Joseph Hobbins Dec 28, 1816 - Jan 24, 1894
Came to Madison in 1854 from England. An allopathic physician he was a member of the Royal
College of Surgeons, the Royal Horticultural Society, and a fellow of the Geological Society of England.
Originally planning to be a gentleman farmer, he settled on a parcel of land on the
southern shore of Lake Monona (now Ethelwyn Park). He moved back to town and resumed his
medical career after his onion crop, planted upside down, refused to take root. Eventually
he established a miniature experimental farm with over 130 species of grapes.
At the behest of Chancellor Lathrop he organized the medical department at the UW in 1855.
Elected Fourth Ward alderman in the first city election (1856), on the first city council for four years.
He took charge of sick Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners at Camp Randall during the Civil War.
