Hubert Work

A young Hubert Work in an undated cameo portrait.

Laura Work, pictured in February 1922.  A photograph of Hubert Work in Army uniform can be seen on the desk.

Hubert Work was a quiet but major figure in key eras of American political, cultural, and social history.  He is my first cousin three times removed, as the nephew of my great-great-great-great grandfather.  Work was the son of Moses Thompson Work and Tabitha Logan Van Horn, born on July 3, 1860 in Marion Center, Pennsylvania.  He grew up in an intensely religious family of the Presbyterian faith and carried his religion close to his heart throughout his life, often evidenced in his writings.

Work attended medical school at the University of Michigan from 1882-1883, and received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1885.  He soon traveled to Greeley, Colorado to visit a cousin, and while there Work contracted typhoid fever.  His cousin’s wife nursed Work back to health, and her sister Laura May Arbuckle often came to visit.  During this time, Work fell in love with Laura, and they were married on August 31, 1887.  They had five children in the first twelve years of their marriage, with three surviving to adulthood.  The Work family moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where Hubert founded the Woodcroft Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases in 1896, the first mental institution in the Rocky Mountains area, which he operated until the onset of World War I.¹ While in Colorado, Work was also the president of the Colorado State Medical Society and president of the American Medico-Psychological Association.

Laura Work's funeral at the White House in 1924.  Hubert Work can be seen exiting with his daughter.  Herbert Hoover can be seen to the right.

Several cabinet members served as pallbearers at Laura Work's funeral.

Work had quite the medical and political career.  He was very active in the Republican party in both Colorado and Washington, D.C.  He first entered politics in 1908, serving as a delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention (RNC), and as chairman of the Colorado State Central Committee in 1912.  At the onset of World War I, Work volunteered for service in the US Army Medical Corps; he was commissioned as a major by President Woodrow Wilson² and served as a medical adviser to the Provost Marshal General.  In this capacity, he also supervised the medical aspects of the draft.  Work eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  After the war, Work served as president of the American Medical Association from 1921-22.

Work’s political career took off during President Warren Harding’s administration.  In his obituary, published in The New York Times, Work was described as “one of the few physicians to attain national political prominence.”³  Under Harding, Work served as Assistant Postmaster General, Postmaster General, and Secretary of the Interior.  Work’s tenure in the latter role continued through 1928, during the years of Calvin Coolidge’s presidency.  Work and Coolidge were close personal friends, and Work often hosted dinners in Coolidge’s honor.  These dinners were attended by influential political and cultural figures, including then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, Will H. Hays, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Henry Ford, various American governors, and even Princess Cantacuzène, or Julia Dent Grant, granddaughter of President Ulysses S. Grant.⁴  Work’s wife Laura passed away in 1924 at age 66; her funeral was held at the White House in May of that year.  Several members of Coolidge’s cabinet were pallbearers.  After Laura’s death, their daughter Dorcas often played hostess at Work’s events.

Postmaster General Will Hays with his four assistants. L to R, Will Hays, First Assistant Postmaster General Hubert Work; Second Assistant Postmaster General E.H. Shaugnnessy; Third Assistant Postmaster General W. Irving Glover; Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Harry H. Hillany.

Calvin Coolidge and Hubert Work in 1924.

Work took office as Secretary of the Interior soon after the Teapot Dome scandal, replacing Albert B. Fall, a central figure in the scandal.  In a 1928 article by The New York Times, it was written that Work “quietly accomplished” the task of undoing what his predecessor had done, and “even his most determined political opponents concede that Dr. Work has performed a difficult task with credit to himself and the Administration.”⁵  He encouraged employees in the department to be more meaningfully polite in their communications, writing “we are making enemies, instead of friends, of the people from whom the powers of government are derived…We want every correspondent with the Interior Department to feel that his letter receives friendly attention, and therefore urge upon every officer and employee the necessity of writing considerate, intelligent letters to effect this purpose.”⁶  Work reportedly had no tolerance for clock-watchers, and ordered all clocks removed from the department’s offices.⁷  He was described as “soft voiced, sometimes petulant, but always courteous” in a 1928 New York Times Article.⁸  He was credited with “bringing the Department of the Interior back into public favor.”⁹

During Work’s tenure as Secretary, the Indian Citizenship Act was passed on June 2, 1924.  This act granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States, however it did not guarantee voting rights, as this was left up to the states.  Work didn’t believe in either of the two popular beliefs surrounding Native Americans at that time: to ignore them, or to Americanize them.  Instead, he called for the decentralization of the activities of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in order to allow local indigenous people and whites to decide on their own policies and relations.  As Work wrote in 1925, “We cannot legislate the Indian into the White Man's ways, nor train his footsteps by bureaucratic administration of his affairs, alone. His future well-being lies in his ability to become a member of the civilized structure of society which the times has built up around him.”¹⁰

Snapshot of Hubert Work's obituary from December 1942, which appeared in The New York Times.

Hubert Work's headstone in Arlington National Cemetery, where he is buried with his wife Laura.

"If Youth But Knew," a poem by Hubert Work which was published in The Indian School Journal in February 1928.

Work resigned as Secretary of the Interior on July 24, 1928, primarily to manage Herbert Hoover’s presidential campaign.  The two men were fellow cabinet members and good friends, and Hoover chose Work to manage the RNC; a New York Times article about Hoover’s decision said Work “is a physician with a record for achievement in the Coolidge cabinet.”¹¹  According to a family story, while Work was traveling the campaign trail with Hoover they made a stop in a small western town where Work gave a speech.  He said, “I’ve spent many delightful hours in your beautiful little city.  It is a very genuine pleasure to find myself back in…” Work turned to a nearby colleague and whispered, “Where the hell are we?” which was picked up by the microphone.¹²  Work served as Chair of the RNC from July 14, 1928-September 9, 1929.  

Work wrote hundreds of articles throughout his career.  He idolized Abraham Lincoln, and compared him to Christ in a September 1925 article in School Life, which was the official journal of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Education.¹³  His office overlooked the Lincoln Memorial, and in the article he called Lincoln an “agent of the divine plan,” and wrote that "one came to emancipate a world from sin; the other emancipated a race from slavery. The one a redeemer for all men; the other redeemed a nation.”¹⁴  In September 1928, in another article that appeared in School Life, Work wrote about promoting citizenship and said “we need an infusion in our citizenship of the qualities of reverence, humility, and, if you please, Godly fear, with the desire for service and the love of truth for truth’s sake, which were dominant in the character of Abraham Lincoln.”¹⁵  In the same article, he stressed the importance of civic involvement, writing a “Government is strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”¹⁶

Several of his articles appeared in The Indian School Journal, which was published by the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma.  In one such article from 1923, entitled “Government Officials are Public Servants,” Work wrote “underlying every governmental activity is the idea of service to the people.  It is the only excuse for the existence of your job and my job, and if we acquire the habit of considering the public as a necessary evil incident to our employment, we fail to justify our continuance in office.  We cease to be public servants and become, instead, one of a class of petty bureaucrats.”¹⁷  

Despite all he accomplished, Work lived a relatively quiet life, which continued after he left the political scene.  After returning to Colorado, he remarried on December 5, 1934, to widow Ethel Reed Gano.  He died at age 82 of a heart attack on December 14, 1942 in Denver, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to his first wife Laura.