The following biographical outlines are given by Rev. L. Hand of Polk City, Iowa:
“George Francis Hubbard was born in Ipswich, Mass., May 12th, 1841, and so had passed his 35th anniversary. His parents removed to Claremont, N. H., before he was a year old, in which place he spent his childhood and youth. He studied at Meriden Academy, Dartmouth College, and Harvard Medical School. His first professional work was in St. John’s College Hospital in Annapolis, Md., during the war. He came to Polk City eleven years ago last September, and a year later was married to Eliza E. Tone, who survives him with three daughters. His life work has been here; here he has won his fortune, his good name and a warm place in the affections of our citizens. During these eleven years he has applied himself with great diligence to his professional work. Few men have been able to endure so much labor and fatigue. You all know of his long rides, sometimes lost on the prairie in the stormy night, long seeking some known object to guide his way, sometimes swimming his horse across the high river.
“During this time he has studied to keep abreast with the progress made by his profession, reading medical journals, attending the meetings of the profession and most of the time directing the reading of a student in his office. Few physicians carry to their patients more of sympathy and personal interest, making his visits more like those of a wise friend than that of a professional man. A man who was very intimate with him for years, told me that few persons knew how severely he studied his cases. There is a limit to the sympathy any one man can give, but no one could come nearer to carrying every patient upon his heart as though it were that of a personal friend. His bearing was that of modest self-distrust which forbore claiming to fully understand his work or making large promises of cure. He carried to the sick bed a cheery kindliness, mingled with that dignity and self-reliance which quickly commanded confidence.
“As a citizen he had that public spirit which made him prompt to sustain our educational and religious institutions, or any interest that promotes the public weal. As a member of our Common Council he stood alone in opposing the change in an ordinance which opened the door for the licensing of saloons in our village. He has long been a member of the orders who have charge of this burial service to-day.
