Solano County Biography
The Honorable Paul K. Hubbs
The Honorable Paul K. Hubbs deceased - one of that class of Pioneers whose memory those who are left behind delight to honor, and who labored to bring the State of California into the proud position of being one of the foremost in the Union, was a descendant of another class of Pioneers, his ancestors being of that band of Quaker families who emigrated from England to America in Anno Domini 1650, and settled in Rhode Island. He was born on March 27, 1800, near Woodstown, in Salem county, New Jersey, and received his schooling in Philadelphia, where he was well grounded in the necessary education of the period. Early in life Mr. Hubbs essayed work on a farm, which in a sketch of his life he describes thus: "My father again moving to the old homestead and requiring all possible help, I had to leave the old frame school-house, corner of Race and Juniper, and at eleven years old take charge of a team and go through a course of agricultural studies; more healthful I thought to the body than the mind. All the steam then that contributed to the plowing was raised from the person of man and horse. The reaping was done as in the time of Ruth. We shelled corn by hand across an iron bar and done flail threshing on rainy days, nor was our mowing accomplished by patent. Don't talk about good old times; those were weary days to the farmer - up before daylight to wade through snow and sleet and slush and rain and ice to prepare and donate feed for horses preparatory to a day's work, ending late in the evening. Yet the toil and hardship of the day gave us good appetites and sweet sleep preparatory to a renewal of the same lack of variety, save the change from storm to sunshine and from sunshine to storm, and from intense cold to man-melting heat. Thanks to Almighty God, the small communities of those days were strictly honest, with rare exception. The Bible and the newspaper were read with equal confidence in their truth." Mr. Hubbs did not long pursue farming as an occupation, for he shortly afterwards received a position in a wholesale dry goods store on No. 23 North Front street, Philadelphia, and while there it happened that Judge Kinsay, after whom hie had been named, had arrived, in the city to pursue his professional practice, and at once took young Hubbs in hand, keeping him reading law or attending law courts during the evening. About this time he entered into his first mercantile transaction on his own account He had been noticed by the mate of a vessel trading to Porto Rico, who inquired how much capital he had at his disposal. The reply was " nine dollars." With this sum his friend advised him to invest in twelve barrels of apples, which he did ; his goods were taken by the brig, and two months thereafter he found gazetted in the morning paper of Imports " 20 bags coffee to Paul K. Hubbs." From his extreme youth, then but 13 years, he had some difficulty in convincing the Customs authorities of his honesty; eventually, however, his produce was cleared, a position in the store was granted to him whereat he might dispose of his consignment, which he soon did, realizing the sum of $140, to him a fabulous outturn indeed. He was not carried away by this turn of Fortuna's wheel, however, for with the proceeds of this venture he invested still further, always attended with a reasonable profit. Mr. Hubbs next visited New York for the first time, on certain legal business, which place he reached by stage and steamer, the latter commanded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, with whom he had a little passage of words, which would appear to have made so deep an impression on the Captain that the point urged by Hubbs was gained. At this period the British were before Baltimore and Philadelphia was alarmed. Citizens were called upon to throw up breastworks over the Schuylkill and other defensible points in the construction of which he entered with the vigor of youth, and shortly after, when on a collecting tour in Virginia, he saw "the havoc of war and the ruins of houses and homesteads occasioned by the hostilities which then raged between the United States and the British. On his return, through the failure of the firm in which he had served, Mr. H. found himself out of employment, and after for a while suffering the heartburnings and misery of seeking for work, answering advertisements and seeing his little ready coin dwindling into insignificance, he was taken into the counting-house of J. and M. Brown and M. D. Lewis, the leading firm of Philadelphia, with whom he worked as book-keeper and afterwards as cashier, and at the end of a lease of faithful service he was established by the firm,' whose business had greatly increased, in a branch of the house situated on the south side of Market street, under the name of Paul K. Hubbs, in which he was admitted1 a partner, which in 1826, at the time of a great crisis, was dissolved by mutual consent, and the assets divided. As a proof of the marvelous uprightness and proper feeling of Mr. Hubbs, the following anecdote is taken from his note book: " Nicholas Biddle, then the great financial spirit of the United States, remarked one day to a coterie at the Exchange, as I passed, 'There goes the sharpest man of Market street!' I heard it, and it pained me. I sought almost immediately an interview and remarked, 'Mr. Biddle, you have ruined me; I heard your remark as I passed; we are all of us afraid of sharp men. Say that I am industrious and know my business, but don't, I pray you, ever call me sharp.' ' Well, Hubbs,' said he, 'this only convinces me that I was right, but I am enlightened by the truism of your suggestion!'" In his manhood, though attending with strict devotion to the cares of his business, the subject of this sketch found time to take a part in the philantrophies of the time, which were then being largely cared for by Mathew Carey, a name which will remain engraven on the early history of Philadelphia as an advocate of American manufactures and home industry generally. In 1827, Mr. H. erected the first calico print works in Pennsylvania at "The Lagrange," on the Pennepack near Bustleton, now the twenty-third ward of the city of Philadelphia, and in 1828 we find him acting as Secretary for " The Society of Internal Improvement of Pennsylvania," having associated with him Chief Justice Tilghman, Peter S. Duponceon, John Sergeant, John J. Bone, Charles J. Ingersoll, and five merchants who formed an active committee of ten. It was difficult to obtain a Legislature willing to take hold of so vast an enterprise. Mr. Hubbs thus describes a session where a startling innovation was mooted; "The committee was assembled at the 'Indian Queen,' Fourth street, one evening. The sub-committee reported the situation above named. John Sergeant, (candidate for Vice-President with Mr. Clay afterward), Chairman of Committee, in his seat and I at his side as Secretary. We were busy about details, when Mr. Ingersoll came in. He at once commenced:' Mr. Chairman, I have a matter that I deem to be of great importance to the committee; I think we can eclipse New York. I am reliably informed that transportation can be successfully made at cheap rates by running wagons prepared for the purpose over parallel bars of iron. The experiment has been successfully tried at an English colliery, reducing their expenses two-thirds, with mere play for the horses. Let us apply.' Mr. Ingersoll!' ejaculated Mr. Sergeant from the chair, we are just completing our well laid plans of success in making a grand canal, and I hope you will not come here with your flights of fancy.' ' Well,' says Mr. Ingersoll, 'dig your ditch, but I shouldn't be surprised to see it some day covered by parallel bars of iron.' This was the first I ever heard of railroads, and I took occasion to remark that ' such a thing might do in England, but our Pennsylvania frosts would forbid it here.' We went on, and after wonderful log rotting obtained a law and a canal and a final debt of $42,000,000 to Pennsylvania." In 1830 he visited Europe, staying at many of the most picturesque spots in Great Britain, and happened to be in London at the time of the coronation of King William IV., which is thus amusingly described by Mr. Hubbs: " My banker was too late for Westminster Abbey, but obtained me a stand in a parlor nearly opposite Si James' Palace, whence the cavalcade would issue, and where the children of the Lord Mayor and myself could see everything of the move. The Duchess of Kent would not let little Vie., then some fourteen years old, go in the procession. Earl somebody, one of Billy's naturals, fixed up the whole matter, and Vic's place was not the right one, and she didn't ride then; but she did afterward, God bless her! William looked very like old General Cadwal-ader. The Queen had a square face and a princely Dutch noseindicative of bad humor. They shouted, 'Long live King William the Fourth!' I shouted, 'Hurrah for Billy Guelph!' I thought that was about the right sort of American manner, and let it out." After his sojourn in England, Mr. Hubbs crossed over to France with which he was much charmed, and after visiting many places of mark he once more sailed to America in the packet " Sally," commanded by Captain Pell, but as the voyage thither was undertaken solely for the purpose of bringing his wife to share with him the pleasures of sight-seeing, he once more sailed from American shores. The port of destination this time was Marseilles, through the Straits of Gibraltar and up the Meditereanean, and again he landed in la bette France ; and on April 4, his son Anthony was born in Lyons; and it was in this city that he .received his first taste of Revolutionary France, in the year 1834. From this city, Mr. Hubbs made the tour of Europe. To follow him on, which is impossible, for want of space; and early in 1836 he took ship for home from Havre; but encountering a hurricane in the English Channel, being saved from shipwreck on the rock-bound coast of Devonshire, as it were, by a miracle, he landed in New York without further adventure, and proceeded thence to the home of his youth. The change found in Philadelphia after so protracted an absence was very marked. Men whom he had left struggling, he found in opulence; while those who were at the top of the ladder of commercial and financial fame had succumbed to make or mar no more. In 1837 Mr. Hubbs owned the Milhausen Print Works, then located below the Navy Yard, in Philadelphia, which were destroyed in September, 1839, by fire, through mismanagement on the part of the fire company; but with that rectitude of mind which has always characterized his dealings, and that perseverance which would stand no brooking, he paid off every dollar lost by the fire, and bought in a large portion of the Pennypack Mills. Hereafter he took part in the politics of the State, which led him into much prominence, and in 1841 was elected Colonel of the Third Regiment, Pennsylvania militia, which had a share in the subduing of the fanaticism that culminated in the church riots. In the midst of the great excitement of the retirement of Henry Gay, whom CoL Hubbs in his sketch, eulogizes in glowing terms, he was offered by Mr. Tyler, the Consulate at Paris, and subsequently by Mr. Polk, the like position at San Francisco, which he declined, for what were to him good and sufficient reasons; and was present in Washington during the excitement of the declaration of war against Mexico. Mr. Dalles was then enthusiastic to procure California as well as Oregon, then comprising what is now all west of the Missouri between 42 and 49 of latitude ; and it was when in the Capital that he was first introduced to General Winfield Seott, the veteran and accomplished Chief of the American army. A new era now opened itself for Col. Hubbs. California had become the popular talk of the Eastern States; he had read Emory's Notes on the country south from Salt Lake to California, and Fremont's Rocky Mountain and California campaign; then came reports of gold, he, therefore, for his star had not latterly been in the ascendant as regards financial success, determined to emigrate, his first idea being to attempt the overland journey, which he agreed to undertake in company with his cousin, Ira Burdsall, Frank Tilford, a Mr. Wingate and Bryant, the author of " What I saw in California." Falling sick, however, this journey was given up by him, but, nothing daunted, he wound up his affairs, resigned his posts of honor, responsibility and trust and, notwithstanding inducements of a flattering order being held out, he finally sailed for California on May 3,1849, in the ship " Susan G. Owens," his wife and children accompanying him. His description of the scene on the wharf is full of pathos and teems with humane feeling, clothed in words which, though in prose, vie in interest with the immortal lives of Childe Harold's Farewell from the halls of his youth. The good ship, with its precious freight of human beings, proceeded on its journey and, with the exception of one or two disagreeables, incidental to a long sea voyagej touched at Rio de Janiero and Valparaiso and arrived in San Francisco at noon, on October 12, 1849. The first impressions of Californian life are graphically described by his son, for Col. Hubbs did not live to finish the sketch of his life with his own pen. In December, 1849, we find the Colonel, along with his eldest son, en route to the San Jaoquin valley, finally reaching Stockton one week after leaving San Francisco. The description of the city of Stockton, as it then was, is worthy of being quoted: "The inhabitants were employed: some in gambling, others in prayer, and every diversity of occupation. Some of those who were the strongest advocates of temperance, when in the Eastern States, might here be seen dealing out liquor with greater vigor than all the others of the same profession. Shoemakers by trade would here be lawyers by occupation. The mud was knee-deep, and most of the inhabitants appeared as though they liked it too well to brush it off, and to wash their faces or comb the hair, that they considered was a once-a-month job." In this canvass cosmopolitan city, the Hubbs, father and son, purchased a camping outfit of frying-pan, bean-kettle, coffee-pot, cups and plates of tin, butcher knife and other necessary impedimenta and started for the Stanislaus river, which they reached on the second day, crossing at Hyslop's Ferry and camped at Texas Jack's ranch, where they were entertained by " Big Mouth Bill," " Three-fingered Jack," and others of like kitii. Here he located 640 acres of land, three miles above Texas Jack's, opposite Cotton's Ferry, and named it Camp Washington, the ford being called Hubbs' Ford. These acres are now known as the rising town of Oakdale. Here a house of six feet square, composed of rushes, closed in on the eastern and southern sides, was erected; and, though it did not keep out the wild beasts, with which the country then abounded, it served the necessary purpose of a shelter. These two carefully nurtured gentlemen here commenced the veritable hardships of a pioneer's life, trees commenced to drop under their untiring axes, a vegetable garden was planted and then he sent for his wife and children and went to Stockton to receive them, but the usually trim Colonel was scarcely recognizable in his slouch hat, grown beard and carelessly tied neck-handkerchief. The warm and affectionate heart still was there, however, and as proper arrangements as could be made in those days were perfected, and the family proceeded to their home on the Stanislaus, Mrs. Hubbs being the first white lady to cross its waters, where they were received with much joy by their eldest boy. So great a novelty was the appearance of a lady on the Stanislaus, that the news of her arrival spread like wild-fire, and she was visited by hundreds of rough looking miners who, notwithstanding their uncouth exterior, held soft and warm hearts within, and would feel quite homesick in the presence of the fair gentlewoman. While he lived in Tuolumne county, which then swarmed with horse thieves, assassins and outlaws, their house was often the haven where the outraged traveler sought protection, which was always obtained, while in the sketch from which this memoir is condensed, we gather that that desperado, Joaquin Murietta, was, under an assumed name, a constant visitor at his house; judge of the surprise on recognizing the head of the outlaw as the same individual who had so often petted his children and partaken of his hospitality.
In 1850, Colonel Hubbs entered public life in California, as Alcalde, or Justice of the Peace, for Tuolumne; and, in the following year, he was elected to the Senate, by the Democratic party from Tuolumne county, and, in December, 1851, he with his family arrived at Vallejo, then the State Capital, ready to enter upon his Senatorial duties. Col. Hubbs followed the fortunes of the Legislature on its cruises in search of a permanent location; he fought hard against every bill which favored the removal of the capital, as he considered it an unnecessary expense to the State. To him is the credit due of introducing the Bill entitled " Providing Bevenue for the support of the Government of this State," one of the most popular bills of the time, although it had some enemies. He was also in connection with the Honorable Frank Soule, the framer of the bill which was enacted and which formed the basis of the existing laws encouraging the system of education for the young at general expense, which is so great a pride to the State Col. Hubbs was President, pro tern,., of the Senate, and, while occupying the Chair of that body, performed an act for which, to this day, the citizens of San Francisco feel grateful, for having saved much to her, as also it did to the State, when the first of the bulkhead scheme's bill came up on its final passage. His was the casting vote which was given in favor of the city of San Francisco and against the project of throwing the whole water front of that city into the hands of speculators. Colonel Hubbs was one of the most industrious of Senators, he worked earnestly in the cause of education, for which he was afterwards rewarded by being placed at the head of the Educational Department, State Superintendent of Public Instruction; but it is not only in this sphere alone in which he shone, the Acts he laid before the House are too numerous to mention in this place, suffice it to say that they were all devised for the benefit of the State. He had at heart the design to enact just and wholesome legislation, that served alike for the best interest of the agriculturist as well as the miner; while he had the forethought to make the foundation for the preparatory necessities of the large influx of population which afterwards found its way to the shores of California. During his tenure of office as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the number of schools in the State, in three years, increased from twenty to three hundred and sixteen, while the advance in attendance was from three thousand three hundred and fourteen to twenty-six thousand one hundred and sixty. Many of his friends desired to renominate him for a second term, while others wished that he should become a candidate for the United States Senate, both of which he declined, favoring an intimate~friend, Andrew J. Moulder, to be his successor. At the death of his wife, which took place on September 30,1856, Colonel Hubbs retired from public life and, having visited Fuget Sound, he settled at Port Townsend, Washington Territory, following his profession of attorney and counsellor at law; he succeeded in building up a large practice and was known throughout the Territory as one of its most eminent lawyers and statesmen. In 1860, he was elected to the Territorial Council, representing the counties of Jefferson, Claim Island and Whatcom. In the following year he was chosen President of the Council and, in 1866, he was prominently spoken of as a probable candidate for Congress; business, however, called him to California, and he ultimately located at Vallejo. While a resident of this city, he was one of its moving spirits, he occupied many positions of trust; to him is due, in a great measure, the establishment of an Episcopal Church in Vallejo. On Tuesday, November 17, 1874, at noon, he was, to all appearances, well, shortly after he was taken ill, and at five minntes to two, in the afternoon of that day, he died, honored by all; respected by all; loved by all, and without an enemy.
Colonel Hubbs married Miss Eliza Hedelius, in 1830, daughter of Capt. Hedelius, who fought with Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard, to join whom he ran away from an English University. They leave Paul Rinsey, born near Nashville, Tennessee, on September 20, 1832. He is now a resident of Washington Territory. Anthony was born in Lyons, April 4,1832; is now book-keeper in the State Controller's office at Sacramento ; Virginia, born in 1841; Charles Henry, born September 17, 1843, now of Vallejo. In 1857 Col. Hubbs married secondly Margaret Gilchrist, at Benicia, by whom he had Bayard Ingersoll, born October 19, 1858, and Helen May, born May, 1862.
History of Solano County, California
Pages 357-364
Transcribed by Julie Appletoft, February 2008
Solano County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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