Elias Bernstein

Sometime early during World War Two, Elias Bernstein decided to make cribbage boards and send them to servicemen and Officers worldwide.   What probably began as a casual pastime became an all-consuming passion for the Staten Island, New York attorney and civic leader.

Elias didn't just make a few cribbage boards.  Nope. He made over 2,500!  Plus, he wrapped each one and paid the postage to the far flung corners of battlefronts spanning the entire globe.  Nobody now knows how Elias obtained the mailing addresses for his passionate pursuit.  For that matter, nobody now know much of anything about Elias and his unusual pastime.

It's entirely possible that Elias Bernstein could well be America's most prolific individual cribbage board builder, if not the world's.  Of course, industrial machines churn out far more than 2,500 cribbage boards in short time frames.  If you've ever tried to make your own cribbage board, you know just how tedious and time consuming the task is.

We're making Big Boards for cribbage players and we've only crafted 19 of them.  To think of creating over 2,500 boards is beyond mind-boggling.

Luckily, Elias himself hasn't been totally forgotten.  There's an Intermediate School named for him on Staten Island.  It's locally called "The Bernstein" so at least his name is bandied about in the area where he lived on Emerson Hill.  Bernstein passed on in 1950 and the school opened in 1965.

We have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to contact Administrators of The Bernstein for more information about their school's namesake.  We will continue to attempt to contact them.  In the meantime, here is what we know about Elias Bernstein.

He was born in 1890 and apparently became a successful lawyer on Staten Island.  An unspecified health issue forced him into what today would be called "medical retirement."  Bernstein began raising orchids and canary birds to occupy his time.  When World War Two broke out, Bernstein felt orchids and canaries were irrelevant.  He apparently was an avid cribbage player so he decided to begin making boards to send to troops.

Judging from the only known photo of him, the boards were small standard size items with perhaps some individual craftsman touches added. In the grainy newspaper archive photo above, you can see a couple of little boards with rounded tops.

It is said that Elias made some of his cribbage boards from the furniture of Ralph Waldo Emerson's nearby on Staten Island.  In fact, a U.S. Naval Institute article on Admiral Halsey states that Bernstein sent Adm. Halsey three cribbage boards including one made from an ebony chest owned by R.W.  Emerson.  R.W. Emerson never lived on Staten Island but his brother did.  That's how Emerson Hill got its name.

Elias supposedly received numerous replies thanking him for his generosity.  The hardbitten, blunt Adm. Halsey supposedly even replied.  We contacted the Naval Institute to see if they had any of the boards or a copy of Adm. Halsey's reply.  Sadly, Naval Institute Archivist Janis D. Jorgensen replied that they do not.

The only article describing Bernstein's epic efforts appear in early November 1945 and was picked up by newspapers around the country.  After all, cribbage was very popular every where back then so it would have been of interest to folks from all walks of life Coast-To-Coast.

The article claims that Bernstein's favorite "Thank You" note came from someone on the USS "The Sullivans."  By a coincidental fluke of fate, "The Sullivans" still exists and is on moored display in Buffalo, New York. We contacted  Buffalo Naval Park Director of Museum Collections Shane E. Stephenson and he reported Bernstein's board is no longer on the ship.

Cribbage was wildly popular in the U.S. Navy before, during and after World War Two.  It's quite likely that Bernstein's board received a regular and enthusiastic workout aboard "The Sullivans."

We wish we could resurrect more information about The Life & Times of Elias Bernstein but, alas, we cannot.  Below is the entire transcript of the article that appears in so many newspapers.  At least Elias got his 15 seconds of fame through that article.

Source of article:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83683742/elias-bernstein-cribbage-1945/

"WARRIOR'S GAME. The next time two soldiers sit down for a game of cribbage in a U.S. hospital or a camp in Germany, or Japan, it's a fairly safe bet they'll be using one of Elias Bernstein's cribbage boards. High-ranking generals and admirals own Bernstein boards, too. But the number of brassless servicemen who have pegged fifteen-twos on them is beyond computation.

White-haired, booming-voiced Elias Bernstein was one of the leading attorneys on New York's Staten Island until his health gave out a few years ago, forced him to retire. "But even an invalid can do something for our men," he thinks. To date, he has made and sent out more than 2,500 cribbage boards.

The letters of thanks he has received would drive an autograph-hunter crazy: Admiral King, General Bradley, Admiral Halsey, Lord Mountbatten, General Vandegrift.

"THANKS." Even more than these letters, though, Bernstein cherishes those from the enlisted men who get 99 out of every 100 of his boards. But the one he cherishes most told how his board arrived aboard The Sullivans just in time to be used for a cribbage tournament.

He makes his cribbage boards of choice woods, inlays them with decorative patterns. When the old Ralph Waldo Emerson mansion near his home on Staten Island was sold, he bought up some of the furniture, and many of the gift boards are made of this historical wood.

When Bernstein retired, he started raising orchids and canary birds to keep busy. When the war came along, this seemed meaningless. An avid cribbage player, he decided to try to make boards, even though he was "just a lawyer and all thumbs." But to servicemen who like cribbage, from Admiral Nimitz down the line, he's an artist of the first water."

Photo source: https://buffalonavalpark.org/exhibits/uss-the-sullivans/