San Diego County Biographies
 
CHARLES HUBBELL 

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
is one of the substantial and public-spirited citizens of San Diego. Although he 
retired from active business some years ago, he takes a deep interest in 
everything that pertains to the advancement of the city. Mr. Hubbell is a native 
of the Empire State, having been born in Ballston in November, 1817.
        He is a descendant in the eighth generation of Lieutenant Richard 
Hubbell, one of the founders of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who settled there in 
1645.
He lived until he was seventeen in Ballston and Oswego and then went to 
Rochester, where he became assistant teller in the Bank of Monroe. He remained 
in Rochester two years and then went to Pontiac, Michigan, to accept a position 
as cashier of a bank there. He built and put in operation the first saw-mill in 
Clinton County, Michigan, and aided in cutting out the first road from Pontiac 
to Ionia, fifty years ago. He was one of the original incorporators of Saginaw 
City. He assisted in the first development of the salt springs of northern 
Michigan and was identified with many other projects of importance in that 
State. In 1839 he returned to Rochester to act as teller of the Commercial Bank. 
In 1846 he removed to Cincinnati, to become teller of the Ohio Life and Trust 
Company. After one year in this position he went into the banking house of Ellis 
& Sturges as cashier.
        In 1853 he had a severe attack of hemorrhage of the lungs and spent a 
year and a half traveling about for the purpose of recovering his health. Then 
he settled at Keokuk, Iowa, where he remained fifteen years. There his natural 
taste for horticultural pursuits, a taste which he had never before had the 
opportunity to gratify, induced him to engage in fruit raising. He resided on a 
farm during the summer months and in the winter he lived in the city of Keokuk. 
During his stay there he filled several city and county offices.
        In 1870, as his health was still far from rugged, on the advice of 
Professor Cleaver, who is now Surgeon-General of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, 
he started for California, coming direct to San Diego, and was one of the first 
Eastern visitors to record his name on the register of the famous Horton House. 
Upon his arrival he was so pleased with the climate that he decided to make it 
his future home. He purchased 100 acres of land on the National Ranch, and 
planted a vineyard and fruit orchard. In 1874 he accepted the position of 
cashier of the Bank of San Diego and remained in that institution until it was 
merged with the present Consolidated National Bank. He was a member of the 
committee of forty, appointed by the citizens to induce the building of a 
railroad to San Diego. He was corresponding secretary of the committee, and 
labored zealously to bring about that much desired object�railroad communication 
with the outside world.
        Mr. Hubbell was one of the original stock�holders in the California 
Southern. He never sought public office here, but at the earnest solicitation of 
his friends he ran for and was elected school trustee in 1872, and afterward in 
1886, at the latter time being chosen president of the board, which position he 
resigned in 1888. He retired from active business in 1880, and has since been 
attending to his private affairs. Before coming to San Diego his health was so 
bad that he was not expected to live, but now, at the age seventy-two, he enjoys 
perfect health, is active, and looks much younger than he really is. He has been 
prominently identified with the horticultural interests, and has been secretary 
of the County Horticultural Society.
        " In religion," Mr. Hubbell says, " I am a Baptist, having belonged to a 
church of that independent and democratic organization nearly fifty years. I 
accept implicitly the doctrines taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, in their 
spirituality, and particularly as to purity, truth, love, universal benevolence, 
and the golden rule of sixteen ounces to the pound." The ancestral motto of his 
family has always been, Esse quam videri�be what you seem to be. Mr. Hubbell was 
married in 1843, in Rochester, New York, to Miss Anna M. Sage, who died very 
suddenly in 1881. During the thirty-seven years of her married life she was 
never known to speak an unkind word to either her husband or children. He has 
had seven children, of whom five are living, four sons and one daughter.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  214-215