Zebediah Hugson is a boy who is a distant cousin of Dorothy Gale, apparently related through Dorothy's Aunt Em. He works for his uncle, Bill Hugson, at Hugson's Ranch in California, where he also lives. Zeb appears in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908).
Zeb first meets Dorothy at Hugson's Siding, when he picks her up in a carriage pulled by Jim the Cab-horse. On their way to the Hugson's Ranch, an earthquake causes everyone to fall into the earth and into the Land of the Mangaboos. Zeb, Dorothy, Jim, and Dorothy's kitten Eureka are soon joined by Oscar Diggs aka the Wizard of Oz. The travelers undertake a subterranean journey through the Valley of Voe, are briefly imprisoned in the Land of Naught, and encounter a cavern full of Dragonettes. Despite his reservations about being in a strange land, Zeb courageously defends his friends and helps them escape from the Land of Gargoyles by obtaining pairs of gargoyle wings.
After Ozma uses the Magic Belt to bring them to the Land of Oz, Zeb is welcomed as an honoured guest in the Emerald City. During the festivities held to celebrate the arrival of Dorothy and her friends, Zeb participates in a wrestling match with a Munchkin boy, which he loses, and then a boxing match, which Zeb wins. He later serves as one of the nine members of the jury during the trial of Eureka. While the Wizard accepts Ozma's invitation to remain in Oz, Dorothy, Zeb, and their animals decide to return home. Though Zeb remarks that Oz is a nice country, he admits that he and Jim feel out of place in a fairy country and wishes to return to Hugson's Ranch with Jim. Zeb's last evening in Oz is described as being so wonderful, he never forgot it as long as he lived.
