Emma Jane Hubbard (McBride)

Emma Jane Hubbard was born on April 7, 1892 in Pima, Graham county, Arizona. Shortly after her birth, her family moved across the Gila River, only a short distance, to what was later known as Hubbard, Arizona, named for her father.

Emma was the fifth child of twelve children of her father, Elisha Freeman Hubbard and her mother, Almera Wilson Hubbard. The child born just preceding her, Rebecca, died soon after birth.

Her father had another wife before he married Almera Wilson, whose name was Agnes Archibald, and he and this wife, also had children.

Emma met the recently widowed Don Carlos McBride, who already had three children. My mother wrote the following in her personal history: "I lived in the Hubbard Ward all my life, up to then, and helped in the home ward as most of the young folk did then. One Sunday in June of 1913, I went to church as usual, noticed we had stake officers visiting the ward. During the meeting, a man, one of the stake visitors, came down in the audience to speak with me. I was surprised that he came to me. Some of my friends thought he was asking me to keep house for him, as he had three motherless children to care for, but he had asked the Bishop to appoint a genealogical representative in the ward. The Bishop had told him there was a Sister Hubbard he believed would be all right, and told him to talk to her about it as he, the Bishop, did not understand about it himself. So that was my first introduction to Don c. McBride. I knew him when I saw him and had for a long time, but he never even knew I existed. He, as a stake officer, and I, as a ward officer, became quite well acquainted, and by December, 1913, were planning to get married. Then through a little misunderstanding we quit keeping company for about two months. I surely found I wanted him, and he said he was convinced he needed and wanted me. We finally put our pride in our pocket and made up. I might say that was our last trouble or mmisiunderstanding. We came to know each other better every day and became nearer to each other until it seemed he knew my desires and I his before we mentioned them to one another and acted accordingly. On June 6, 1914, we boarded the train to go to Salt Lake City, Utah to be married in the Salt Lake Temple. We were married June 11, 1914.

I (Willard C. McBride) was the second of six childrlen born to my mother, Emma Jane Hubbard McBride, and father, Don Carlos McBride. All of us were born in Pima, Graham county, Arizona, after Arizona had been made a state. We were all born in our home, not a hospital.

Learn more about Emma Jane Hubbard McBride in the next post.

Note: this information was taken from the personal and ancestral history of Willard C. McBride. As far as possible, I have left it in his own words.