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[Bill's Nutt.FTW] See Polly Spence's book (reference for Polly and the Spence family), on page 130, where she says that "In one of those mid-1930's Uncle Jim and Aunt Lottie McBride moved to Chadron, a town twenty-five miles east of Crawford (Kansas). Like many another small town bank, the one in Cowles, Nebraska, which Uncle Jim managed, had failed. Uncle Jim got a job as appraiser for the government program that was intended to eas the money pinch for farmers and ranchers by buying up submarginal land. Aunt Lottie closed up the big swuare house in Cowles, stored some household goods, and got rid of the rest." Lottie got a job managing a faculty apartment building at Chadron Teachers College, where her daughter Betty was in her first year of college. Some information is contained in a book entitled "The McBrides - Historical Documents, Notes & Miscellaneous Materials" published by Donald Keith McBride, Rockville, Maryland, 1995 (limited circulation). Narrative written by James Monroe McBride on January 10, 1965 for Polly Spence Richardson: Dear Polly: I am afraid to go back further than the life of MY Grand father, lest I should find some of my ancestors . hanging to palm tree limb with one hand, and throwing coacanuts at passers by, with the other. Or maybe hanging by the neck from any kind of tree. You are going to have to guess at what I am trying to tell you, in a great deal of this writing. If I live ten more days I will be 90 years old, and not as alert in the head I used to think I was. Chronology or something. In the very early part of the 19th century, one Samuel J. McBride having served his apprenticeship as a custom tailor, left County Cork, Ireland and landed in Philladelphia, U.S.A. set up a tailor shop and made a lot of money. I have never been able to find out why, but some of the things he did in later years, would lead me to the conclusion that he was in bad with the law. Any way he just packed up and vanished, leaving his belongings forever behind. His next appearance as far as is known, was in Fayette County ,Illinois, in the wilderness of the Okaw river bottoms .There he met and married my grandmother, Martha Harrington, and there my father and his sister, Mary were born. Fathers name vias James W. McBride. My father was ten years old when the wild irishman, Dads father got itchy feet and decided to move on. As an alibi to his wife, he went out in to the woods, killed a rabbit, smeared blood over his clothes, went back to his cabin, told his wife he had killed a man and had to get out of the Country before the law found out. He next showed up down in the Cumberland mountain country of middle Tennessee, where he died and went to his reward, whatever his reward was if any. My father, James W. grew to manhood and married the best and dearest woman that ever lived, LuKatie Cullom by name, and I she became MY MO'lliER. (Rest her soul in peace.) To this union ten children were born. Georgia, Ellen, Isabelle, Minerva Jane. Who later changed to Jennie) Thomas Jefferson, Nora, Margaret (Mag) me my self James Monroe, Charles, Henry, and Ada. I guess Dad intended Tom and I to be presidents like the Kennedies. A short time before the civil War started my father, with a colony of Chamnesses, crains (Crains?) et al, migrated to Williamson County Illinois and settled in a dense forest of native timber. Father litterly had to chop his way out of that mass of timber. I once asked Uncle George Chamnes (he wasn't my uncle) why he and the rest of the colony settled in that wilderness, when they could have gone a short disyance further north where God had already cleared the land for them. His answer was simple. He said we had to have fire wood and water and that was two essentials God had not pre-arranged for them. He said it was not as bad as I think. If they wanted fresh meat all they had to do was go out in the woods and shoot a "haug", as they were not owned by anyone, and if they didn't want pork, there were plenty of wild turkeys. So, that solved the rneat, water and wood problem, but they had the problem of getting enough land cleared to produce enough corn, potatoes, turnips and garden "sass" to keep soul and body together. Fathers incentive for going back to Ills, was the fact that the Illinois Central Railroad was selling land that the Government had given them as a bonus for building the road, for $1.25 per acre with long time terms. Father acquired 80 acres of that wilderness land, and with his little axe he was up and at 'em. By the time the civil war came on, he had cleared enough land to make a living less strenous (sic). Altho (sic) his sympathies were always with South, he volunteered to join the North. In his there was method in his madness. He realised (sic) that if he went wi th the south, his women and children would be in great danger from the bushwhackers and Gorillas (spelling wrong?), so he enlisted in Co. D, Regiment 11, of Illinois volunteers, and served three ~~s as a musition (sic). He didn't know a note from a stanza, but on his little old fife he could do a lot of faking. His band leader was a dutchman, Col. Buck. Col. Buck and Dad were great friends, and when on dress parade or Company inspection, Buck would say "now Jim, you" Shpiel, I will play loud enough for both of us, you finger your fife but don't blow. This will suffice for at this time, but probably it will be necessary to mention him later. As for my sainted mother: since there is no language to describe her sacrifices, and loving care, I will simply say, she was a wonterful (sic) MOTHER. Now for a brief run down on the family. (I forgot to mention that my Dads mother lived with his family until her death in 1878 and , was with Mother and the three girls while Dad was in the army.) My sister Georgia lived what would be a very uneventful life by the present standards, and died at age 17, on August 16, 1875, just a week before I was born. In fact my birth was superinduced (sic) by my mother grief at the loss of her daughter. I was not due to arrive until a month later. Ellen lived to be an old maid, worked her way thru college, Married John Birkhead (Burkhead?), a widower, and raised a fine family. Belle (Isabel) married William Chamness and raised a fine family of four girls and three boys. The oldest boy was a medical doctor, the youngest was killed in world war one, after receiving a purple heart for distinguished service. The others were nice kids, with college education. Next in line was Jennie, whose profession was teaching in country schools. At age 20 she married Charles Spence and they had a family of four boys and two girls. The girls both died young. Two of the other boys were newspaper owners and publishers and the other a lawyer, and was assistant Secy of U.S. Department (fo Interior) when he died of a heart attack. Next was Tom. Good old brother Tom, with a heart as big as a bushel, always knocking on the jail house door, but always being able to stay out. He married Cora Montgomery, a beautiful school teacher that our whole family loved, very much. Next: Nora who married James Harris, a farmer, poor as a church mouse but, honest and honorable. Their two boys and one girl are top notchers with college educations and an honor and a credit to their parents. Next is Mag. Here is where I will have occasion to spread it thick. She married George Washington Dempsey, a money making something of a hillbilly. Mag was somewhat masculine as a child a tomboy is a better word than masculine. After graduation from college she worked in a store until she married "Wash" and they farmed until he died. Here is some of the things she has done: Wash and an old indigent uncle who didn't have a dime and was too old to work. Mag took him in and nursed him and took care of him for the last two years of his life. Soon after that washes father become helpless, and she did the same for him. An itinerant peddler with his one horse wagon camped near her home and when she noticed that he hadn't been out all day, she went down to his camp and found him delirious and took him in and nursed him back to a point where he was able go about his business. In the meantime, mother had passed away, and my dad, while he had income sufficient to keep him so cantankerous that nobody would have him, Mag took him in and took care of him the rest of his life. She (Mag) is now past 93 yrs old, living in the same house for the past 73 yrs. After she was 80 yrs old she painted her house and chopped down a walnut tree that was 16 inched through. She and Nora and I had a lot of fun in our childhood days. One time we were playing doctor. Mag was the doctor, Nora the patient and I was the boy to go for the doctor. I went across the room and got Mag, she had her little black bag, and when she told Nora that she had hippipotimus-The fight was on. A huge tree had uprooted near our house and the three of us made enough pies from the clay that come up with the roots, to feed an army. Next line is me, Jim: as mentioned above, I was born at 8 months instead of the regulation 9. I never weighed over 70 lbs, until I was 16 yrs old and in one year I weighed 165, and went on up to 230 lbs. I will be 90 yrs old if I 1ive ten more days, and I think I will make it. I came to Nebraska in 1901, worked on a farm first year took training in a barber shop and ran a shop of my own for a time and in 1902 married Lottie Bell Doyle, who has been a good and faithful wife. We have four sons and two daughters. Don, our first born has been in Washington D.C. for 26 yrs. first with his good friend Senator Robert S. Kerr until Kerr's death and since that with Senator Mike Monrony. One , of the things that makes me happy is when Don was, graduating from high school, he asked me what I would suggest he take in college? I told him that I liked Civil Engineering. He said why? I told him he would have the opportunity to build a better bridge than any one else, build a better irrigation system etc. Don went to the Nebraska State University, Majored in Civil Engineering and his first job was figuring proper drainage and completing a paving project, on which an older Engineer had failed (in Oklahoma). There, he met and Married a fine girl named Keith McGregor, whose father was a Babtist (sic) minister. Two girls and a boy was born to them. His wife died in child birth when their last baby was Born. Dons engineering has been so successful t he is admitted by the Oklahoma authorities to know more about water conservation than any other person in the State of Oklahoma. He was made a member of the hall of fame off Oklahoma and as a token of appreciation for achievements, was given a Cadilac automobile. That is why I am glad I advised him to take engineering. Next: Raymond-better known as Shep. He has always been the most self reliant boy I have ever known, never wanting anyone to do anything for him that he could do for himself. He is a very successful businessman as is attested by the fact that at age 60, he is working on his second million dollars which he has made by good judgement and a lot of hard work. Next; Bernard better known as B. O. or Buns: For a long time he tried to make the grade the easy way. He found out after about 30 yrs that the easy way was the hardest way. He has a whale of a lot of ability and personality plus and has finally hit his stride, and has a good thing going, selling pre-cut houses. One of his first business ventures was playing drums in a dance band. In a week long engagement, in Salina, Kansas, he met a beautiful girl-Helen Brown and later married her, and to them was born one girl, JaneAnne, and she is one of my most loved grand children, of which there are 18 and all good ones. Next was our first Daughter, Alda Geraldine: That girl has always been the apple of my eye, and always a pal. When she was 4 or 5 yrs old, I remember, and will never forget how she used to come on a Sunday morning and take both of my index fingers in he fat little soft hands and say "Daddy lets go and pick some lazy dasies". I had some pasture land just south of our home, and lazy daisys was an early spring wild flower. One day a good friend of mine came in to the bank (my bank) said "Well I got me a new boy last nite!" I said "you've got nothing on me, I got me a new girl night before last." He said, "we should get them together." It transpired that the two of them went through high school together and were married shortly thereafter. How's that for prognostication? Alda's husband was Harvey Spilker, one of the finest men in the state, or anywhere else for that matter. Milford Ward McBride is our last born. He married Olga Reuter and I am not going to try to tell what a wonderful girl she is for the simple reason that I don't have the command of language to do her justice and she comes from an exceptionly (sic) fine family. They have three nice daughters, one married and the other two, young ladies. Milford has a nice and profitable real estate business in Hastings Nebraska. "I find that when I got through telling about my uneventful and misspent life, I started telling about don and skipped my youngest brother and sister. However there is not much to tell about them. Carlie fell off of a horse when he was four years old, injured his brain to the extent that he never had a career of any kind, and was killed in an automobile accident at age 50. Ada, the youngest of my seven sisters married T. L. Huggins and has had just a normal life, i.e. normal life for the kind of Country in which she has lived. I realize that I have done quite a lot of bragging about my immediate family, but by gosh, I love to brag about them. I think they are worth bragging about. There are two of us, Jim and Lottie. Six children, 18 grand children and 28 great grand children. Total 54 E&OE. (if there any in the hopper I don't know about it.) I didn't include the in-laws of which there are 5. My type writer has made many errors, but like my self it is getting old. Betty Maxine writes: "...Dad worked in a grain elevator and later became a bank manager." Betty Maxine McBride writes: "The first portion of this narative will not be from actual memory, I but rather from things I recall being told to me from time to time. Mother and Dad moved to Cowles immediately after they were married. All six of us were born in Cowles. Don, Shep, Buns, and Alda started in kindergarten and graduated from Cowles High School. (I might interject that Cowles High School was literally that. It was the second floor of the one and only school building in Cowles.) Milford and I started school in Cowles. We moved to Benkelman when Milford was in eighth grade and I was in fourth. Milford graduated from Blue Hill High School, and I from Hastings High. Mother really had her hands full. Don and Shep were so close in age that what one could not think of, the other could. One story I recall was that the boys were forbidden to swim in the creek back of our house. Seems Don was always "Mr. Clean" and could get himself back together quite well even after a "skinny dip." Shep, on the other hand, was somewhat less than meticulous. (He never did figure out how to keep a shirt tail in!) One evening, Mother was gettng the boys ready for bed and noticed that Shep' s undershirt was inside out. She merely made a passing comment about it, whereupon Don blurted out, "Oh, Raymond, when are you ever going to learn to dress so she won't know when we've been in the creek?" Whenever there was a new baby, Mother hired a "girl" to come in to help out for a short while. When AIda was born, the girl was preparing to do some baking. She was leaning over the flour bin (in those days, flour was bought by the 50-pound sack). Buns came along and poked her in the backside with a hat pin. She went head first into the flour bin, and within moments, made her hasty departure to return no more. Mother baked her own bread, churned her own butter, canned, and did all the things most women did at that time. One day, she had churned and set the butter in a crock in the icebox. She then went down to the grocery store. When she returned, the butter was nowhere to be found. Mother even accused Dad of "being funny" and hiding it, but he was as confused as she. Suddenly, they noticed the boys down at the baseball field near our house playing around on the bleachers. Dad went down to find them "oiling" the seats with Mother's fresh butter! They had to carry hot soapy water and scrub brushes down there and clean each and every seat. Meanwhile, while the "three stooges" were growing up, three more of us had put in an appearance. Alda, of course, was the family beauty with her long black, shiny curls. I guess Milford was just sort of the "brat little brother" as far as the three older guys were concerned. Then came the baby. Betty. Alda wanted to name me Elizabeth and call me Betty. Mother said, "No, we'll just name her Betty, 'because she might be called Lizzie, and we can't have that." So Betty it was. Now. I was really a spoiled kid. Alda wanted to "mother" me all the time. The three big boys played with me like a doll. One of my earliest recollections is of "being danced" to sleep by Don, Shep, or Buns. I was a blue baby, so gave them a bit of trouble the first year of my life. Only recently I found I have a hole between the ventricles of my heart. Somehow it didn't do much damage, but nowadays it would entail open-heart surgery. In addition to being "blue," I had a tough time with fomulas. Finally the doctor put me on Horlick's Malted Milk. Well, I thrived, but so did all the big kids. When they would come in at night, they would go into the kitchen and whip themselves up thick, creamy malts. Dad said that, for a puny little baby, I sure went through lots of malted milkl He finally told the guys he either couldn't afford me or he'd have to start charging drug store prices for their malts. Like all little sisters, I wanted to tag along everywhere with Alda. One very hot day, she was going to visit a friend and didn't want to take me. For some reason, Mother told her to take me along. She took me, but -- she made me stay on the west side of the house, in the sun, and wouldn't let me have even one sip of water. When we got home, Mother remarked that I looked very flushed. Alda said I refused to come into the house. She had threatened to half kill me if I told what really happened! When Buns was in high schopl, he played in a little dance band. We had dances at the house on Friday nights with the promise that the boys would wax the oak floors the next day. Those dances were the highlight of my grandmother's life. She would get all dressed up and sit and tap her feet. Once in a while, 'one of the boys would grab her up (she weighed about 90 pounds): and whirl her around the room. She loved it, even though she pretended to protest. On Saturday, I was the "weighted floor polisher." After the wax was put on the floor, the boys took an old wool blanket, sat me on it, and pulled me all around to polish the floors. Buns was a senior in high school the year I was in kindergarten. He carried me to school on his shoulders whenever there was rain or snow. I absolutely worshiped that boy. He went to California to "make his fortune" as a dance band drummer right out of high school. I can well remember his singing, "California, here I come, right behind my big bass drum." I was devastated when he left. He must not have stayed long, because I recall meeting the train when he came home. Mother had to run after me to keep me from running right in front of the train when I saw it coming. Shortly after that, Buns played with a "one-night stand" dance band out of Kansas. That's how he met Helene. Occasionally, they would play near Cowles and he would bring the whole band in late at night. Mother would fix ham and eggs and hot biscuits for the whole bunch. They were always starved because they barely made enough money to exist. About that time, the economy was beginning to slip. Dad still was able to hang on to the bank, but we did sell the big house and move to lesser quarters. I didn't know much about what was going on, because we always had plenty to eat, clothes to wear. and lots of laughter. The Depression was breathing down our necks. Don had finished University and was working in Oklahoma. Shep and Isabel were married and living in Blue Hill where Shep worked for George Corner ($17 a week!) Jim had arrived, and I was a proud six-year-old "aunt." Buns was still with the band. Alda graduated from high school, and began teaching in a country school, which she hated so badly she actually had a nervous break down. Milford and I, of course, just moved with the tide, doing all the normal little kid things. In 1927, Dad's bank closed. He went to work for the State Banking Department "liquidating" failed banks. His first job was in Strang, but we stayed in Cowles and he came home on weekends. In 1928, he was transferred to Benkelman, so we moved there. Alda went along with us and taught there. She liked it much better. She had a car and could live at home. Buns and Helene got married and.moved to Benkelman. Buns also got a job with the Banking Department. We did pretty well there, because Dad's job payed well for that time, $200 a month. Oh, well, it sounds awful but our very nice rental house cost $25 a month. Alda and Harvey were married in Benkelman in 1931 and moved to the farm. We moved to Blue Hill in 1932. I honestly don't have the least idea what Dad did there, but it wasn't too tough. I know he traveled and must have been making fair money, because I remember Mother having really pretty clothes. You see, I was twelve and just becoming clothes conscious. We moved to Hastings in 1933. Then I the really rough times began in spades. Dad worked as a time keeper for NRA, Milford worked after school and on Saturdays at a clothing store. At one time, it was a tough decision whether I would have to quit school because I had no shoes fit to wear. Finally, between Dad and Milford, they got $1.99 together and I got a pair of black tie oxfords. I split the toe of one on a sharp corner on my school desk, but I wore those things all year. Dad kept managing somehow to find jobs that kept us eating, but we just kept moving to cheaper and cheaper places. By the time I was sixteen, things must have been slightly improving because we did have a car and I got my driver's license,. I "didn't drive too well, but I certainly drove fast! In my senior year of high school. we moved to Chadron, Nebraska where I finished high school and college. Keeping me in college--even a small State College--was no easy task, but Dad was convinced that I was smarter then Einstein and nothing would keep me from a degree. Dad worked at anything he could find. Mother took a job as "matron"--read housekeeper-- at a student apartment building at the college, and I worked at the college. Tuition was $30 a semester. and books were free. I made four years in three and graduated with honors. One hitch. I majored in secondary education and was only nineteen. Not too many high schools were clamoring for teachers as young as the students. I. finally got a job in Bladen High where I met my future husband, Wallace Martin. As a matter of fact, over that little episode in my life, I lost my job--well, I was asked to resign-- at the end of the first year. The school board president said I was indiscreet. When I asked for an example of my indiscretions, the answer was, "Well, you and Wally smiled at each other "that way" when you would be walking down the street." Remember, we are talking about 1941. I believe the real indiscretion was that the mothers of eligible girls saw the Methodist preacher's son as a "good catch;" and the farmers who were about ready to turn over the reins (pun intended) to their sons, saw the new school ma'am as a husky, healthy farmer's wife. We weren't supposed to "catch" each other." (The rest of the story can be found in Betty Maxine's record - attached.)
Robert \\\\
Crowe
