Hubbell Pioneers - New Mexico
A Tale of Two Brothers
James Lawrence Hubbell & Sidney Auger Hubbell
New Mexico was part of a foreign country for several centuries before it became a territory of the United States and finally a state in 1912. In 1848 Mexico relinquished this territory to the United States, but many years passed before the newly won land would be distinguished from its motherland.
As early as 1845 two brothers from Connecticut were quietly getting a foothold in this vast Mexican wasteland. These two brothers -- James Lawrence Hubbell and Sidney Auger Hubbell -- were tied for the honor of being the first Hubbell to reside in this New Mexican territory.
James Lawrence was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, in 1824. By the time he was 21, he was a lieutenant in the United States Army, serving in the Mexican War. Presumably he fell in love with this strange land or perhaps it was the beautiful Juliana (Julianita) Gutierrez who caused him to resign his commission. They were married in 1849 when she was 16.
With the help of her parents he soon became one of the wealthiest traders in the entire territory. Juliana was a partner in this success. She was well educated, from and immensely wealthy and influential family. Shortly after James (better known as Santiago -- St. James in Spanish) and Juliana were married, they settled on the Pajarito Grant in a 27-room adobe hacienda built by James.
He was elected sheriff of Valencia County. His business enterprises soon put an end to his sheriffing and his 48-wagon freight lines to Kansas City along with his cattle imports from Mexico added to his wealth.
When the Civil War began, he organized a company of volunteers for the Union called Hubbell’s Cavalry Company with himself in command. The company saw some hard fighting and only a few returned. At war’s end he returned to his two loves -- his family and his ranches. These continued to prosper after his death at 61.
James’ son Frank A. Hubbell developed one of the largest sheep ranches in New Mexico. At one time the ranch controlled nearly a half million acres of land and, at its peak, shipped to market nearly 200,000 lambs.
Sidney Auger Hubbell, was born in 1831 in Salisbury, Connecticut. He came to New Mexico in 1849 and took up residence in Bernalillo County, which he represented in the territorial legislature in 1852. He was educated as a criminal lawyer at Yale University. In 1856 he married Maria Ignacia Perea, the daughter of Don Juan Perea, the head of an extremely wealthy Spanish family. Sidney and Maria had 13 children.
In 1861, he was appointed (by Abraham Lincoln) to the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court where he served two terms. He was also appointed Judge of the Third Judicial District. In 1866, he became District Attorney until 1867 when he moved with his family to Iowa. In 1872, he returned to New Mexico where he continued to practice law. Judge Sidney Hubbell died in 1880 by which time the family fortune had vanished.
The 11th child of Sidney and Maria was George Hubbell, born in 1875. He married Margaret (Madge) Heydt in 1902, when he was 27 and she was 17. This chapter of Hubbell Pioneers includes reminiscences of Madge recalling how she met George and became the wife of a owner of a ranch 40 miles from Las Vegas, New Mexico, 10 years before New Mexico became a state. The account was written for her children in 1965, 27 years after George’s death.
George and Madge were the parents of Dr. Donald Sidney Hubbell, who conceived the idea of the book Hubbell Pioneers, recruited the authors, wrote many chapters, and did much of the editing. He was also one of the editors (with Harold B. Hubbell Jr.) of the 1980 History & Genealogy of the Hubbell Family. In addition, he was one of the founders of The Hubbell Family Historical Society and attended the organizational meeting at the Hubbell House in Mantorville, Minnesota in September 1981 and the first biennial meeting in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1983.
Dr.Hubbell was a horticulturist with the U.S. Foreign Service. He was born in 1906 and died in 1988.