WILLIAM HUBBARD. Born at the quiet rural village of West Liberty, on the southern border of Logan county, Ohio, on the seventeenth May, 1821, William Hubbard inhei"ited nothing but an honest name, a healthy constitution, and a vigorous intellect. Deprived of a father's care at an early age, he grew up under the guidance of a widowed mother, whose exemplary virtues, strong good sense, and patient industry, left their impress on the mind and character of her son. At that early day, the " log school-house " furnished almost the only means of edu- cation ; but with this, and that home training which every mother should be compe- tent to afford, William became well versed in all the usual branches of an English education. Early in the year 1832 he took his first lessons in the "art preservative of arts " — the pi'inting business — in the office of the Logan Gazette, a newspaper then edited and conducted, in Bellefontaine, by Hiram B. Strother. Here he served with fidelity, skill, and industry for seven years, when, early in 1839, he became the publisher of the paper, and continued as such for a period of six months. During all this time, as, indeed, in the years which followed, he employed his leisure moments in de- veloping his literary taste, and in the profound study of the best writers of prose and poetry. In the summer of 1841 he began his career as a school teacher in a district near his native village, in one of the ever-memorable, universal " people's colleges " of the times, the " log school-house." In this useful, but perplexing and ill-paid capacity, he continued most of his time, until the fall of 1845. Meantime, in 1841, he had de- termined to study the profession of law, and for that purpose became the student of Benjamin F. Stanton and William Lawrence, attorneys in Bellefontaine. His studies were somewhat interrupted by his duties as teacher, and by his literary pursuits, yet as he had made it a rule of his life never to do any thing imperfectly, he was not ad- mitted to the bar until he had become a thoroughly well-read lawyer, in the year 1846. In the fall of 1845, Mr. Hubbard was editor of The Logan Gazette, and, in 1847, becoming owner of the press, he has ever since been its editor and proprietor. As a political writer he has a wide and deservedly high reputation. Notwithstanding his duties as an editor, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Logan county, in 1848, and again in 1850, and, in that capacity, served with skill and abihty for four years, when he declined a re-election. In 1858 Mr. Hubbard received the nomination of the political party to which he belongs, as its candidate for Congress. He could scarcely hope for success in a dis- trict largely opposed to him politically, but though defeated, his vote was highly com- plimentary. In debates and addresses in that canvass, he added much to a local reputation as an orator. ( 444) I
