EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a new weekly series on our region’s history offered in a collaborative effort by local historical societies. This article was submitted by the Hubbard Historical Society.

Pioneer Samuel Tylee lies undisturbed in a quiet cemetery along a very busy road.

At one time, Old North Cemetery, abutting North Main Street (state Route 7) north of the city square, was probably on the outskirts of town, a discrete distance from the town folk. Today, it abuts a four-lane thoroughfare linking Hubbard to points north, east and west thanks to nearby Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 62, the latter of which takes motorists on a quick jaunt into neighboring Pennsylvania.

Yet, Old North Cemetery, one of several cemeteries located in Hubbard City and Township, is a stoic reminder that Hubbard had a beginning, and there’s no better place to start this story than at the beginning.

Local history archives report that Hubbard Township originated as Township Three, Range One of the Connecticut Western Reserve, “the southeasternmost township of Trumbull County.” In 1798 it consisted of about 16,000 acres, which Nehemiah Hubbard Jr. of Middletown, Conn., purchased from the Reserve for about $1.25 per acre.

One can only imagine the “dense forest and uncultivated and unexplored territory” that Samuel Tylee, born in 1766, also of Middletown and hired by Hubbard to survey the land, met upon his arrival here.

“A dense forest, a howling wilderness, an occasional squatter and the savage Indians were all that greeted this daring adventurer,” noted the Rev. N.J. Drohan, pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church who came to this area in July 1889 and who was the foremost authority on the history of Hubbard from 1798 to 1907.

However, something about the area resonated with Tylee, because while he returned to Connecticut after the surveying was complete, he traveled back to this area in 1801 with his family — wife, Anna, children and his mother-in-law — in tow.

“It is said that Mr. Tylee’s wife was induced to follow her husband to the unsettled Ohio territory by a promise of 100 acres of land,” archives state. The family built a log cabin near a spring at the northwest corner of what is now School Street and Stewart Avenue. Native Americans are said to have utilized a nearby trail, stopping to visit with the Tylees from time to time. The cabin sufficed until 1818 when Tylee built a frame home a short distance away.”

Samuel Tylee, thus bestowed the distinction of being Hubbard’s first settler, became the local land agent for, aptly enough, the settlement of Tylee’s Corners, later to be named Hubbard in deference to its first landowner. The township was civilly organized in 1803 and other settlers, many from present day New Jersey and other eastern states, began arriving. By this time, the township had been subdivided into lots of 200 acres and the settlers worked the land as well as grew the community.

An ambitious man, Tylee served as justice of the peace (known as Squire Tylee) and storekeeper, and also built a grist mill, sawmill, distillery and ashery, as well as carding and cloth-fulling mills throughout his years. The emergency of coal mining in the 1860s brought many immigrants from other countries to this area and the community thrived.

In 1868, the village boasted enough residents to become an incorporated municipality. Nathaniel Mitchell took the oath of office as its first mayor on June 26, 1868. Coal mining eventually gave way to industry including a blast furnace, sintering mill and iron works. Various manufacturing followed, and today, Hubbard is the bustling city borne of the grit and determination of those early years and its first pioneer settlers.

So, what would Samuel Tylee say today, to see planes, trains and automobiles traversing the delicate boundaries of his age-old cemetery. Maybe, he would just exclaim, “Wow!” or then again, he might say, “Good job, Hubbard!”

And we might reply, “Likewise!”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This history was compiled and cross-referenced from several sources and is accurate to the best of our knowledge. The Hubbard Historical Society is headquartered at the 138-year-old McBride House at 27 Hager St. in Hubbard. The society has three regular meetings per year, a summer picnic and a Christmas party. For more information, email Robin Zambrini, secretary, at: robinzam56@yahoo.com.