Bernhard August Schubert was born 31 January 1873 in Bremen, Germany to Franz August Schubert, tinsmith and hardware store owner, and his wife Anna Mathilde Dauelsberg. He studied to become a Methodist minister and interned at churches in Gorlitz and Kottbus. While in London, England he met his future wife, Lydia Elizabeth Laepple, who was working as a music teacher and governess. They were married by her father, Rev. Ludwig Karl Laepple, in Ulm, Germany on 21 May 1901. Bernhard’s first church was in the town of Eibenstock where their first child, Herman, was born in 1902.
In August 1902 Bernhard, Lydia, and Herman sailed to America where Bernhard became pastor of a German-speaking Methodist church at Inver Grove, Minnesota. In the next few years he served churches at Johnsonville, Minnesota; Lawrence, Kansas; and Sylvia, Kansas.
When the need for German-speaking pastors dwindled, Bernhard looked for a new career. Homesteads were available in Saskatchewan, Canada, and in 1909 the family, which now included five children, traveled to the town of Expanse, where they lived in a dugout on the river bank for several weeks before they could move onto their 640 acres. They worked hard to create what was known as the “10,000 Tree Farm,” but during ten years there they had only three good crops.
In 1918 the Schuberts, now parents of ten children, returned to America, buying a farm in Laurens, New York. When the deal fell through they moved to Acme, North Carolina, where they raised tobacco for a year before returning to New York. They eventually owned three dairy farms on Stilson Hill in Franklin, Delaware County, but a few years later moved to their final property on Route 357 near the village of Franklin. Bernhard and Lydia became U.S. citizens in 1928. About this time Bernhard Americanized the spelling of his name to Bernard Shubert.
Bernard and Lydia operated a successful poultry business in Franklin for about 20 years before selling out in 1947. In 1944 Bernard published The Homesteader, an account of the family’s ten years in Saskatchewan. The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1951.
On 2 October 1953 Bernard died in the hospital at Sidney, New York from injuries he received in a traffic accident near his home. An account of the accident can be found on the front page of The Oneonta Star for 3 October 1953. He was buried at Ouleout Valley Cemetery in Franklin.