It was a Toronto of a different era.

Fifteen-year-old William Hubbard and his parents — slaves who had escaped from Virginia and settled here — would open their daily paper only to be confronted by raw prejudice.

In a poison pen letter to The Toronto Times in 1857, Col. John Prince, a leading member of Ontario's Legislative Council, stated blacks were “necessary evils, only submitted to because white servants are so scarce.”

As a group, he said, blacks were “the greatest curse ever inflicted upon the magnificent counties which I have the honour to represent in the Legislative Council of this province . . . it has been my misfortune and the misfortune of my family to live among these blacks . . . .”

Yet young William Peyton Hubbard would go on to enter public life. His accomplishments included help for the most vulnerable, better transit and fire protection and strong, publicly owned hydroelectric and municipal water systems.

All this as the city's first black — and first visible minority — councillor.

Born in 1842 in a small cabin in the rural area near Bloor and Bathurst Sts. known as “the bush,” Hubbard was raised a devout Anglican.

Becoming a baker by profession, he both invented and patented a successful new commercial baker's oven, the Hubbard Portable. By the 1870s, he had married Julia Luckett, a high school sweetheart, and was working with his uncle's livery-cab chauffeur service.

It was a chance encounter with a famous mentor that inspired Hubbard's entry into public life.

On a cold winter morning in the early 1870s, Hubbard drove his horse-drawn cab down Don Mills Rd. and came upon an accident. In the distance was a man perilously close to the river's edge, in danger of plunging into the cold Don River.

Hubbard jumped out and saved him from drowning. It was George Brown, the noted Toronto abolitionist, newspaper editor and father of confederation. As a measure of gratitude, Brown hired Hubbard as his driver. Over time, they became good friends.

Years later, the fatherly Brown would urge his young friend to consider politics. However, it wasn't until 1893, at the age of 51, that Hubbard took the plunge, running for Toronto city council in Ward 4, an affluent area stretching from St. Clair Ave. down to the lakeshore, and bounded on its east and west sides by University Ave. and Bathurst St.

Defeated in a tight race by just seven votes, he didn't give up. The following year, Hubbard was elected in the quiet tree-lined ward, making history as the first non-white elected to public office in any major Canadian city. He would win 14 more elections.

Hubbard was first appointed to the powerful four-member Board of Control — then the city's inner cabinet — in 1898. The next year, he oversaw the move from cramped city premises in St. Lawrence Market to the handsome stone building at Queen and Bay we now call Old City Hall.

Hubbard advocated a major change in provincial law to have the all-powerful Board of Control elected city-wide, instead of council choosing from within. In 1903, Ontario approved the measure and in 1904, Hubbard was elected as one of the first controllers, also becoming the first and — still to this day — only visible minority ever elected based on a city-wide vote.

Responsible for passing almost 100 civic initiatives in his years on council, Hubbard pushed for improved waterworks, road upgrading and for the authority to enact local improvement bylaws.

A strong and early advocate for the City of Toronto's interests, Hubbard served as a member of the nation's first and largest municipal body, the Union of Canadian Municipalities, where he encountered racism head-on.

Debating a resolution on municipal debt at the 1903 UCM convention, a councillor from Galt, Ont., opposed Hubbard saying, “there is always one n----r in the fence in the larger cities.”

Hubbard went on to win the motion 24-10.

The peak of Hubbard's political career came in 1906, when he received 15,035 votes for controller, more than almost any council member to that point.

Yet by 1907, Hubbard's support began to wane. His vote total fell by 6,500 — 10,000 votes behind top vote-getter, Controller John Ward.

Hubbard and Sir Adam Beck were both pushing hard for a publicly owned hydro system, and they were the first in Ontario to coin the slogan “public power.” Chairing a special council committee, Hubbard spearheaded efforts that led to the creation of the Toronto Hydro-Electric system.

In 1908, Hubbard was defeated for the first time, partly because some resented his advocacy of hydro. He was opposed by businesses and corporate leaders who wanted hydro to remain private. Hubbard lost a number of friends and backers. With his political career having collapsed — finishing fifth in a field of 15 candidates for Board of Control — he was sworn in as a justice of the peace for York County in May, 1908, at the age of 66.

Hubbard would return to city council in 1913, only to retire at the end of the year due to his wife's ill health. On April 30, 1935, he died of a stroke at his home on Broadview Avenue near Danforth.

Despite being a role model for several decades, conditions had not automatically improved for blacks in Toronto. Hotels — including the Royal York, the city's pre-eminent establishment — had continued to bar blacks, as did theatres and restaurants.

Lincoln Alexander, a former Conservative cabinet minister and lieutenant-governor of Ontario, remembers it was not easy growing up black in Ontario in the same decade that Hubbard died.

“Toronto was an awful place to live (in the 1930s and 1940s) because the opportunities weren't there. You weren't needed, and you were told so. Discrimination was rampant. They didn't pay attention to you in numbers because you weren't there in numbers, so they didn't have to worry about your political power.”

Today, William Hubbard occupies a place of honour within the City of Toronto. An official oil painting of him hangs in the mayor's office. It is a tribute to the courage, spirit, determination and accomplishments of the city's first non-white elected official.

Mark Maloney is writing A History of the Mayors of Toronto.