Hubbell Pioneers - New York
An Upstate New Yorker and a Sea Captain
Matthew Hubbell & Capt. Charles J. Hubbell
One early pioneer in the western part of upper New York State was Matthew Hubbell, who was born at Lanesborough, Massachusetts, in 1762. At age 15 he was drafted and served under Seth Warner among the famous Green mountain Boys at the victory over the Hessians in 1777 at Bennington, Vermont.
In 1790 Matthew bought land at the present site of Utica, New York. He was a town magistrate and carried supplies in the War of 1812 to Sackett’s Harbor. He had thirteen children and died at Utica in 1819.
Captain Charles Hubbell was a pioneer and inventor in the field of electricity. He was born into a Loyalist family in Perth, Canada, in 1835 and christened Jonas Jones Hubbell. His mother died when he was six years old and he was brought up by his paternal grandparents.
He left the Brockville Grammar School after he got into trouble and went to New York City where some of his mother's relatives lived. His cousins owned a ship’s chandlery and he got a job as a bookkeeper. Being restless, he persuaded his uncle to arrange with one of the sea captains to sail as a cabin boy when he was about 17.
On board ship his chief problem was his names. Jones, his middle name was not too bad, but bad enough because it suggested “Davy Jones’ locker,” the bottom of the sea. But Jonas, his first name, being only another form of “Jonah,” reminded the superstitious sailors of that prophet’s ill-omened effect on a ship.
On a voyage to Australia the ship pulled into Callao, Peru, for repairs. The crew stole gold, silver and jewels from churches and were rounded up and thrown into a dungeon, including Jonas. They were released by a captain of a British warship.
After working in Australia as a ranch hand, he signed aboard a ship bound for New York as an able seaman. When he was asked his name he said “Call me Charlie -- Charles J. Hubbell.” Later he made this official. He later became a captain’s mate and then a captain.
Probably about 1858, Charles married a girl named Flora, last name unknown. They had three children. During the Civil War he commanded a boat on the Mississippi River and was wounded. After spending nine months in a hospital he returned to New York to find his wife and children dead.
He went to California and worked as a railroad telegrapher. There he met his second wife, Carrie Miner. They had two sons, Harry and William. Deciding to go back east, he was present at the ceremonies celebrating the meeting of the Union Pacific with the Central Pacific near Ogden, Utah, where the golden spike was driven on May 10, 1869.
In New York he met Thomas Edison, who worked as a telegrapher for a while as Charles' assistant. Leaving his family in New York, Charles worked in Louisville and in New Orleans. He returned to New York and found his wife drinking with another man. He divorced her and took custody of the two boys.
He returned to New Orleans where he married another Carrie, who died within two or three years. In 1880 he married Ada Himes and they had a daughter, Muriel. (This chapter of Hubbell Pioneers was written by her son A. Wilson Whitman.)
He worked for Edison selling electricity to businesses and invented a primary battery with a zinc electrode. Ada had poor health and died in 1897. Charles met a woman named Augusta Braun in Scranton and married her. Her daughter, Eva, was about Muriel's age and the two became companions.
In 1897 Charles went to England to sell the rights for a special battery for miners’ lamps which Harry had developed. After a year in England the family returned home and Augusta died. Charles remarried again but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1909 he married Canadian Elizabeth Richardson for the seventh and last time when he was 74 and his wife about 46. Charles died in 1920 at the age of 85 after a life of adventure on land and sea. Among the floral tributes was one from Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Edison.