Immediately following the 1859 dissolving of the Roxbury, Massachusetts firm of Chubbuck & Campbell, Stillman E. Chubbuck partnered with son Isaac Y. Chubbuck to establish S. E. Chubbuck & Son to manufacture steam engines, boilers, and custom machinery. They began in Roxbury but quickly built a new factory and boiler shop on Tremont Street in Boston. By 1861 younger son Stillman E. Chubbuck, Jr., had joined the business which became S. E. Chubbuck & Sons.

The business, employing about 50 in 1868, did most of its business in building steam engines and boilers. The elder Chubbuck had already earned a reputation as a skilled mechanical problem-solver and he maintained a business in designing and building custom machinery for manufacturing items such as leather belting, tin-lined lead pipes, and multi-color wallpaper.

The business survived until at least 1897, by which time they were specializing in brewers' machinery.

Information Sources

• 1859-10-12 Practical Machinist bottom of page 6: classified ad that reads in its entirety, "S. E. Chubbuck & Son, Practical Machinists, Roxbury, Mass."
• 1859-11-19 Scientific American page 336, has an illustrated article on "Chubbuck's fan governor"
• 1860 Albany Directory, Advertising section page 39, ad for "S. E. Chubbuck & Son, practical machinists, Tremont street, near Boston Line, Roxbury, Mass., manufacturers of steam engines and boilers... S. E. Chubbuck (Late of the firm Chubbuck & Campbell,) I. Y. Chubbuck." The 1860 Boston Directory carries the identical ad, as does the 1860 New England Business Directory.
• 1861 Boston Directory, advertising section page 65, ad for "S. E. Chubbuck & Sons, practical machinists, Tremont street, near Boston Line, Roxbury, Mass. Manufacturers of steam engines and boilers... S. E. Chubbuck (Late of the firm of Chubbuck & Campbell,) I. Y. Chubbuck, S. E. Chubbuck, Jr."
• 1866 Roxbury Directory, page 48, lists "Chubbuck Charles P. machinist, boards 13 Franklin place / Chubbuck Hiram H. machinist, boards 13 Franklin place / Chubbuck Isaac Y. (S. E. Chubbuck & Sons) house 150 Wash, opposite Shawmut avenue / Chubbuck Stillman E. & Sons (Isaac Y. Chubbuck & Stillman E. Chubbuck, jr.) machinists, Tremont, near Boston line, house 13 Franklin place / Chubbuck Stillman E. jr. (S. E. Chubbuck & Sons) machinist, h. 13 Cottage, near Myrtle". Listed elsewhere in the directory as employees of S. E. Chubbuck & Sons are Albert Thayer (machinist, b. 64 Vernon), Henry F. Thayer (clerk, house Sumner place c. Cabot).
• 1868 Boston Directory page 879, full page ad for "S. E. Chubbuck & Sons, Practical Machinists, 971 Tremont street, Near Chickering's Factory, Boston, Mass. / Manufacturers of Steam Engines, Machinery & Boilers; Steam Heating Apparatus for public buildings, factories and dwelling-houses... S. E. Chubbuck. I. Y. Chubbuck. S. E. Chubbuck, Jr."
• 1868 book A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860, by J. Leander Bishop, pages 301-303.

  Chubbuck & Sons' Machine Works

  At Roxbury, are by no means remarkable for the extent or peculiarity of the buildings, which consist simply of a two-story frame structure, ninety by thirty-five feet, with a boiler shop in the rear, eighty by thirty feet. These are well filled, in fact crowded, with such tools and appliances as are ordinarily found in machine shops employing about fifty hands; but neither in buildings nor in tools is the concern more than a fair representative of many similar Works in New England and in other portions of the county. Nevertheless, Chubbucks' Works are of national importance, and all who have difficult problems to solve in mechanics, regard them as the home of the prophet, the Mecca of America.

  The founder and senior member of this firm has the reputation of being one of the most skilful machinists of which our country, though fruitful in men of this class, can boast. He felt at an early age such an irresistible disposition toward the mechanic arts, that, it is said, when a mere boy he walked a hundred and fifty miles to obtain a situation in a machine shop. After much disappointment he obtained entrance into the shop of Mr. Elias Strange, of Taunton, where, though not regularly instructed, his mechanical talent was so far developed that in little more than a year he was intrusted with the repairing of the machinery of a cotton mill which had been run by Mr. Bigelow, of Loom notoriety.

  After the accomplishment of that work, being only nineteen years of age, he was made Superintendent of the Machine shop of the Boston Ironworks Company; and after several years' service there he was for a considerable period connected with the repairing and running of engines on the Boston and Providence Railroad.

  Having now become too decidedly a master of his profession to remain an employee, he, in company with Mr. J. C. Pratt, opened in 1843 the first regular Machine Shop in Roxbury. In 1847, Mr. Pratt was succeeded by Mr. B. F. Campbell, establishing the firm of Chubbuck and Campbell.

  As early as 1844, Mr. Chubbuck devised the form of engine known as the "Chubbuck pattern," or "Gothic pattern," of which large numbers are now made every year by himself and others. He also originated a new form of Governor, substituting a Fan for the ordinary Ball Governor, which has been applied to a large number of engines and found to perform the offices of a regulator with remarkable efficiency. This Governor has been improved by one of his sons, who in 1858 received a patent for his invention. After the dissolution of the firm with which he was connected, Mr. Chubbuck, in 1859, erected his present Works, which are located near the Boston line and near Chickering's mammoth piano manufactory. They are designed mainly for the building of stationary engines and boilers, but so widely has Mr. Chubbuck's fame spread as a skilful mechanic, that they are resorted to by all who have something novel in machinery to construct, and at times are a complete curiosity-shop. Of the Engines built here, those of the Boston Belting Company and Boston Lead Company, of one hundred and twenty and one hundred and sixty horse-power capacity, are among the largest; and much of the machinery of both these establishments was designed as well as constructed by him. In the day when the plain tubular boiler, invented by Mr. James Nason [actually, it was Joseph Nason], was not thought likely to come into general use, the first one made in the vicinity of Boston was built in the shop of Chubbuck and Campbell. Though the constructing of Stationary Engines may be called the prominent item in the business done at Mr. Chubbuck's Works, his usefulness in his profession is not to be measured by his achievements in this direction. Under the head of "miscellaneous," his ingenuity is continually serving as the handmaiden of other men's purposes. If an engine become mysteriously inoperative, or perhaps broken down, Mr. Chubbuck is the man who is relied upon as a final resort to rejuvenate it; if a manufacture conceives a new result in his business, Mr. Chubbuck is the man who is expected to adapt it, and invent means and machinery for its accomplishment. The first large and important Paper-Hangings Printing Machine ever made in the vicinity of Boston, an eight-color machine, was made and largely devised by him. The Rubber machinery in use has had the benefit of his mechanical genius. Among his latest inventions is a new Elevator, very simple and effective, in which the friction of a wooden roller serves a purpose hitherto accomplished by a more complicated apparatus.

  Mr. Chubbuck's sons, who are associated with him in the firm, share their father's fondness for intricacies in machinery, and are efficient coadjutors in the business.

• 1881 The Memorial History of Boston James R. Osgood & Co. page 89.

  The first regular machine shop in Roxbury was started in 1843 by Mr. J. C. Pratt, who in 1847 was succeeded by the firm of Chubbuck and Campbell. Mr. Chubbuck, of this firm, had previously made improvements in engines, and is well known as the constructor of novel and ingenious machinery. The first tubular boiler made in the vicinity of Boston was constructed by Messrs. Chubbuck and Campbell.

• 1881 Annual Reports of the Town Officers of Brookline, page 217, lists "S. E. Chubbuck & Son, machinists / 37.04" among payments made for a project of "Moving pumping-station to Cow Bay".
• 1882 Documents of the City of Boston page 81, in a listing of payments related to the City Hospital: "S. E. Chubbuck & Sons, 227.95".
• 1883 Annual Report of the City Auditor of Boston, page 77, lists "S. E. Chubbuck & Son" as having received a payment of $92.30 from the city for repairs on buildings and fixtures for the City Hospital.
• 1897 book, Practical Running of an Ice and Refrigerating Plant, page 110, has a full page ad from "S. E. Chubbuck & Sons, Brewers' Machinists, building and repairing of brewers' machinery a specialty. General Machinery built and repaired. Chubbuck Piston, 25 years in use.... 971 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass."
• American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 54
• Findagrave.com entry for Stillman E. Chubbuck (1812-1900, which in turn has links to the entries for Isaac Y. Chubbuck (1835-1919) and Stillman E. Chubbuck, Jr. (1839-1917). It says that the senior Chubbuck's parents were Lot Chubbuck and Elizabeth B. Faunce. A genealogy site has a page for Lot Chubbuck (1787-1820). Other genealogy sites gave middle names: Stillman Eldridge Chubbuck and Isaac Young Chubbuck. We also learned that Harriet Francis (Chubbuck) Thayer (1833-1858), daughter of the senior Chubbuck and sister to Isaac and Junior, was married to a clerk at S. E. Chubbuck & Sons, Henry F. Thayer (1827-1922).