Dr. Pierce Hubert (1854 – 1933)
Special thanks to Bryan Shaw for sharing contributions to this post.
Dr. Pierce Hubert was among the medical men of Ray City, Georgia in the 1920’s. Dr. Hubert was a philanthropist, civic activist, Mason, checker champion, and public administrator.
It appears that Dr. Hubert and his wife moved from Louisville, GA 190 miles south to Ray City, Georgia sometime after 1920. An account statement from his medical practice shows that he was treating patients here in 1923, one being Francis Marion Shaw. A bill for the doctor’s treatment of Shaw’s “last illness” was found in the death papers of the deceased. Dr. Hubert was still using office stationery imprinted with his former place of business in Louisville, GA, carefully crossed out, and overwritten with his new location, in Ray City.
Dr. Pierce Hubert billed the estate of Francis Marion Shaw $5 for two visits to the deceased during his last illness leading up to his death. Image courtesy of Bryan Shaw.
Ray City, GA., March 1st, 1923
Mr. F. M. Shaw
In account with
Dr. Pierce Hubert1922
Sept 20 Visit &c self 2.00
” ” Night Visit self 3.00
$5.00
Georgia, Berrien County
Personally came before me Dr. Pierce Hubert, who being sworn says the above account of Five dollars is for professional services rendered the said F. M. Shaw, during his last illness and that the same is due, just and true and unpaid.Sworn to & subscribed
before me Mch 2nd 1923 Pierce Hubert M.D.
Dr. Hubert was also among the men present at the start-up of the Ray City Power Plant in 1923. The operation of the first electric lights was a big event in the small town.
Dr. Pierce Hubert grew up with his family in Warrenton, Warren County, Georgia. He was born in 1854 in Georgia, a son of Dr. Robert Wallace Hubert and Ann B. “Nancy” Turner. He attended medical school and graduated in 1876 from the Medical Department of Georgia University (now known as University of Georgia), as a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.). After achieving his degree, he returned to his parent’s house in Warrenton, GA and began practicing medicine.
In 1877 Dr. Hubert married Stella Hill Cody in Warren County, GA. Her father, James Cody, was a retired dry goods clerk. The 1880 census shows the young couple living in his parents’ household at Warrenton, GA.
In 1880 Dr. Hubert was a member of a small, private charity group of four prominent Warrenton citizens, who contributed to the Hood Orphan Memorial Fund. The fund was to provide for the ten orphan children of Confederate General John Bell Hood.
Orphan children of Confederate General John Bell Hood.
After the Civil War, General John Bell Hood moved to Louisiana and became a cotton broker and worked as a President of the Life Association of America, an insurance business. In 1868, he married New Orleans native Anna Marie Hennen, with whom he fathered 11 children over 10 years, including three pairs of twins. He also served the community in numerous philanthropic endeavors, assisting in fund raising for orphans, widows, and wounded soldiers. For awhile he flourished. But his insurance business was ruined by a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans during 1878–79 and he succumbed to the disease himself [on August 30, 1879], dying just days after his wife and oldest child, leaving 10 destitute orphans.
Personal mentions in the Atlanta newspapers noted in November 1880 Dr. Hubert visiting in Sparta, GA, about 24 miles southwest of Warrenton. His wife, Stella Hill Cody Hubert, died about September 15, 1882, and was buried at Warrenton Cemetery.
It appears that by 1884, Dr. Pierce had established his household at Sparta. He joined the American Legion of Honor, a Fraternal Beneficiary Society, which was active in the late 19th century and early 20th century. On July 17, 1884, at the Savannah meeting of the Georgia Grand Council of the American Legion of Honor, Dr. Hubert was elected Grand Secretary of the state organization. In 1888, he was again elected Grand Secretary; at that time, he had returned to reside in Warrenton, GA. He attended the annual meeting of July 16, 1891, in Griffin, GA and was returned to the post of grand secretary; he had moved to Louisville, GA by that time.
In its heyday, the American Legion of Honor was one of the best-known benefit societies. Membership was open to white men and women eighteen to fifty years of age. Originally the upper age limit was sixty-four, but this was reduced in 1885. There were initiation ceremonies but, if the candidate objected, these could be dispensed with, and a formal obligation could be taken at any time and place. Like Woodmen of the World and other fraternal benefits organizations, the American Legion of Honor provided life insurance to its members. The Legion reached its membership high point at the end of 1889 with 62,457 members. Like many fraternal organizations, the Legion ran into financial difficulties in 1895 and 1896. These were caused by a number of factors, including the Panic of 1896, an increased death rate, increased expenses and debts, “unusually high” assessments in 1896 and a lack of new members. The order went into receivership in August 1904.
About 1886 Dr. Hubert married Carrie De Beaugrine. She died in 1889 and is said to be buried in Sallie Hill Cemetery, Warrenton, GA.
By 1891, Pierce Hubert had moved to Louisville, Jefferson County, Georgia, where he was elected to serve on the county Board of Education in 1896.
In 1896, Dr. Pierce Hubert married a third time, to Hunter V. Fay. By the census of 1900 he appears with his wife and family in Louisville, Jefferson County, Georgia.10 He remained a resident and practiced medicine in Louisville for the next twenty years. In addition to his practice, he continued to serve on the Jefferson County School Board, his name appears in the Georgia Department of Education Records for 1897, and in 1904 serving a term through 1908.
When the American Anti-Tuberculosis League met in Atlanta, April 17-19, 1905, Dr. Pierce Hubert was a delegate from the 10th congressional district of Georgia. There were representatives appointed by the governors of every state in the union and from many foreign countries – No representatives were named from South Georgia. Governor J. M. Terrell tendered the Hall of the House of Representatives to the Georgia State Capitol for the use of the League during the meeting, and he delivered an address to the League at the opening session. [ It should be noted that at the time, nearly 80 percent of all tuberculosis deaths were African-Americans, but the medical response to the disease was as segregated as every other aspect of American life in the early 20th century. It was not until 1909 that a Colored Anti-Tuberculosis League was formed in Georgia, and among its stated purposes were shifting the burden of cost for care to African-Americans and reducing transmission of the disease from blacks to whites.]
In 1908 a Pierce Hubert appears in the Official proceedings Grand Lodge, Free Accepted Masons, State of Georgia, as a member of Stonewall Lodge No. 470.
Dr. Hubert, a serious devotee to the game of checkers, was regarded as one of the best players in the state of Georgia. He played in the first championship match of the Southern Checker Association in Atlanta in 1908.
A Classic Checker Match. The first championship of the Southern Checker Association was played in Atlanta in 1908. Dr. Hubert Pierce, who later practiced medicine at Ray City, GA was among the finalists.
The tournament was played in the firehouse at the corner of Washington and East Hunter streets, directly opposite the state capitol.
The Canadian Checker Player, a monthly magazine devoted to the game of draughts, reported the results of the 1908 Southern Checker Association tournament. Dr. Pierce Hubert ranked 13th in the region.
In 1910, the Huberts were in Augusta, GA. The Atlanta Constitution, November 27, 1910, reported,
Dr. and Mrs. Pierce Hubert and General John W. Clark, accompanied by his wife and a few friends, went down to Savannah for the unveiling of the Oglethorpe monument. John W. Clark, a Confederate veteran, successful businessman, and one of the most prominent citizens of Augusta, was among the foremost promoters of reunions and monuments to honor Confederate soldiers.
Dedication of the monument to General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia, unveiled Savannah, GA, November 23, 1910
Dr. Hubert was a founding member of the Jefferson County Medical Association, organized February 7, 1911, and was the group’s delegate to the state association.
In 1917, Dr. Pierce Hubert was one of four men appointed by Governor Nat E. Harris to the WWI Draft Registration Board for Jefferson County, GA. In Berrien County, the men appointed were Sheriff Joe Varn Nix, Clerk of the Superior Court James Henry Gaskins, Ordinary Joel Ira Norwood, and Dr. Lafayette A. Carter.
Sometime before 1930 Dr. Hubert retired from his medical practice. He and Mrs. Hubert moved on to Valdosta, GA. He died at the age of 78 on March 15, 1933, in Bibb County, Georgia. He was buried at Warrenton Cemetery, Warren County, GA.
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