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Register of the Harry D. Hubbard Papers,
1923-1950
Mss40
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Table of contents
Title: Harry D. Hubbard Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1923-1950
Collection number: Mss40
Creator:
Extent: 5.75 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Harry D. Hubbard Papers, Mss40, Holt-Atherton
Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Harry Dorris Hubbard (1889-1970) had an active, enquiring intellect, a
fluent pen, and an unlimited gift for self-promotion. He was both a huckster
and a self-taught local historian of some importance, whose work was produced
(and remains in) virtual obscurity.
Hubbard spent his early years in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, where
his mother had gone to cure her tuberculosis. From age fifteen, Hubbard worked
in steam laundries to help support his mother and sister. In 1909, he moved the
family to California, where he entered the Mare Island Naval Electrician's
Academy. Following graduation from the Academy, Hubbard served in the U.S. Navy
for some years. During the First World War he was an inspector for Holt
Tractor's tank engines. In 1918 he located in Stockton, Calif., where he worked
first for Holt, then for Samson Seive-Grip Tractors.
In 1925 Hubbard opened a Stockton automotive electrical supplies store
which he operated until 1929. During this period of his life Hubbard became
interested in psychoanalysis and, through a correspondence course, earned a
"doctorate" in psychoanalysis which he parleyed into a regular advice column
with a Stockton newspaper. In 1930 Hubbard began teaching vocational education
at Stockton High School. At about the same time, he commenced the study of
economics at the College of the Pacific. In 1935 Hubbard received a B.A. from
the College and took a job as a mainte-nance engineer with the U.S. Post
Office. From that year until his retirement (1955) Hubbard wrote copiously and
promoted his writings--in both printed and broadcast form--with indefatigable
zeal.
His output included a general history of the San Joaquin county area,
radio dramatizations of portions of this history, a biography of Mariano
Guadalupe Vallejo, a history of commerce on the San Joaquin River, a history of
savings and loan institutions in California, and numerous short stories. His
published works are Building the heart of an empire (1938), Vallejo (1941), and
The Bobcat of Hell's Gulch (1968). Hubbard arranged for a performance of part
of his Building the heart of an empire at the San Francisco International
Exposition (1939-1940).
The Hubbard Papers consist of notes and drafts for most of Hubbard's
published and unpublished writings. His local history research is informed by a
knowledge of economic factors that was unusual for the day. His papers possess
additional importance in that Hubbard is probably the last historian to have
interviewed Julia Weber, daughter of the founder of Stockton, Charles M. Weber
III, the founder's grandson, and Louisa E. Vallejo de Emparan, the last
surviving daughter of M. G. Vallejo.