HUBBARD, William S. - Putnam

Living in comfortable retirement in Muscotah is one of the pioneer settlers of Atchison County, who fought the good fight with grasshoppers and hot winds in the old days of hardships on the prairies over 40 years ago.

William S. Hubbard is one of the fine old gentlemen of Muscotah who came to KS a poor man, has reared a fine family of prosperous sons and daughters, and achieved a competence sufficient to support him in comfort during his declining years. W. S. Hubbard was born March 10, 1839, on a farm near Cloverdale, Putnam County, Indiana a son of Asa and Melinda Holland Hubbard, natives of Kentucky, who founded a pioneer home in the forests of Putnam County, Indiana.

Asa Hubbard, the father, died when William S. was a child and his mother married W. Davis.

In 1844 the family moved to Illinois, where the mother and stepfather died in later years. The Davis farm was located in Henry Co Ill.

Here W. S. was reared to young manhood, and knew very few luxuries in those early days of privation and struggle.

After a two years' residence on a farm near Burlington, Iowa he decided to come farther west to find a home and fortune where lands were cheap and opportunities seemed to be much better than in Illinois.

In 1874 he set out with his wife and five children to find a home in Atchison county, Kansas.

All of his worldly possessions consisted of a team of horses, a cow, and 12 dollars in cash.

His first year on a rented farm in Grasshopper Township was a disastrous one, and the "hoppers" got his crops, even to a fine crop of cabbage, which he harvested and tried to cover up by piling hay upon the cabbages to keep the greedy "hoppers" from eating them.

Sad to relate, the grasshoppers burrowed down through the hay and ate the cabbage.

The following year was much better; Mr. Hubbard raising a fine crop of corn.

During his first year he raised a good flax crop which he sold for one dollar and forty cents per bushel. He was eventually able to invest in 220 acres of rich bottom land, bordering the Delaware River, at a cost of 14 dollars an acre.

Mr. Hubbard had saved $800 to make the initial payment on his tract and in 9 years succeeded in lifting the debt.

During the period in which he was paying off the indebtedness on his land he was also paying interest on the money at the rate of 10 per cent, annually.

He sold his first farm some years after this and invested in the fine tract of 72 acres which he now owns.

On June 12, 1913, he and Mrs. Hubbard decided that they had worked long enough and left the farm for a home in Muscotah.

Mr. Hubbard was married January 29, 1861 to Miss Mary Ann Pence, a native of Lycoming County, PA. Six children have been born to this worthy couple, namely: William Elsworth, a farmer of Kapioma Twp, Atchison County and the owner of 160 acres of well improved farm land who married Mattie Roth and have six children: Lewis Henry Hubbard, a farmer of this county, owner of 160 acres of land; he married Ann Hinxton and have two children: Lillie Jane, wife of Malcolm Connor, residing on a homestead in SD and they have 3 children; Cora May wife of Simeon Routh, Atchison County; they have six children. The other children are deceased.

All of Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard's children are prosperous and highly respected citizens of their respective communities, and are a credit and comfort to their aged parents, who are proud of the family.

Mrs. Hubbard was born Dec 27, 1839.

Few people in Atchison County can point to a better record than Mr. And Mrs. Hubbard, or can look back with greater satisfaction over long years well spent in achieving a livelihood and rearing a fine family to maturity.

They came to Atchison County at a time when Indians still roamed the prairies, and very little of the prairie land was improved. Mr. Hubbard is an old-line Democrat, and, while he has taken an active interest in political affairs in his township and county, he has never been an asp

irant for office, preferring to play the game for the pure love and fun of it rather than to become an aspirant for political honors. He and Mrs. Hubbard are members of the 2nd Day Adventuist Church of Muscotah.