JAY A. HUBBELL

Honorable JAY A. HUBBELL, deceased, was for eight years a member of the United States Congress, and his name became familiar not alone to the citizens of Michigan, but throughout the United States, true merit and ability receiving their due recognition. He was known as the father of the Michigan College of Mines, located at Houghton, and that city has him to thank for its location there and the securing of the large appropriation that provided for its success. Judge Hubbell was born in Avon township, Oakland County, Michigan, September 15, 1829, and was a son of Samuel S. Hubbell. The family came to Michigan from Connecticut, and Samuel S. Hubbell was one of the early settlers of Oakland County, Michigan, where he located in 1820. Our subject attended the district schools of Avon township during the winter terms until he reached the age of 18, when he attended Rochester Academy at Rochester, Oakland County, Michigan, for two years. He then studied two years more at Romeo High School. In the fall of 1850 he was in a position, financially, to enter the literary department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he spent three years and graduated in 1853. He then taught school in order to secure the money with which to complete his education and prepare himself for the bar. In the meantime he read law in the office of Judge Manning of Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan, and later studied in the office of Howard, Bishop & Holdbrook at Detroit, being admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1855. He then started for the Northern Peninsula, landing at Ontonagon, Ontonagon County, June 17, 1855, with but $3 in capital, and it is said that he was in debt to the captain of the steamer that brought him up from Sault Ste. Marie. Shortly after his arrival he went into partnership with A. H. Hanscomb, but for the three years following his practice was very limited. In 1858 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Ontonagon County, and was appointed district attorney of the Northern Peninsula. He moved to Houghton, Houghton County, in 1860, and was soon well established in a lucrative practice. In 1861 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Houghton County. He was thereafter frequently called upon to fill positions of honor. In 1876 he was State commissioner to the Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia. He made his first appearance in national politics as a member of the House of Representatives of the 43rd Congress, and was re-elected to the succeeding three houses. He served on the ways and means committee, the most important and most sought for committee of Congress, and during a larger part of the time was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. He was elected judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit and served until his retirement January 1, 1900. He was a man who commanded the respect and admiration of all who knew him, and the people from all walks and stations of life were treated by him with the same kindly consideration. His death is sadly lamented as an irreparable loss to the community in which he lived, and he will long live in the memory of his fellow citizens who knew him so well, many of whom he had frequently befriended. Judge Hubbell was married in 1861 to Florence Doolittle at Ontonagon, Michigan, and they had two children, namely: Florence, wife of Lessing Karger of Houghton, Michigan; and Blanche D., wife of Lieut. H. E. Smith, U. S. A.  Our subject was a prominent Mason, and a member of Montrose Commandery, K. T., of Calumet; Saladin Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.; and Grand Rapids Consistory, S. P. R. S. He died at his home in Houghton, surrounded by his relatives and loving friends.

Source: Biographical Record, Houghton, Baraga and Marquette Counties.  Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company, 1903.