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Roycroft Blog / Alice Hubbard's Birthday, June 7th

Elbert Hubbard’s 2nd wife, Alice Moore, was born on June 7, 1861. She was five years younger than Elbert. Her first career was as a school teacher which brought her to East Aurora. She boarded with the Hubbards because in those days single women could not live alone and her roommate was getting married. So Bertha Hubbard, Elbert’s first wife who was on the school board, offered Alice a room in her home.

Elbert and Alice enjoyed an intellectual friendship initially, which eventually blossomed into a love affair conducted secretly. The affair finally brought about Elbert and Bertha’s divorce, more than ten years later, with a daughter almost the same age.

After marrying Elbert, Alice took on multiple careers along with those of wife and mother. Journalist Sophie Irene Loeb wrote of Alice in 1910: “Besides being a mother, Alice Hubbard is a woman of varied occupation. She supervises the work in a manufacturing establishment employing five hundred people. She has charge of two unique hotels run as home, where visitors come from all over the globe. She is a writer on various subjects and assistant editor of two monthly magazines. She is the author of several books. She pays almost daily visits to her farm of three hundred acres, which provides all the food consumed in her extensive household.” (quote taken from the book, “Head, Heart and Hand” by Marie Via and Marjorie Searl, sold in the Roycroft Copper Shop).

Elbert was lucky to have such a talented manager for a wife. She made it possible for him to go on his extensive speaking engagements, keeping the Roycroft fires burning brightly behind him.

- Sue

Roycroft Blog / Roycroft Pavilion in Hamlin Park

The Pavilion in East Aurora’s Hamlin Park was built by the Roycrofters as a gift to the town. It was announced in the May 21, 1903 issue of the Advertiser that the pavilion was finished. The structure was described: “The main building is 60 X 30 feet and the wing is about 20 X 51 having a raised band stand and refreshment booth underneath.” Twelve years later, almost to the day, Elbert and Alice Hubbard’s memorial service was held in the Roycroft pavilion. Last weekend (2015), the building hosted the centenary observance of this solemn service.

- Sue

Roycroft Blog / Lusitania Centenary Series, No. 6

    As noted in the issue dated May 6, 1915 of the East Aurora Advertiser, the weekly local newspaper: “Mr. & Mrs. Elbert Hubbard left last week to spend some time in Europe, where Mr. Hubbard will go to the front as press correspondent.” 1

    Little did the rural town of East Aurora, or the world, know that the Lusitania was a day away from disaster. Mr. Hubbard was never to report on the war, as the next day, at 2:10 p.m. in the Irish Sea, the German submarine U-20 fired the torpedo that sank the ship Mr. & Mrs. Hubbard were aboard. They became two of the 1,198 civilian lives lost as the Lusitania went down.

     It only took 18 minutes for the ship to sink after the torpedo struck; such a short period of time in which to make life or death decisions in unimaginable chaos. Those that did manage to get clear of the sinking ship and dangerous debris then had to manage to stay afloat in the frigid water for hours waiting for rescue.   

     Hubbard had put his eldest son, "Bert," in charge of the Roycroft, and it was several days before everyone was convinced that Elbert and Alice had perished. Initial stories had sightings of Hubbard in the water, which raised Roycrofters hopes. Later, the story circulated that some survivors had seen Elbert and Alice walk away from the lifeboats and head back to their cabin, so they would not be separated at the end.    

    Join us in East Aurora during the month of May as we observe the centenary of this tragic event which, in an instant, changed the direction of the town’s largest enterprise, the Roycroft.

- Sue

1 East Aurora Advertiser, May 6, 1915, archived at the Aurora Town Historian’s office.

Roycroft Blog / Lusitania Centenary Series, No. 5

    Elbert and Alice Hubbard departed May 1, 1915 aboard the Lusitania despite warnings in New York newspapers from the German government that vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, were “liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers [sic] sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.”  It was rumored the U.S. was shipping ammunition to Britain via the Lusitania and Germany was determined to stop all supplies headed to Great Britain. 1 

    Churchill felt that there could be an advantage to Germany’s campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare as evidenced by his writing to the President of the Board of Trade that it was “most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hope especially of embroiling the United States with Germany . . . For our part we want the traffic - the more the better; and if some of it gets into trouble, better still.” 2

    Join us in East Aurora during the month of May as we observe the centenary of this tragic voyage which, in an instant, changed the direction of the town’s largest enterprise, the Roycroft. The quotes noted above are from the book, Lusitania, An Epic Tragedy. The author, Diana Preston, will speak at Parkdale Elementary School, in East Aurora on Friday, May, 1 at 7 p.m.

    Next week in this centenary series, East Aurora is none the wiser. 

 -Sue 

1 Lusitania, An Epic Tragedy by Diana Preston, p. 91.

2 Lusitania, An Epic Tragedy by Diana Preston, p. 76. 

Roycroft Blog / Lusitania Centenary Series, No. 4

    Before many of Elbert’s extended travels, on the eve of his departure, he would give a speech to his employees. Mr. & Mrs. Hubbard were headed to Germany. He was very sure of his own persuasive powers, and hoped to meet with the Kaiser to bring an end to the war. Following is Felix Shay’s memory of Hubbard’s last speech to his employees as written in Shay’s book, “Elbert Hubbard of East Aurora”:

    “Sunday evening, April the twenty-fifth, Nineteen Hundred Fifteen, Elbert Hubbard gave his last talk to the Roycrofters assembled in the Music Room of the Inn.

    “Within a week’s time he was to sail away on the Lusitania. He spoke: ‘Elbert Hubbard II will be your chief while I am away. You know Bert is a man who will give you a square deal. His hands are clean, his head is clear, his heart is in the right place. He is your friend.’

    “ ‘Mrs. Hubbard and I congratulate ourselves that during our absence the work will not in any way be retarded. We know that you will work together for the common weal and welfare of the Institution. And we also feel that should we not return to East Aurora, and the Roycroft, the little work we have done - the Ideals we have attempted to materialize - will be appreciated and carried forward.’

    “Three hundred of us sat there and listened. Probably not one realized that we were hearing his Last Farewell.

    “Days before, through some agency, he had been warned to “keep off the Lusitania.” But Hubbard was not the man to be bullied or bluffed or turned aside from his purpose, and that to see the War with his own eyes.

    “Even when he said, “God be with you till we meet again” I could not feel finality - it simply seemed he was to be gone for a few weeks and then to be back among us twice as interesting as ever.

    “Unlike most meetings of his, it ended in silence.

    “There seemed to be very little to say when the men and women went up to shake his hand, and to bid him God speed and a safe return.” 1

     

    Next week, in this series of blogs, the Lusitania departs from New York City. 

    East Aurora is observing the centenary of the sinking of the Lusitania with lectures and events during the month of May. Please come and share the history with us. 

 - Sue

 

1 Elbert Hubbard of East Aurora by Felix Shay, p. 548

Roycroft Blog / Lusitania Centenary Series, No. 3

    Last week, we discovered that Hubbard could not obtain a passport to go to Europe because he had been convicted of six felonies and had five suspended sentences. But he was determined to go. In his application for a pardon from the Department of Justice he wrote, “Technically my offense was a felony - actually it was a matter of bad literary taste, for which unhappily the law provides no penalty.” 1 

    President Woodrow Wilson signed a full and unconditional pardon for Elbert Hubbard on March 23, 1915, allowing Elbert and his wife Alice to proceed with their European trip. Unfortunately for them, they chose to book passage on the Lusitania in early May. 

    Next week, Hubbard’s last speech to his Roycrofters in East Aurora. 

 - Sue

1 Head, Heart and Hand, Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters by Marie Via and Marjorie B. Searl, p. 48. Sold at the Roycroft Copper Shop.