Born in 1829, Jay Abel Hubbell spent his youth on farms in the area around Avon, Michigan. He attended schools in Romeo and Rochester, continuing on to Ann Arbor where he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1853. He continued into law school and was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1855. Moving to the Upper Peninsula in 1855, Hubbell began an extensive legal and political career in Michigan’s developing copper mining district. He was twice elected district attorney for the U.P. while residing in Ontonagon and, following his relocation to Houghton, was elected to three terms as prosecuting attorney for Houghton County. Following retirement from his law practice, Hubbell was elected in 1872 as United States congressman for the 9th District, an area which included the entire U.P. as well as eighteen counties in the Lower Peninsula. He served five successive terms in the Congress. He also served three terms as chairman of the National Republican Congressional committee. Hubbell attempted to retire from political life in 1883, but was encouraged by friends in Houghton to continue his public service. He was elected for a single term in the Michigan state Senate in 1885 and as circuit court judge in the Copper Country from 1894 to 1899. While a state senator, Hubbell was made aware of a letter published by J. Parke Channing in the Marquette Mining Journal calling for state government to establish a mining school in the Upper Peninsula. He worked with Channing to gather political support for a bill in the state legislature. On May 1, 1885, the state passed a new act establishing the Michigan Mining School. Hubbell’s legislative acuity also brought an initial appropriation of $15,000 for the new school, which convened its first classes in rented space above the Houghton fire hall in 1886. Perhaps as important, Hubbell donated five city lots that he owned on the eastern outskirts of Houghton for a new campus. He was appointed to the school’s board of control and served as board president. He died in Houghton in 1900 and is interred there at Forest Hill Cemetery. Following his death, the school's first building was renamed Hubbell Hall in his honor.