James McBride
James McBride, the historian, was of Scotch descent. His grandfathers, on both the paternal and maternal side, were born in North Britain, not long after the incorporation of Scotland with England, and emigrated to Pennsylvania about the time of the French and Indian war. His father was also James McBride. While still a young man he went to Kentucky, then the scene of perpetual Indian warfare, and fell a victim to the attacks of the red men. There was a trace leading from the mouth of the Licking to the site of the present city of Lexington, and while on this path he was cut off by the Indians in 1789, in the Dry Ridge. His wife, whose maiden name was McRoberts, and been left at home, while he was out on the frontier, and there she lived until her death, which occurred in September, 1808. Her residence was on the farm, near Conococheague Creek, where she had been born. She had but one child, the subject of this sketch.
James McBride, the son, was born November 2, 1788, on the farm above mentioned, a short distance form Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He received no set education, but improved what opportunities he had for reading, and, on coming to this county, in the eighteenth year of his age, was discovered to possess a very large amount of useful knowledge. He had been well instructed in penmanship, and his neat and painstaking chirography can be traced in the public records of the county almost from the time of his coming until his death. His first employment, it is believed, was as clerk for John Reily, but he soon found other openings. Every one had the utmost confidence in him, and he was constantly in request. His patrimony was not large, but it enabled him sometimes to try new plans for bettering his fortune. Just before the war with Great Britain, in the early part of this century, he engaged with Joseph Hough in a venture to New Orleans. Flour was bought and shipped to that port with a large profit, and thenceforth Mr. McBride was easy in his circumstances. He never attained the riches.
In 1813 he was elected sheriff, and was again chosen in 1815. This office was then considered as being the chief one in the county, and it shows the confidence his fellow-citizens must have had in him, as he was but twenty-five when elected. While holding this office he was married to Hannah, daughter of Judge Robert Lytle, who dwelt a few miles from town, and with her he lived forty-five years, having three sons and two daughters.
Mr. McBride had scarcely removed to this county when he began his researches in the early history of this region. He foresaw its progress, and knew that where there was then only a wooded plain would soon be villages and cities. The pioneers were still alive who could recount the tale of the defeat of St. Clair, the triumphal march of Wayne, the building of the first houses, and the birth of the first children. Some of the older ones had been in the Revolutionary struggle, and yet older ones remembered the last long and tedious war we waged with France, ending with glorious victories in 1763. These stories were not wasted upon an inattentive ear. He listened to the narrations, and put down upon paper the material portions relating to the early settlement of the Miami country. He verified the relations by comparison with others, and then wrote out a rough draft for publication. This again was changed and altered until, in some cases, three drafts of the same narrative were extant at once. It is impossible so say how much he wrote, but there are probably now in existence, in his handwriting, not less then three thousand pages of manuscript bearing upon Butler County and the country adjacent. Among the most valuable of these is the work issued in 1869 by Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, under the title of "Pioneer Biography of Butler County." This is in two handsome octavo volumes, and contains sketches of nearly thirty peoneers, besides incidental allusions to more than a hundred otheres. By the indulgence of Mrs. Stembel, his daughter, and of Mr. Robert Clarke, we have used much of the matter in these pages, without indicating from what source it has been taken. It is safe to say that with theses, and what we have been able since to glean, there will be no county in the State better informed of its beginnings than Butler. Our "shepherd kings" are not mythical.
Besides these, Mr. McBride wrote a history of Hamilton, and one of Oxford, together with a sketch of the Miami University. These have never previously been printed; but their substance will appear in these pages. No one can read what he has done without being struck with the thoroughness and solidity with which he did his work. He read many volumes to make his annotations, and each page of his writing must represent a day of labor. There are blanks left here and there to be filled up, and in some cases where chapter headings were placed the text had not been written. He hoped to be able to do this, but time was lacking. To the triennial catalogue of the Miami University there are copious additions, and there is included in his papers on the Miami University a list of the graduates, with their subsequent history. This must have taken a great deal of correspondence. He wrote an account of the Hamilton bridge, which was published by the stockholders; he furnished the means, and wrote the book, describing Symmes' theory of concentric spheres; and he occasionally contributed points of Ohio history both to Cist's Miscellany and the Hamilton papers. Howe's History of Ohio was largely indebted to him.
But while he was writing what had happened, he was also attentive to gathering up those books and odds and ends of knowledge that would make the preparation of historical works easier to the future annalist. His library was in many branches of knowledge, embracing probably five thousand volumes, at a day when neither incomes nor libraries were so large as at present. He retained files of the Hamilton papers from the beginning, as well as of Niles' Register and the National Intelligencer. A few of these went to the State library but the remainder are destroyed. He kept every pamphlet athat reached him; and it is not too much to say that, in this respect, the loss that was suffered by his death and their destruction is incalculable to the student of Western history. Beginning his researches in 1806, and continuing them for more than a half a century, it is certain that the historical societies of the future, in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, would be willing to pay their weight in silver for what is now lost. It should be remembered that, seventy-six years ago, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and Louisville were inconsiderable villages, and St. Louis a hamlet. Mr. McBride's collection was probably the richest in the incunabula of the West, if we may borrow a term generally restricted to the fifteenth century, of any made or gathered in the United States. He had the same advantages that Jefferson had when he collected his library of works relating to America, with the exception that our pioneer retained only those which were locally valuable.
Mr. McBride was never happier than when in his library. He had a sincere love for truth, and wished himself to know what it was, even when he had no desire to write or otherwise express it. His books were his fountains of knowledge. He kept continually adding to them, and was equally assiduous in extracting their contents. He was always ready to lend his aid to other investigators, and to place them upon sound ground. He had a strong intellect and a love for letters, and he never seemed to grow tired of these investigations. The result was that, in the end, he had accumulated a vast stock of knowledge, and this without pretense or exciting remark.
As will be seen by our chapter on the mound-builders, kindly furnished by J.P. MacLean, the whole region hereabouts is dotted with the remains of a race who built earthworks and threw up barrows, and of whom no other relics now remain. Mr. McBride was the first observer in this county who gave these tumuli more than cursory attention. He opened some of them, and others he surveyed and described. The one on sections 4, 5, 8, and 9, St. Clair Township, was described in the transactions of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society by him. He spent much time in this pursuit, and, by patience and the use of money, finally succeeded in getting together the finest collection of prehistoric relics ever in this neighborhood. Many of these curiosities were the gifts of his neighbors, who knew his tastes. This cabinet is now in the possession of George W. Vaux, of Philadelphia. Forty years ago Squier and Davis were in this vicinity, making surveys, drawings, and collections for a volume soon to be issued by the Smithsonian Institute, in Washington, and enlisted his aid and that of Mr. John W. Erwin in their behalf. Yet, altHough the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" owe largely to the assistance of these two gentlemen, who furnished near a hundred pages, they received no public acknowledgment, and the community at large believes these drawings, plans of survey, and notes were from the pen of the two editors.
We are apt to forget, in these days of easy locomotion and advanced education, what great benefits were reaped from our early colleges. They deserved all the encomiums lavished upon them by the early historians, altHough their staff of professors was small, their range of studies limited, and their teachers knew little but the classics. They kept the lamp of knowledge aflame throughout the country, and here and there trained up men who carried the advance of knowledge still further. In this task Miami University had a great share, and, of its board of governors, none took a greater or more intelligent interest than Mr. McBride. From the origin of the institution he was connected with it, and at the time of his death he was the president of its board of trustees. Without himself having attained a collegiate education, he appreciated its advantages. He was sedulous in attendance at the meetings of the trustees; he was treasurer for a long time; he aided on the building committees and elsewhere, and he invariably gave the faculty a full support. That institution acquired an early and great fame, and to no one scarcely can more credit be given than to Mr. McBride.
We should not omit to mention the map drawn by him in 1836. This was published by himself and James B. Cameron, and engraved by Doolittle and Munson. It is a large copper-plate, five feet by four, and of the utmost accuracy. Every little stream is laid down upon it, meanderings of the Miami can by this be compared with its bed in the present day. No more truthful county map, we have authority for saying, was ever published in Ohio. Some of his manuscript maps are also in existence in the public offices. They are both handsome and accurate, and of marvelous perfection in the lettering.
After ceasing to be sheriff he was in repose several years, until he was urged by his fellow-citizens to become mayor of Hamilton. He sHowed in this office the same punctual diligence he displayed elsewhere, as is attested by his docket, still preserved, in which he recorded the eases brought before him. While in this position he aided in a codification of the municipal ordinances. After the election of John Woods as auditor of state he went thither to assist him, rendering most valuable co-operation, and in 1846 was chosen clerk of the courts of Butler County, a position he held until 1852.
He was a taciturn and modest man, never frequenting public gatherings, and rarely conversing at any length except with those intimately connected with him. He was averse to display. He was very quiet and unobtrusive, and of sterling integrity. He could not push himself forward. He was charitable almost to a fault, and never let a person leave his door unaided. His probity was of the highest. He never sought to escape the consequences of an action in which he had been unfortunate, through misjudgment or misplaced confidence, but dealt as he would be done by. He was active in every thing that helped to benefit or improve his county or State, and took an interest in every thing that promised these results. He was a stockholder in the bridge, the hydraulic, and the railroad, because he thought they would benefit the town, and not because he thought they would put money in his pocket.
When he had attained the patriarchal age of three-score and ten his wife died. This was on the 23d of September, in 1859. He seemed instantly to lose all interest in life, and prepared himself to depart. Ten days after he died, on the 3d of October, aged seventy years and eleven months, and leaving two sons and two daughters. Homer, his oldest son, had died long before, and those who survived were Horace, James, Laura, and Marietta. The last married William Sanders, and on her death left two daughters. Laura married Roger N. Stambel, a graduate of Miami University, who entered afterwards the navy, and was badly wounded at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi, where he was the captain of a gun-boat. He is now a commodore. Both of Mr. McBride's sons are dead.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.