Fifty Years In The Northwest / With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes

by William H. C. Folsom

Col. Mattson was for some time editor of the Staats Tidning, a Swedish paper in Minneapolis, and a large owner and general manager of the Swedish Tribune published in Chicago. He was a presidential elector in 1876. He was again elected secretary of state for 1887-88. He is a versatile writer and a fluent speaker, a frank, outspoken and honorable man. He was married Nov. 23, 1855, to Cherstin Peterson, a native of Bullingslof, Sweden. They have five children living.

Lucius Frederick Hubbard was born Jan. 26, 1836, at Troy, New York. He was the oldest son of Charles F. and Margaret (Van Valkenburg) Hubbard, his father being a descendant of the Hubbard family that emigrated from the mother country and settled in New England in 1595; his mother coming from the Holland Dutch stock that has occupied the valley of the Hudson river since its earliest history.

The father dying early, the son found a home with an aunt at Chester, Vermont, until he was twelve years old, when he was sent for three years to the academy at Granville, New York. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a tinner at Poultney, Vermont, and completed his trade at Salem, New York, in 1854, when he removed to Chicago for three years. He then removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, and started the Red Wing Republican. In 1858 he was elected register of deeds of Goodhue county. In 1861 he sold out his interest in the Republican and ran for the state senate, but was defeated by the small majority of seven votes. In December, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Fifth Minnesota Volunteers, and was elected captain. In March, 1862, he became lieutenant colonel; in August, colonel; and for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Nashville was promoted to the position of brigadier general. He participated in the battles of Farmington; of Corinth, where he was severely wounded; of Iuka, the second battle of Corinth; of Jackson and Mississippi Springs; in the siege of Vicksburg; in the battle of Richmond, Louisiana; of Greenfield, Louisiana; of Nashville, where he was wounded and had two horses killed under him, and at the siege of Spanish Fort. He was mustered out in October, 1865, at Mobile, Alabama. He was engaged in twenty-four battles and minor engagements and won an enviable record for his intrepidity and coolness. He returned to Red Wing with broken health, the result of fatigue and exposure.

In 1866 he engaged in the grain business at Red Wing, and soon thereafter in milling operations on a large scale in Wabasha county. In 1872 he purchased an interest in the Forest mill, at Zumbrota, Goodhue county, and in 1875, with others, bought the mills and water power at Mazeppa, in Wabasha county, the mills soon after being rebuilt and enlarged.

In 1868 he raised, through his personal influence, the money necessary for the completion of the Midland railway, a line extending from Wabasha to Zumbrota.

He subsequently projected and organized the Minnesota Central railway (Cannon Valley), to run from Red Wing to Mankato. As president of the company he secured the building of the road from Red Wing to Waterville, about sixty-six miles.

In 1878 Gen. Hubbard was nominated for Congress in the Second district of Minnesota, but declined. In 1872 he was elected to the state senate, and again in 1874, declining a re-election in 1876. In the senate he was regarded as one of the best informed, painstaking and influential members. He was on the committee to investigate the state treasurer's and state auditor's offices, and was largely instrumental in recommending and shaping legislation that brought about the substantial and much needed reform in the management of those offices. He was also one of the three arbitrators selected to settle the difficulties between the State and the prison contractors at Stillwater. He was appointed commissioner, with John Nichols and Gen. Tourtelotte, in 1866, to investigate the status of the state railroad bond, levied in 1858, and finally settled in 1881.

On Sept. 28, 1881, Gen. Hubbard was nominated for governor of Minnesota, and was elected by a majority of 27,857, the largest majority ever received by any governor elected in the State. In 1883 he was renominated and re-elected by a very large majority.

Gov. Hubbard is an affable, genial, courteous gentleman, whose integrity has never been questioned; a man of the people, and in sympathy with them and the best interests and general prosperity of the State.