Z 1279.001 Stubblefield (Bernard B.) Papers

Biography/History:

Nathan Beverly Stubblefield, farmer and inventor, was born in Murray, Calloway County, Kentucky, in 1860, the third of four sons, to William Jefferson Stubblefield and Victoria Frances (Bowman) Stubblefield. William Jefferson Stubblefield served as captain of the Seventh Kentucky Regiment of the Confederate Army during the Civil War, from 1861 until 1862, then returned home to practice law. William married Clara Janes, his children.s governess, after Victoria.s death at the age of thirty-three. William Stubblefield died of pneumonia on August 4, 1874, at age forty-four.

While attending a boarding school in Farmington, Graves County, Kentucky, Nathan Beverly Stubblefield met Ada Mae Buchanan (d. January 27, 1937) of Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky. The two were married on December 29, 1881. They had nine children--Fred J., Carrie J., Bernard Bowman, Pattie Lee, Victoria Edison, Nathan Franklin, Oliver Alfonso Jefferson, Helen Jo, and William Telsa--six of whom survived to adulthood. Nathan Beverly Stubblefield, aged fourteen when his father died, originally planned to become a lawyer as well, but later developed an interest in science: by age twenty, he had begun using articles from Scientific American and other magazines as a guide for his own experiments with electricity. He raised his family near Murray, on a farm owned first by his stepmother and then by his three oldest children, where he continued his research. He received patents for four of his inventions: a lamp-lighting device (1885), a mechanical telephone (1888), an electric battery (1898), and a wireless telephone (1908).

Stubblefield embarked on numerous business ventures to profit from his inventions, but none succeeded. In 1888, he established Murray.s first telephone system using his mechanical telephones, which were soon replaced by the Bell electric telephones. He cofounded the Wireless Telephone Company of America with businessman Gereld M. Fennell in 1902 to market his wireless telephones; the corporation collapsed later that year when Fennell was discovered to be a fraud. In 1907, he attempted to found an industrial school called Teleph-on-del-green in his home, but there is no indication that the school ever opened. The Stubblefield farm was sold by Bernard Bowman Stubblefield, Patti Lee Stubblefield and Victoria Edison Stubblefield in 1912, when they left home; Nathan Beverly Stubblefield and his wife separated in 1917. By 1921, the now-impoverished inventor was living in a small tenant house on the outskirts of a farm near Almo, Calloway County, Kentucky. He died in his home on March 28, 1928.

Bernard Bowman Stubblefield, printer and inventor, was born in Murray, Calloway County, Kentucky, on August 30, 1887, the third of nine siblings, to Nathan B. Stubblefield and Ada Mae (Buchanan) Stubblefield; he was the first of their children to survive to adulthood. Bernard Bowman Stubblefield, along with most of his siblings, was taught at home by their father; however, Bernard was the only one allowed to assist Nathan with his experiments. In 1912, Bernard sold his portion of the Stubblefield farm and left home, and on July 8, 1915, he enlisted in the United States Army for the first time, serving in the 83rd Company of the Coast Artillery Corps. Stubblefield was deployed in France during World War I from May of 1918 until January of 1919, during which time he participated in the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15-August 6, 1918) and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (September 26-November 11, 1918). Following his reenlistment on December 9, 1919, he was reassigned to the 12th Company, CAC Boston. Stubblefield received his final discharge from the Army on November 12, 1920, having reached the rank of corporal, and having received the World War I Victory Medal.

Following the war, Stubblefield lived in Boston, and then in New York City. He designed various inventions throughout his life, including radio components, electrical dynamos, and airplane wings. Only two of his inventions were patented, those being a primer for internal combustion engines (1918), and a T-square/ruler table attachment (1923). In 1919, he unsuccessfully attempted to sell his engine primer; in 1933, however, he submitted a design for a writing pen to Charles Bruning Co., Inc., of New York, from which company he received regular paychecks for the following two years. From April of 1937 until March of 1938, Stubblefield worked as a photostat operator for L. Daycoupay Photostats. He went on to found his own business, Mercantile Reprint Co., in New York: the company opened in 1943, and remained in operation through the mid-fifties. Stubblefield.s health began to deteriorate in his later years. In 1960, his doctor determined that he was physically incapable of working, due to injuries sustained during combat in France. By that year, he had moved to Florence, Rankin County, Mississippi, where he shared a home with his younger sister, Victoria Edison (Stubblefield) Bowman (November 11, 1892-June 23, 1967). He died in Florence on October 4, 1973, and was buried in Antioch Cemetery, Simpson County, Mississippi.

This addition to the Stubblefield collection contains:

• personal correspondence, December 22, 1925–December 12, 1972 (folders 1–3)
• a statement by Nathan Stubblefield to his daughter Victoria, concerning his possessions, May 14, 1917 (folder 4)
• a bill of divorce, Mrs. Victoria Whittaker Horn McGehee v. John Bryant McGehee, January 25, 1944 (folder 5)
• a withholding statement belonging to Victoria, 1952 (folder 6)
• a patent belonging to Nathan, May 12, 1908 (folder 7)
• a short sketch by Victoria entitled "The Magic Box," (folder 8)
• articles concerning the invention of radio (folder 9)
• a certificate of death for Olivar Stubblefield, July 12, 1962 (folder 10)
• Baldwin's Funeral Benefit Association Payment Receipt Books, September 1, 1947–February 17, 1950 (folder 11)
• an invitation to the Florence High School Commencement Exercises, 1963 (folder 12)
• Christmas cards (folder 13)
• payment receipts, 1962–1966 (folder 14)
• Bernard's Army discharge papers, November 2, 1920 (folder 15)
• a funeral purchase agreement from Baldwin Funeral Home for the late Bernard B. Stubblefield, October 4, 1973 (folder 16)
• photographs (folders 17–22)
• news clippings (folders 23–24)
• payment receipt pads of Bernard for rent, 1961–1968
• a pair of sunglasses
• a lock of Carrie Stubblefield's hair
• telephone and address pads