| Alice Hubbard Saloon Passenger Lost |
|
 image: Cleveland Plain Dealer, Saturday 8 May 1915. |
|
| Born | Alice Luann Moore 7 June 1861 Wales, New York, United States |
| Died | 7 May 1915 (age 53) At sea |
| Age on Lusitania | 53 |
| Ticket number | 46096 |
| Cabin number | B 70 |
| Traveling with | Elbert Hubbard (husband) |
| Body number | Not recovered or identified |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Residence | East Aurora, New York, United States |
| Other name(s) | none |
| Spouse(s) | Elbert Hubbard (1904 – 1915, their deaths) |
Alice Hubbard (1861 – 1915), 53, was accompanying her husband Elbert Hubbard on the Lusitania, where he would be going to Germany to interview Kaiser Wilhelm II. Elbert stated that he would go down with the ship if the Lusitania were torpedoed. The ship was torpedoed, and Alice willingly went down with the ship with Elbert, despite the efforts of others to convince them to save themselves. Alice and Elbert Hubbard were lost in the Lusitania sinking. Both of their bodies were never recovered or identified.
Life
Alice Moore was born in Wales, New York, United States on 7 June 1861 to Welcome Moore and Melinda Bush. She was educated at Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts and became a schoolteacher at East Aurora Academy in East Aurora, New York. In East Aurora she met Elbert Hubbard, and although the man was already married they carried on an affair resulting in a daughter, Miriam Elberta Hubbard, born in 1894.
Elbert, bored with his “commonplace” wife Bertha, divorced his wife in 1903 to marry Alice in 1904. An ugly scandal ensued and so Elbert carved another motto over the Roycrofters Inn, “They Will Talk Anyway.”
A forthright feminist, Alice exemplified the “New Woman.” in her lifetime she wrote six books. Her works include Justinian and Theodora (1906; with Elbert Hubbard), Woman’s Work (1908), Life Lessons (1909), and The Basis of Marriage (1910). The last book includes an interview with Alice Hubbard by Sophie Irene Loeb.
Lusitania
Alice was accompanying her husband on the Lusitania, where he would be going to Germany to interview Kaiser Wilhelm II. Elbert and Alice were in cabin B-70. Her husband made this remark about the German warning that appeared in the papers that morning:
“Speaking from a strictly personal point of view, I would not mind if they did sink the ship. It might be a good thing for me. I would drown with her, and that’s about the only way I could succeed in my ambition to get into the Hall of Fame. I’d be a regular hero and go right to the bottom.”
Throughout the voyage, Elbert was interviewed by Canadian reporter Ernest Cowper, with Alice sitting in on their interviews. As Cowper was writing for the Toronto publication Jack Canuck, Elbert often called Cowper “Jack.”
On Friday, 7 May, Elbert and Alice Hubbard were by the port side saloon class entrance, chatting with Charles Lauriat. Earlier in the voyage, Elbert Hubbard had lent Charles a copy of “Who Lifted the Lid Off Hell?” Elbert asked, “Do you really think I’ll be a welcome visitor in Germany?”
Hubbard had barely finished speaking when they felt a muffled impact, and “the good ship trembled for a moment under the force of the blow.” They turned to see where the sound was coming from and saw a “smoke and cinders flying up in the air on the starboard side.” A second explosion soon followed.
Lauriat suggested to the Hubbards that they go back to their portside B Deck cabin and retrieve their lifebelts. Alice Hubbard could not swim and seemed to be too stunned at what had happened to move. To Lauriat’s surprise, the Hubbards did nothing. Elbert “stayed by the rail affectionately holding his arm around his wife’s waist.”
“Stay here if you wish,” Lauriat told them, “I’ll fetch some life-jackets for you.”
Lauriat went below to fetch lifebelts for the Hubbards and himself, but when he came back he found that the Hubbards were gone. Lauriat searched for the couple over a dozen times and could not believe that they had just vanished into thin air. Archie Donald saw the Hubbards refuse a place in the lifeboats. Elbert remarked, “What is to be, is to be.”
Ernest Cowper, this time getting 6-year-old Helen Smith to safety, passed Elbert and Alice Hubbard. Elbert said, “Well, Jack, they have got us. They are a damn sight worse than I ever thought they were.”
Cowper asked, “What are you going to do?”
Elbert shook his head. Alice just smiled and replied, “There does not seem to be anything to do.”
Cowper was then taken by surprise when he saw Elbert and Alice retreat into a room on the Boat Deck and close the door behind them. Cowper surmised that the Hubbards planned to die together and did not want to be parted in the water. In his writings, Elbert had once philosophized, “We are here now, some day we shall go. And when we go we would like to go gracefully.”
Flags flew half-mast in East Aurora, where Elbert’s son Bert assured the Roycrofters, “My father’s not dead, nor Alice Hubbard. The news they are is false. They must have been saved.”
Bert then called his newspaper friend Arthur Brisbane to inquire of further news, but the news was not encouraging. Charles Hill thought that he had seen Elbert and Alice in his lifeboat, either #14 or #16, which subequently dumped much of its complement into the sea. Barber Lott Gadd, also in the same boat, disagreed.
True to his word, Elbert Hubbard and his wife became regular heroes and went down with the Lusitania. Their bodies, if recovered, were never identified.
Related pages
Elbert and Alice Hubbard at the Mixed Claims Commission
Links of interest
Alice Hubbard at the Roycrofters
Roycrofters At Large Association
Contributors:
Judith Tavares
References:
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to Disaster. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981.
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. Berkley Books, 2002.
Who’s Who in America, 1897-1942, page 600.
“Alice Moore Hubbard.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 24 July 2011. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Moore_Hubbard >.
1 thought on “Mrs. Elbert Green Hubbard (Alice Luann Moore)”
You must log in to post a comment.