The subject of this sketch came to Cloud county in 1872 and homesteaded his present farm. Mr. McBride was born in Brown county, Kansas, when that part of the state was on the frontier, before the passing of the homestead law, when land was one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre and before there was a railroad or telegraph wire in the state. Mr. McBride is the oldest born Kansan whom the writer has met in the county, an honor he may justly feel poud[sic] of.

His parents were William and Eliza (Starns) McBride. His paternal grandparents emigrated to Ohio from Scotland during their early married life, where William McBride was born. A sister of the grandfather is still living there at the age of eighty-eight years. Mr. McBride's father died in 1881, on the farm he homesteaded in Cloud county and where his wife who survives him still lives. Mrs. McBride was born in Indiana. Her father was James Starns and her mother, before her marriage, was Matilda Ware. James Starns was born in Tennessee and removed to Ohio, the birthplace of her mother. They both died in Brown county, Kansas, in 1845. Mrs. McBride emigrated with her parents to Iowa when she was but fifteen years of age and when that state was a territory, a wilderness just beginning to be settled. They emigrated to Brown county, Kansas, in 1856 and for several years lived in dread of the Missouri border ruffians. Jim Lane and his men were camped within a mile of their home and they knew him personally. The family necessarily endured many hardships on the frontier and have lived in all sorts of primitive homes.

James McBride, the subject of our sketch, is one of ten children, all of whom are living but the eldest daughter. There were five sons and five daughters. Ellen died at the age of twenty-six years. Emily is the wife of Kenneth McCray, of Decatur county, Kansas. John an engineer of Salix, Iowa. James, the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Clara Todd, of Sedan, Kansas. Clay, a farmer near Jamestown. Finley, a harnessmaker of Mankato. Effie, wife of E. Peck, of Clyde. Gertrude, wife of William Hartwell, of Jamestown and Ethan, the youngest son, lives with his mother on the homestead. They are all residents of Kansas except one brother who is in Iowa.

James McBride was married in 1884 to Georgianna Muir. She was born in Scotland and came with her parents to America when six years of age, located in PennsyIvania and emigrated to Rooks county, Kansas, in 1880. For ancestry see sketch of Mrs. Janette McBride, of Jamestown, who is a sister.

Mr. and Mrs. McBride have had born to them four children, three daughters and one son. Gloria May and Lulu Gertrude are prepossessing young ladies of eighteen and sixteen years, respectively. Archie Alexander, their only son, is a promising lad, and Anna Belle, a bright little girl of six years.

Mr McBride owns eighty acres of land; each of the sons were given that amount by their father who was a well-to-do farmer and owned four hundred and eighty acres of land before dividing it between his boys. Mr. McBride is a Republican in politics; fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has been associated with the Jamestown Lodge fourteen years. He is also a member of the Ancient Order United Workmen.