorham Female Seminary (1851). She also taught at Indianapolis Public High School in Indiana (1855-1856); in Manchester, New Hampshire (1858-1860); at Hartford High School in Hartford, Connecticut (1860-1861); and at Thomas Curtis's Hartford School for Young Ladies (1861), where she met Thomas W. Thompson Curtis, whom she married in Hartford on August 24, 1864. They had two sons: John Hubbard Curtis (b. 1865), and Thomas Hamlin Curtis (b. 1866), both of whom graduated from Yale in 1887.

Emma Gardiner Hubbard also attended Gorham Female Seminary, from which she was graduated on July 28, 1852. She died in New York City, unmarried, on February 12, 1877, after a long illness.

John Barrett Hubbard was graduated with his younger brother, Thomas Hamlin, from Bowdoin College in 1857. After his graduation, Hubbard became the principal of Hallowell Academy (1857-1858) and read law, taught school in Stockton, Alabama (1858-1859), and studied law with Edward Fox in Portland, Maine (1859-1860). Before his studies with Fox were completed he resumed teaching, becoming principal of Salmon Falls [Academy?] and then of the High School in Lynn, Massachusetts (1860-1861). At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hubbard was commissioned first lieutenant of the First Maine Battery of Mounted Artillery, mustered into the United States Volunteer Service on December 18, 1861, and then was attached to the Department of the Gulf with the expedition commanded by General Benjamin F. Butler in February, 1862. After distinguishing himself in action, Hubbard was commissioned Captain and Assistant Adjutant General under General Godfrey Weitzel on October 27, 1862. Hubbard was killed in battle in the first assault on Port Hudson, Louisiana, on May 27, 1863. Hubbard never married, although he was engaged twice: to Hulda McArthur (February 1859) and Cordelia Chadwick (November 1861).