Malcom McBride

HAZEN, MCBRIDE

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/11/2004 at 07:23:31

“The History of Madison County, Iowa”
Union Historical Company, Des Moines, 1879
page 653

M. McBride, Jefferson twp., farmer, Sec. 22; P.O. Van Meter; born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1839, and when seventeen years old came alone to America, landing at New York City, went to Grand Isle county, Vermont, where he remained three years, and in the spring of 1851 removed to Clayton county, Iowa; here he was married to Ellenor Hazen July 25, 1856, of the same county, formerly of Grand Isle county, Vermont; they have five living children, two died in infancy: Laurence, Carrie, Nellie, Cora and Hattie; Mr. McBride had the sum of $100 in his pocket on reaching Vermont, and from his indomitable perseverance he has now 240 acres of land, which in 1866 he found a raw prairie; his farm is cultivated with that thrift which characterizes the man that “paddles his own canoe” through early life; on it is found an apple orchard of thirteen-hundred trees; his homestead is one of the most desirable in the township.
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“A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa”
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1896

Transcribed and edited by Kent G. Transier, 09 Jan 2010

“A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa”
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1896

M. McBride has during the past three decades figured as one of the representative farmers of Jefferson township, Madison county, Iowa, his home being on section 22. The history of Mr. McBride is that of a Scotchman who landed on American soil before he had yet emerged from his ‘teens, and who through his own manly efforts has acquired a nice property and comfortable home.

Mr. McBride was born in Renfrew, Scotland, November 30, 1828, youngest in the family of eight children of Neil and Agnes (Kelley) McBride, both natives of Scotland. There he spent the first eighteen years of his life, his boyhood days being passed in farm work and in peddling milk, and at nineteen he left his native eland and made the Atlantic voyage to this country, landing at New York city. From New York he went to Vermont, where he had a brother and where he remained until the spring of 1850, at that time coming west to Des Moines, Iowa. Shortly afterward he went up into Minnesota, and in the pine districts of that State spent seven years, two years at work in the woods and the rest of the time in a sawmill.

In 1857 he returned to Iowa and located on a farm in Clayton county, about this time taking to himself a wife, and in Clayton county he continued farming until 1866, the year he became identified with Madison county. On settling at his present location, he built a log house 18x24 feet, which for some time served as his home while he cultivated his land and increased his holdings. At one time he owned as much as 400 acres of choice land here, but has given 160 acres to his son and retains in the home place 240 acres, well improved with good buildings, etc. All these years his attention has been given to general farming.

Mr. McBride was married in Clayton county, Iowa to Miss Eleanor Hazen, a native of that county, who was for more than twenty years his faithful and loving companion, and who departed this life in August, 1879. She bore him five children – Lawrence, Carrie, Nellie, Cora and Hattie – and all are living except Cora.

Both in his political and religious views Mr. McBride is independent and liberal.