This county, established February 26, 1883, was named in honor of Lucius Frederick Hubbard, governor of Minnesota from 1882 to 1887. He was born in Troy, N.Y., January 26, 1836; came to Minnesota in 1857, established the Red Wing Republican and was its editor till 1861; enlisted in December 1861 as a private in the Fifth Minnesota Regiment; within a year was promoted to be its colonel; and in December 1864 was brevetted brigadier general. In the Spanish-American War, 1898, he again served as brigadier general. In 1866 he engaged in the grain business at Red Wing and after 1870 also in flour milling. From 1877 to 1890 he took a leading part in the construction and management of new railway lines, built to promote the business development of Red Wing and Goodhue County. He was a state senator, 1872-75, and was governor, 1882-87, his second term consisting of three years on account of the change to biennial sessions of the legislature. He removed to St. Paul in 1901 and afterward lived there, except that his home during the last two years was with his son in Minneapolis, where he died February 5, 1913.

In the MHS Collections, vol. 13 ("Lives of the Governors of Minnesota," by Gen. James H. Baker, published in 1908), pages 251-81 give the biography and portrait of Gov. Hubbard, with extracts from his messages.

By an act of the legislature, April 16, 1889, Hubbard was appointed a member of a board of commissioners for preparing and publishing a history titled Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, 1861-1865. In this work of two volumes he contributed the "Narrative of the Fifth Regiment" (vol. 1, pp. 243-81), followed by the roster of this regiment (pp. 282-99), published in 1890.

Five other papers by Hubbard, relating to campaigns, expeditions, and battles of the Civil War, are in the MHS Collections 12: 531-638 (1908); and the same volume has also an article by him, titled "Early Days in Goodhue County" (pp. 149-66).