Biography of Hon. T. A. Hubbard

Hon. T. A. Hubbard, born December 22, 1843, in New York, became a prominent livestock breeder in Sumner County, Kansas. After serving bravely in the Civil War, he settled in Jackson Township, where he specialized in fine cattle and swine, achieving significant recognition including multiple fair awards. He held numerous public offices, including Register of Deeds and State Legislator, and was active in local affairs. Mr. Hubbard was married to Almira I. Barto and contributed greatly to the agricultural landscape of Kansas before his passing.

HON. T. A. HUBBARD. The Rome Park Stock Farm, located in Jackson Township, which has attained a reputation throughout Sumner County, is one of the most notable monuments to the industry and perseverance of its proprietor with whose name we introduce this sketch. Mr. Hubbard makes a specialty of fine cattle, horses and hogs, in which he has met with unqualified success and he has done much to raise the standard of this industry in Southern Kansas. He may be properly called a self-made man — one who has been endowed by nature with fine abilities and who has been fortunate in choosing that wise course which has enabled him to increase his talent tenfold.

The first eleven years of the life of Mr. Hubbard were spent in McKean County, Pa., near the town of Tarport, and Centerville, Allegany County, N.Y., where his birth took place December 22, 1843. His father, Jeremiah Hubbard, was a native of Vermont as was also his paternal grandfather, Abner Hubbard. The first mentioned was reared among his native hills and when approaching manhood employed himself as a boatman on Lake Champlain. Later he followed the trade of a shoemaker. He finally left Vermont and settled in Cattaraugus County, N.Y., whence, later, he removed to Allegany County, purchasing a tract of land where he prosecuted farming until 1854. That year he emigrated to Michigan, settling in Barry County and securing land from the United States. He at once put up a frame house and proceeded to clear the farm, constructing a comfortable homestead upon which he spent the remainder of his days; he departed hence about 1863. The wife and mother, Mrs. Eliza (Sherman) Hubbard, was born in Connecticut and died in Barry County, Mich., about 1874. Of this union there were born three children. By a previous marriage Jeremiah Hubbard had become the father of seven children.

The subject of this sketch attained to manhood on a farm in the Wolverine State, obtaining a practical education in the common schools. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he was only seventeen years old, but after watching the conflict for a time he resolved to assist in the preservation of the Union. On October 1, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Thirteenth Michigan Infantry, first seeing the smoke of battle at Stevenson, Ala., in 1862. He was afterward a participant in all the battles fought by Gens. Rosecrans and Sherman until the close of the war. At Chickamauga, September 19, 1863, his company suffered almost annihilation, being reduced to four members. Young Hubbard was three times wounded and was conveyed to the hospital at Nashville, where he remained until his wounds permitted him to travel, when he was sent home on a furlough, remaining sixty days. He rejoined his regiment at Chattanooga, Tenn., and in January following, veteranized and was granted a furlough. He returned home and assisted in recruiting a full regiment and afterward returning to Chattanooga performed engineer duty until the fall of 1864.

Mr. Hubbard’s regiment was now sent to Nashville to assist in driving Gen. Forrest from Tennessee, and he later joined Sherman’s army at Rome, Ga., going from there on the famous march to the sea. His regiment was in the rear and burned the bridges over the Chattahoochee River, thus severing the connection and cutting off all communication of Gen. Sherman’s army with the outside world. After this long tedious march was ended by the capture of Ft. McAllister and Savannah, the army went into camp for a brief rest. They then started on the march through the Carolinas, the most remarkable winter campaign on record. Young Hubbard said the general order was reveille at 4:30 A.M., march at 6, one day’s rations for five days and live off the country, and forty rounds of cartridges in the cartridge box. Railroads were destroyed and the country stripped of nearly everything on which an army could subsist, consequently the boys in blue found their lines cast in anything but pleasant places, yet manfully, and on the whole cheerily, they marched along “shouting the battle cry of freedom.”

At Bentonville, N.C., the Fourteenth Corps met the gallant Joe Johnston and were threshed unmercifully, but the Union army soon got into position and after three days’ hard fighting, Sherman was victorious in the last great battle of the war. Mr. Hubbard says that he escaped without a scratch but did some tall running. The army then marched to Goldsboro, where the boys got their first mail for sixty days. There also they heard the general order of Gen. Sherman which was for rest and a supply of stores from the rich granaries of the North. After a short rest they marched to Raleigh, soon after which Johnston surrendered. Then followed the famous march to Richmond, Va., then to Washington, D.C., and participation in the Grand Review, after which the corps was transported back to Louisville, Ky., where it went into camp. Young Hubbard was promoted to be First, or Orderly Sergeant, and after a season of rest, camp duty and drill he was mustered out, July 25, 1865, and returned to his old haunts in Michigan, receiving his honorable discharge at Jackson, August 10.

Mr. Hubbard purchased his father’s old farm in Yankee Spring Township, Barry County, Mich., during the war and lived upon it until 1872. That year he came to Kansas to visit friends in Marion County and while here explored the surrounding country. Emigrating finally into Sumner County he resolved to purchase land and selected the northwest quarter of section 26, in what is now Jackson Township. On the 4th of July, that year, he filed his claim in the general land office at Wichita and the following year, July 5, 1873, secured his title to the land. He settled upon it a few months later and lived there for a number of years. Wichita, for some years, was his nearest market and to that point he hauled his grain, residing upon that farm until 1880. In the meantime Mr. Hubbard had become quite prominent in local affairs and after filling other positions of trust and responsibility was selected Register of Deeds, which necessitated his removal to Wellington, January 1880. He resided there until the March of 1889, then returned to his farm of eight hundred acres. In the meantime he had retained the management of this and in 1882 commenced the breeding of Poland-China swine, becoming interested the following year in Berkshires. He now (1889) has a herd of probably four hundred head of full-blooded animals of both kinds and is said to be the second largest breeder of swine in the United States. He has been in the habit of carrying off the blue ribbons at the State and County Fairs in which he has competed with the best herds west of the Mississippi. He secured the general sweepstake prize for the best herd of swine of any age or breed at two of the Kansas State Fairs and the same at the Bismarck Fair. He likewise received the first prize at the State Fairs at Lincoln, Neb., and at the Fairs in Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo., in several classes. He also gives much attention to the breeding of Shorthorn cattle, of which he has two hundred and fifty head of high-grade Kentucky Shorthorns, and he has twenty-four head of graded Percheron horses. It cannot be denied that the livestock interests of the Sunflower State have been greatly augmented by the labors and efforts of Mr. Hubbard.

The subject of this sketch was married November 3, 1869, at the bride’s home in Michigan to Miss Almira I. Barto. Mrs. Hubbard was born in Kalamazoo County, Mich., February 1, 1849, and is the daughter of Orin Barto, a native of Hinesburg, Vt. Her paternal grandfather, David Barto, was a native of France and upon coming to America settled in Vermont. In that State David Barto was reared to manhood and prosecuted farming there until 1854. That year he emigrated to Michigan, locating in Kalamazoo County, where he spent the remainder of his life. He married Miss Polly Stevens, whom it is supposed was likewise a native of the Green Mountain State. After the death of her husband, Grandmother Barto went to Montana to visit her children and died there. The father of Mrs. Hubbard was reared and married in the Green Mountain State where he lived until about 1831 and then emigrated to Michigan during the earliest settlement of Kalamazoo County. He journeyed by Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal, then by the Erie Canal and the lakes to Detroit, whence he proceeded the balance of the journey by team. He purchased a tract of timber land when bear, deer and wolves were plentiful, and constructed a good farm which he occupied until 1865. That year, selling out, he removed to Barry County where he purchased a farm upon which he resided until the death of the wife and mother, about 1881. Afterward he made his home with his children until his death, which took place at the home of his daughter in Mecosta County, in January, 1882.

The mother of Mrs. Hubbard bore the maiden name of Esther Averill. She was born in Vermont and was the daughter of Truman Averill, likewise a native of the Green Mountain State and who emigrated to Kalamazoo County, Mich., as early as 1829. He was thus among the first settlers of that region. He possessed all the hardy elements of the pioneer and improved a farm from the wilderness, where he spent the remainder of his days. Mrs. Esther (Averill) Barto departed this life October 17, 1881.

The Republican party has received the cordial endorsement of Mr. Hubbard since he became a voting citizen. He has kept himself well informed upon current events and while a resident of Michigan was Clerk of Yankee Springs Township for a period of six years. Upon coming to Kansas he served the people of Jackson Township as Road Overseer one year and Trustee of said township two terms, and in 1875 was elected to the State Legislature, serving to such good purpose that he was returned in 1876. While a member of the General Assembly he was on various important committees, including Ways and Means, and Railroads, and was Chairman of the committee on Roads and Highways. He voted every time for nine days for Mr. Plumb for United States Senator. He was elected Register of Deeds in 1879 and re-elected in 1881. He served as a delegate to numerous State and county conventions and in 1889 was a delegate to the third Deep Harbor Convention which met at Topeka. Socially he belongs to Wellington Lodge, No. 150, F. & A. M., Sumner Chapter No. 37, R. A. M., St. John Commandery, No. 24, K. T., Wellington Lodge, No. 24, A. O. U. W., and James Shield Post. January, 1890, the President appointed Mr. Hubbard Supervisor of Census for the Fourth District in Kansas, about one-fourth part of the State. Mr. Hubbard has about eight hundred or one thousand appointments to make in his district.