San Bernardino County and Riverside County, California Biographies

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties 
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County 
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County 
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period 
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922, 
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL

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A. G. HUBBARD
 
           A, G. Hubbard came into the great west and southwest shortly after the close 
of the Civil War. He had the training of a mining engineer, and the mining industry 
absorbed his enthusiasm, his strength and his abilities in California and in other 
sections of the Southwest until he had accumulated a substantial fortune. In the 
meantime he had visited what is now the Redlands districts, had made some 
investments, and for many years has been one of the foremost capitalists in directing 
and lending his resources to enterprises and individuals who have redeemed a 
desert country into one of the most profitable and beautiful sections of southern 
California. Mr. Hubbard was born in Wisconsin in 1847. As a youth he studied and 
acquired a knowledge of chemistry, metallurgy, and mine engineering. It was in 
1865 that he started across the plains on horseback, riding all the way from the 
Missouri River to the City of Mexico. Thence returning to Texas, he came on West 
to the Pacific Coast in the fall of 1867. In 1886 Mr. Hubbard took charge of a 
copper mine for an English syndicate, and thereafter for several years was a mine 
superintendent, had charge of reduction works, and did much expert service in 
reporting on prospects through Arizona, California, Mexico, and New Mexico. From 
the active practice of his profession he accumulated enough capital to engage in 
mining for himself, and he opened and developed and managed a number of mines 
in various states, giving practically his entire time to the business until 1893. While 
on a vacation in  1878 Mr. Hubbard visited Redlands and the Santa Ana River 
Valley. With the eye of a practical engineer he contemplated the construction of a 
flume to carry lumber from the San Bernardino mountains into the valley. Subsequent 
investigation revealed the fact that the Bear Valley Water Company has already 
appropriated the waters. While this frustrated his plans, Mr. Hubbard was so impressed 
with the valley that he invested a hundred and fifty thousand dollars on his own 
account, and even then prophesied that an enormous wealth would some day be 
returned to the orange industry in this vicinity. Mr. Hubbard improved a large part of 
his holdings. But the lure of the mining game was still strong upon him, and leaving 
his investments at Redlands he returned to his occupation, having purchased and 
in association with his old mining partner, George W. Bowers, undertook the 
development of the famous Harqua Hala Bonanza property in Arizona. They opened 
this as an expense of about two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and in 
a short time had taken out ores to the value of a million two hundred and fifty thousand. 
With this success to his credit Mr. Hubbard sold his share of the property, and 
determined to retire altogether from mining. After two years of extensive travel through-
out North America, Mexico, and the Gulf countries, he returned to Redlands and at 
once proceeded to carry out some plans for improvement that he had cherished. 
Almost his first act was to demolish the old Terrace Villa, one of the pioneer hotel 
properties of Redlands and where he had been a guest when it was in the course of 
construction. This was one of his first purchases in Redlands, and one the site he 
constructed the beautiful residence where he still resides and for which he retains the 
old name of the Villa Terrace. Subsequent years he has employed with wise public 
spirit and public generosity his resources as a capitalist, investing in property and 
funding other men in their improvements and undertakings. To A. G. Hubbard Redlands 
owes in no small degree its wonderful prosperity. He married in 1887, in Redlands, 
Lura Spoor, daughter of Herbert L. O. H. Spoor, of Redlands. They have three children: 
Herbert L.,a graduate of Stanford and now engaged in farming in San Bernardino 
County; Mabel G., wife of Brooke E. Sawyer, of Santa Barbara; and Lura Hubbard, 
attending school. Mr. Hubbard is a thirty-second degree Mason through both the York 
and Scottish Rite and is also a member of the Redlands Lodge of Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a republican.
 
Pages 1063 to 1064.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, January 2010.