The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-12-22

was with this tribe during the trying
days of the Sioux massacre, when the
Winnebagoes were in Juror of excite
ment, debating whether to join their
Sioux brethren or not. On the removal
of the Indians in May, 1868, Mr.. Hub
bell went with them to their new reser-
walton on the upper Missouri river. The
buffalo that year being too far, and no
other food being available in this new
Indian country, the government found
itself in a perplexing plight, with nor
thern winter at the door, and thousands
of Indians, traders, and soldiers on its
hands, without nothing to feed them. A
contract was finally made with Mr..
Hubbell, and within month he purchas-
ed 800 head of oxen in Blue Earth coun-
ty and vicinity, and hitching these to
1913 wagons, loaded with provisions, he
started from Mankato about the middle
of November, going across the prairIes
by way of Lake Crystal and Lake She
tex. The train reached over a mile in
length, and it had military escort OF
four companies of soldiers. There was
no road west of Lake Shetek, but the
track they then made could be discerned
on the plain twenty years thereafter,
in a different color of the grass.
Though the newspapers and others pre-
dicted dire things and called it the "Mos-
cow Expedition" because of the late
ness of the season, the train, after sui
fering many hardships and hindrances,
finally reached Fort Thompson, its des-
tination, all safe, to the great JOY of
the hunger pinched Indians and whites.
In 1864, Mr.. Hubbell purchased of
Charles p Choteau, of st. Louis, an in
terest in the old American Fur COM
pany on the Upper Missouri, including
Fort Pierre, Fort Berthold, Fort Union,
at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and
Fort Benton, at the head of naviga-
! ton in Montana. He also organized the
Northwestern Fur company and develop
ed a great trade-supplying miners at
Fort Benton and Helena, adding new In
dian trading posts, and engaging in the
transportation, by steamboats, and wag-
on trains, of government supplies, as
well as the goods of the corporation, over
a vast extent of county for years. The
company's collection of peltries alone
amounted to $4,000 buffalo robes per an
mum and small furs in proportion.
Mr.. Hubbell was one of the founders
of the First National bank of Mankato,
and with j. A. Willard and R. d. Hub
bard, built the Mankato Linseed Oil
works. He introduced the raising of flax
in southwestern Minnesota, and, by re-
peated cropping of his own farms to it,
demonstrated to the farmers that flax
was a paying product, and that the pre-
JUDGE against it as destroyer of the
soil was fallacious, He and j. A. Will
ard were, also, the principal promoters
and builders of the Wells railway, and
in 1871, Mr.. Hubbell was elected to the
legislature and, after a desperate fight,
pushed through both houses the inter
national improvement land bill lin the
common parlance of the day known as
the "land grab act'), which, had it not
been vetoed by the governor, would have
insured the building of the Wells road
at once to st. Cloud, and given Mankato
an inestimable advantage as CONNER
cial center.
Mr.. Hubbell was married September 8,
1858, to Katie A. Thew of Connecticut,
and seven children were born to them.
After most active life spent in the de-
velopment of the northwest, Mr.. Hub
bell suffered a paralytic stroke few
years ago, and now he and his good wife
live retired in st. Paul.
Old timers will regret to read of Mr..
Hubbell's death. He contributed his
share of labor and money toward the
building up of Mankato. He was a man
of genial disposition, kind heart and
his old friends will ever think kindly
of him.
Mr.. Hubbell was afflicted with par
alysis for twelve years. Together with
his wife he occupied apartments in the
Seville, Selby avenue and Kent streets,
st. Paul He is survived by wife and
five children. One son, James, lives at
Virginia City, Mont, and another, An
drew, at Grand Rapids, Mich. The third
son, Robert w. and one daughter, Kate
", live in st. Paul; and another daugh-
ter, Mrs. Rittenhouse, resides in Min
neapolis. One brother, Andrew, died less
than year ago in Massachusetts,. Mr..
Hubbell was Mason, but had not taken
an active part for many years. He was
member of the Montana legislature as
well as that of Minnesota. While a res
ident of Mankato he owned the proper
ty now possessed by d. L. Clement at
4