From Oklahoma to the Valley

The Hubbard Family History

compiled by Charlene Hubbard Delossantos
Stockton, California

Welcome, and thank you for stopping by. My name is Charlene Delossantos. I was born a Hubbard in Caddo County, Oklahoma, in 1930, and I have lived in Stockton since I was ten years old. I was a school secretary for twenty-six years, and when I retired I finally had time for the thing I had always wanted to do, which was find out where we all came from.

I have been at it for ten years now, with notebooks and shoeboxes and a great many letters to courthouses. At Christmas my daughter Karen gave me a computer and showed me how to put a page on the Internet, so since January I have been typing it all up, one generation at a time. I type with two fingers and a great deal of patience. If you are a Hubbard, a Pearson, a Bumgardner or a Phillips, or you think you might be related to any of the people here, I would dearly love to hear from you.

The Generations

• Generation One: The Homesteaders
  Theodore and Etta Hubbard, who made the Run into the Cherokee Strip in 1893, and Nathan and Hortense Pearson, who came over from Arkansas in a wagon in 1901.
  
  
• Generation Two: Walter and Lila
  My parents, who left Oklahoma in a 1929 Chevrolet in 1937 with three children and forty dollars, and made a life in California.
  
  
• Generation Three: Fred and Charlene (coming soon)
  My own family, with my husband Fred, whose father came to Stockton from the Philippines in 1926. That is a whole story of its own, and I want to do it justice, so it will take a little while longer.

The Family Tree

Here is the tree as far as I have it. The dates come from census records, Bibles, headstones and courthouse papers, and you will find my sources on each generation's page. A question mark means I am not sure yet.

• Theodore Hubbard (1864-1931), born in Tennessee
  married 1889 Etta Bumgardner (1870-1944), born in Missouri
  • Ralph Hubbard (1890-1962)
  • Miriam Hubbard (1894-1979)
  • Henry Hubbard (1898-1918)
  • Walter Hubbard (1905-1971)
  • Julia Hubbard (1908-1990)

• Nathan Pearson (1868?-1935), born in Arkansas
  married 1897? Hortense Phillips (1874-1952), born in Missouri
  • Catherine Pearson (1904-1983)
  • Lila Pearson (1908-1988)
  • Paul Pearson (1911-1944)

• Walter Hubbard married 1926 Lila Pearson
  • Chester Hubbard (1927-1993)
  • Charlene Hubbard (1930- ), that's me, married 1951 Fred Delossantos
  • Gerald Hubbard (1933- )
  • John Hubbard (1939- ), the first Californian

My Brick Walls

Every family researcher has a few people she simply cannot find. These are mine. If any of these names mean something to you, please write.

1. Theodore Hubbard's parents. Grandpa always said his father died in the War Between the States when Theodore was a baby, and that he was raised by an uncle in Tennessee. I have not found the father, the uncle, or which side they were on.
2. Etta Bumgardner's mother. Etta's Bible gives her mother's name as Lula, and nothing more. No maiden name, no dates. Etta was born in Missouri in 1870 and the family was in Sumner County, Kansas, by 1880.
3. Nathan Pearson, 1880 to 1900. He is a boy of twelve in Arkansas in 1880, and a married man in Arkansas in 1900, and the census in between burned. I don't know which Pearsons were his parents.
4. Hortense's father, James Phillips. Of Missouri. Do you have any idea how many James Phillipses there were in Missouri? I do.

Research Tips from a Beginner Who Isn't One Anymore

• Talk to your oldest relatives now. Not next summer. Now. I waited too long with my mother's sister Catherine and I will always be sorry.
• The census is your best friend. The federal census is open to the public from 1790 through 1920. The 1930 census won't be opened for another six years, because they keep them closed for seventy-two. Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire in Washington in 1921, which is why so many of us have a hole in our families right there.
• Use the Soundex. There are indexes on microfilm that group names by how they sound, so Bumgardner and Bumgarner and Baumgardner all come out together. That is how I found Etta's family in Kansas, spelled a way I never would have looked for.
• Where to read the film. The National Archives branch in San Bruno has the census films, and so does the Family History Center at the LDS church here in Stockton. You don't have to be a member. The volunteers are wonderful, and they can order nearly any film from Salt Lake City for a small fee. It comes in a few weeks and you read it right there.
• Write to the county courthouse. Marriage licenses, deeds, probate files. Keep the letter short, say exactly what you want and what years, and send a stamped envelope for the answer. Be nice to the clerks. They don't have to help you.
• Homestead papers. If your people proved up a homestead, the land office case file may be at the National Archives in Washington. Theodore's had his neighbors' sworn statements about his house and his well.
• Look at the family Bible. Then look again, at the inside covers and the loose papers. My grandmother tucked a funeral card into Psalms.
• Write down where you found everything. Every time. You will thank yourself.