Between 1818 and 1827 Hubbard worked for John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company and made 26 trips between Chicago to Mackinac.  He changed the Illinois operations of the company avoiding the Chicago Portage by moving his goods on foot by backpack and ponies to the Indian camps instead of waiting for them to come to his, or a competitor’s, post.  He ultimately became the superintendent of all the Illinois trading posts. 

In 1827 he purchased the Illinois trading business from Astor and expanded his Iroquois River Station.  He acquired farmland and other property in and around Danville, Illinois, and began trading regularly between Chicago to the north and the Wabash River valley to the south.  He directed the trade until 1835 when the last of the Indians left the state and the fur trade ended.

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