Hubbell, Jay A. (Jay Abel), 1829-1900

Jay Abel Hubbell (September 15, 1829 - October 13, 1900) was a politician and judge from the U.S. state of Michigan, who served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hubbell was born in Avon (now Rochester Hills), Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1853, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1855. He was elected district attorney of the Upper Peninsula in 1857 and 1859. Two years later, he began serving as prosecuting attorney of Houghton County from 1861 to 1867. In 1872, Hubbell was elected as a Republican to the 43rd and to the four succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1883 becoming the first to represent Michigan's 9th congressional district. Governor John J. Bagley appointed Hubbell as state commissioner to the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition, in which capacity he collected and prepared the state exhibit of minerals. During the 47th Congress he chaired the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior. After leaving Congress, he served in the Michigan state Senate from 1885 to 1887. The Upper Peninsula copper boom was more than forty years old when the Michigan Mining School (now Michigan Technological University) opened its doors in 1886. The collapse of many early mining ventures underlined a need for skilled mining engineers and the demand for a mining school in the Upper Peninsula intensified from the 1850's onward. Through the efforts of State Senator Jay A. Hubbell, the legislature eventually approved the establishment of such an institution at Houghton. Hubbell was also a presidential elector for Michigan in the 1892 election, and served as circuit judge of the twelfth judicial circuit from 1894 until his resignation in 1899. He died in Houghton, Michigan and is interred there at Forest Hill Cemetery.