Early life and background Henry Stephen Clubb was born on June 21, 1827, in
Colchester, England.
Early activism At the age of 13, Clubb became a clerk at the Colchester post office. While working there, he learned about
W. Gibson Ward, a London-based commercial traveller, who spoke of the Concordium, an alternative community later known as
Alcott House at
Ham Common. Clubb was encouraged to become a vegetarian by Ward's visits to his father's home, where he heard Ward speak about slaughterhouses. As an
abolitionist and
pacifist, he lectured against slavery. Between 1856 and 1857, he was involved with Charles DeWolfe and John McLaurin in building
Octagon City, Kansas. The settlement was first planned as a vegetarian colony, but was later associated with moral reform and the octagonal architectural ideas of
Orson Fowler. The project failed because of mosquitoes, malnutrition, grain thefts, and the difficulty of settlement in the area. He also served as clerk of the constitutional commission of Michigan and oversaw the printing of the
Journal of the Constitutional Commission of Michigan.
Vegetarian Society of America Clubb founded the Vegetarian Society of America (VSA) in 1886 and served as its first president. He published a cookbook for the organisation and founded its magazine,
Food, Home and Garden.
Later life Clubb briefly returned to England in 1901, visiting Salford. He published
Thirty-nine Reasons Why I Am a Vegetarian in 1903, setting out his reasons for following a vegetarian diet. In 1907, he decided to write a
history of vegetarianism, to be published in the
Chicago Vegetarian Magazine. His wife died in 1915. He was buried at Oakwood Cemetery,
Sharon, Pennsylvania, with his wife and daughters. == Selected publications ==