Thomas Jefferson Hubbard (1806-April 24, 1877) was an Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 pioneer

Pioneer

A pioneer is a soldier employed to perform engineering tasks. The term is in principle similar to sapper.Pioneers were originally part of the Artillery branch of European armies. Their primary job was to assist other Arms in tasks such as construction of field fortifications or military camps...

 and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 who was acquitted of murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 charges in the first American murder trial in what is now the state of Oregon. At the trial the murder was determined to be justifiable homicide

Justifiable homicide

The United States' concept of justifiable homicide in criminal law stands on the dividing line between an excuse, justification and an exculpation. It is different from other forms of homicide in that due to certain circumstances the homicide is justified as preventing greater harm to innocents...

.

Early life

Thomas Hubbard was born in Kinderhook

Kinderhook (village), New York

Kinderhook is a village located in the Town of Kinderhook in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,211 at the 2010 census.The Village of Kinderhook is located in the south-central part of the town on US 9....

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, in 1806. By 1834 he had left New York and joined Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth

Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth

Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth was an American inventor, ice harvester, and explorer and trader in the far west.-Early life:Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Jacob and Elizabeth Wyeth...

’s expedition to Oregon Country

Oregon Country

The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...

 where Wyeth attempted to set up a fur trading network.

Oregon

In September 1834 the Wyeth party reached Fort Vancouver

Fort Vancouver

Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...

 and they began constructing Fort William

Fort William (Oregon)

Fort William was a fur trading outpost built by American Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth in 1834. It was located on the Columbia River on Wappatoo Island in what is now part of Portland, Oregon. It was the site of a murder and the first Euro-American trial in what is now the state of Oregon...

 down river on Wapato Island

Sauvie Island

Sauvie Island, in the U.S. state of Oregon, originally Wapato Island or Wappatoo Island, is the largest island along the Columbia River, at 26,000 acres , and the largest river island in the United States...

. Here Hubbard served as the fur post’s gunsmith. Then the next year Hubbard was accused of murdering the fort’s tailor, Thornburgh. In the subsequent trial overseen by Wyeth’s friend and naturalist John Kirk Townsend

John Kirk Townsend

John Kirk Townsend was an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.Townsend was born in Philadelphia and trained as a physician and pharmacist. He developed an interest in natural history in general and bird collecting in particular...

, Hubbard was found not guilty as the death was ruled justifiable homicide. The fight that lead to the death had been over a native girl named Mary Sommata, who he would then marry on April 3, 1837, with the Reverend Jason Lee

Jason Lee (missionary)

Jason Lee , an American missionary and pioneer, was born on a farm near Stanstead, Quebec. He was the first of the Oregon missionaries and helped establish the early foundation of a provisional government in the Oregon Country....

 presiding over the nuptials.

Next in 1841 he participated in cattle venture

Star of Oregon (event)

The Star of Oregon episode of American history began in 1840 and ended in 1843. This enterprise by pioneers in the Willamette Valley of present-day Oregon consisted of building a ship they named Star of Oregon and then sailing it to California in order to bring back cattle to Oregon Country...

 where he and others built a ship

Star of Oregon (ship)

The Star of Oregon was a schooner sailing vessel of the mid-19th century used on the west coast of North America. It was the first American sailing ship built in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. Pioneer settlers built the ship from 1840 to 1842 in order to sail it to California and exchange it...

, and then sailed it to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 where they sold it and purchased cattle to drive back to Oregon. Then in 1843 Hubbard participated in the Champoeg Meetings

Champoeg Meetings

The Champoeg Meetings in Oregon Country were the first attempts at governing in the Pacific Northwest by United States European-American pioneers. Prior to this, the closest entity to a government was the Hudson's Bay Company, mainly through Dr...

 where he served on several committees and voted for the creation of the Provisional Government of Oregon

Provisional Government of Oregon

The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849. Created at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region, this independent government...

. When war with the Native Americans came in 1847 after the Whitman massacre, Hubbard built and donated a rifle and pistol to the government. Later he moved to Yamhill County

Yamhill County, Oregon

-National protected areas:*Siuslaw National Forest *Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 84,992 people, 28,732 households, and 21,376 families residing in the county. The population density was 119 people per square mile . There were 30,270...

where he built a sawmill before dying on April 24, 1877.