Hubbell Pioneers - Pennsylvania
The Deerslayer and The Genealogist
Truman Mallory Hubbell & Walter Hubbell
Pennsylvania is on the far east end of the first pioneer movement in North America. The movement of this era slowly worked its way westward with the firm backing of those who established the bridgehead 100 years before. Pennsylvania was by reason of geography, population and river transportation, the exit for the westward movement.
The first recorded exodus of a Hubbell from Connecticut was probably Nathaniel Hubbell, born in 1702 and grandson of Richard the immigrant ancestor. Nathaniel graduated from Yale University in 1723 and moved to Pennsylvania in 1727. His daughter Lois was born in New Jersey in 1727 and married John Burrows of Pennsylvania in 1753.
One of the famous Pennsylvania Hubbell pioneers is Truman Mallory Hubbell. His story is told in the 1915 History of the Hubbell Family by Walter Hubbell and recounted in Hubbell Pioneers. He was born in Massachusetts in 1788. In 1796 he moved with his parents to Unadilla, New York, where he lived until his mother's death in 1797-8. After her death he lived with his half-brothers, James and Joseph Wheeler at the head waters of the Delaware River in New York, where he was engaged in the lumber business.
Truman was unrivaled as an expert shot with the rifle, pistol and shot-gun in hunting for deer, bears, wolves and panthers. He was personally acquainted with James Fenimore Cooper, the celebrated novelist. He was the original "Deerslayer" in Cooper's novel of that name and became the owner of the rifle "Killdeer" mentioned in the Deerslayer.
He took pride in relating how the rifle came into his possession. One day while deer hunting in New York State with Captain Addicks, whose family had been murdered by the Mohican Indians upon whom the Captain had sworn vengeance, they came upon a solitary Indian fishing from the rocks in a stream. Captain Addicks motioned to Truman to remain silent and then informed him in a whisper that the Indian was the last of the Mohicans. The Captain mentioned that he never shot an Indian without letting him know and see who fired. He then broke a twig to attract the Indian's attention and drew a bead on him with his old rifle. The Indian looked up and realized his time had come to enter the happy hunting grounds and commenced his death song which was cut short by a ball through the heart.
Captain Addicks then turned to Truman saying, "Truman, my task is done. I have kept my oath and for years followed the murderers of my family until the last of the Mohicans has fallen by my hand. I have now no further use for "Killdeer," and as you are the only man worthy to use it, I give it to you and hope you will always keep it."
In 1811 Truman rented a saw mill in Chester, Pennsylvania, and married the owner's daughter in 1817. He continued in the lumber business and established a lumber yard in Philadelphia in 1818.
As a frequent visitor in Georgia during the years 1823-31 to buy cotton, Truman might be considered one of the earliest Hubbells in that state. While there, his hunting prowess led to invitations from the Cherokee Nation. He also had the adventure in Georgia of defending a stage coach carrying two million dollars against an armed robbery attempt.
In 1831 he returned to Philadelphia and remained in Pennsylvania permanently. With money made in cotton, he entered numerous building operations. He took a prominent part in establishing public schools and was elected to the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1834-5.
In 1845 he moved to Catawissa on the Susquehanna River near which he cultivated a large farm and laid out the village of Hubbellville. He resided there until 1870 when, at 82, he and his wife went to Philadelphia to live with their son William Wheeler Hubbell until his wife's death in 1876. He then lived with his son Richard Henry Hubbell in Chester until his death in 1878 at the age of 90.
Walter Hubbell, a grandson of Truman and the second son of William, was the first genealogist of
the Hubbell Family. His 1881 and 1915 editions of the History of the Hubbell Family
were used by several generations of Hubbells to determine their roots. He was born in
Philadelphia in 1851 and was a noted actor.