Duncan McBride
Duncan McBride was born in Virginia in 1807, came with his parents to Richland County in 1817, and settled one mile north of Lucas, in a log cabin, which for a time had no floor but the earth; later a puncheon floor was laid and a quilt was hung up for a door. In those das they put bells on their horses and on their cows, which were turned out to browse in the woods, which were the only fields of pasture then. In hunting for them they were apt to encounter almost any kind of wild animals, from bears to porcupines. When the dogs attacked the latter their mouths would get filled with the quills of the porcupines, and then their yelling and howling was terrible. Their master would have to pull the quills out of their mouths, to which the dogs would submit intelligently. In 1829 Duncan McBride bought a farm at the foot of the Mohawk Hill in Monroe Township, upon which he resided until his death, in 1862. Duncan McBride was a justice of the peace for many years, and during the period when cases that now go to the common pleas court were then tried before justices of the peace. One of these was the notable "California case", which was tried before Justice McBride, and in which the Hon. John Sherman and the Hon. George W. Geddes were opposing counsel. This was before Sherman went to congress and before Geddes was elected a judge of the common pleas court.
From the Bellville Messenger: February 26, 1903, Vol. 11, No. 8