Hubbard and Lyman was a manufacturing partnership in Springfield, Massachusetts. The two principals -- Moses Lyman and Jason Hubbard, both Massachusetts natives born in 1815 -- were listed in the 1850 census as harnessmakers, and harnesses accounted for the bulk of their business. The 1850 manufacturing census lists the partnership as doing an annual business of about $10,000. Hubbard and Lyman employed eight workers (to whom they paid wages of about $300 per month) and had about $3,000 invested in the business.

Early in the 1850s the partnership ended when Jason Hubbard disappeared, either through death or desertion. His wife Sarah (born in Massachusetts in 1820) continued to appear in the Springfield directories into the 1860s. Moses Lyman then went into business with Arthur Moore. However, by 1860, Moses was dead, leaving his widow Nancy (age 38) and at least three children -- George (14), Mary (13), and Frances (11).