Pascal E. Hubbard to Thomas Jefferson, 9 January 1818
From Pascal E. Hubbard
Middletown Ct Jany 9th 1818.
Sir,
A young gentleman (in appearance) has lately arrived in this town by the name of “Thomas A. Massillon” & applied to me for employment as a clerk in my store
I have desired him to refer me to some person of whom I might enquire his character & he has referred me to you as a person who is well acquainted with him
Will you have the goodness to inform me whether1 you are acquainted with him or not & whether you think him qualified to take charge of a Wholesale store.—By answering the above enquiry you will greatly oblige your obedient & humble servant,—
Pascal E Hubbard.
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “Honbl Thomas Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 17 Jan. 1818 and so recorded in SJL.
Pascal E. Hubbard (1797–1857) was a Connecticut native who lived all or most of his life in Middletown. He suffered from a painful, debilitating form of rheumatism for a dozen years during his youth. Hubbard operated a wholesale store for a time, was an agent of the Norwich Fire Insurance Company and member of the town council in the 1840s, and kept a boardinghouse late in life. He died of consumption in Middletown (Middletown Middlesex Gazette, 20 July 1820; Samuel Green, Green’s Connecticut Annual Register, and United States Calendar, for 1841 [1841], 117; DNA: RG 29, CS, Conn., Middletown, 1850; Middletown Constitution, 30 Nov. 1842, 2 Sept. 1857; gravestone inscription in Old Farm Hill Cemetery, Middletown).
1. Manuscript: “whethr.”