Kerr H. "Curly" McBride

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Husband Kerr H. "Curly" McBride ¹

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           Born: 1849 - Butler Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 1896 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Col. Francis McBride (      -1859) 3
         Mother: Elizabeth Hazlett (      -      ) 3

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Wife

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Kerr H. "Curly" McBride

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He was reared in his native place and attended the Butler, Pennsylvania, schools until he accompanied his uncle, A. R. Hazlett, to Greene County, where they began contracting on oil wells on Dunkard Creek. Later they engaged in a butchering business at Oil City. After they separated, Mr. McBride engaged in drilling and became known as a first class man in that line. He obtained his first oil, on his own account, in 1877, in the Great Leather well, on the Peter Graft farm, which started with an output of 250 barrels of oil a day. He sold his interest in this well for the sum of $32,500, which he immediately invested in the oil business. As with other speculation, this was uncertain, and before he made any more he had lost all this amount except $8,000. With that remnant he went to Bradford and in the space of eight years he acquired twenty-six oil wells and a capital of $86,000. His ups and downs may be shown by the fact that in one night he made $15,000, and in one day, $27,000, in oil speculation, and while he played one game of checkers he lost all and had to borrow $100, in order to make any more. With a capital of $200, backed with the utmost faith in his "luck," he came to Butler and leased the Henderson farm, but his drilling found only a dry hole. After this, with $800, in borrowed money, he went to McBride and there drilled a well which gave 360 barrels of oil an hour and at the end of ninety days gave 150 an hour. This brought him $114,000, and with it he went to George Westinghouse, at Pittsburgh. It is said that his proposal to Mr. Westinghouse was: "If you come into the gas business with me, I'll take the field end and you the capital." This was in 1884. Mr. Westinghouse, however, does not seem to have taken up with Mr. McBride's proposition at that time, although later he was also a large investor in the same line. In 1887, after a most strenuous life, Mr. McBride fell sick and he died a comparatively poor man, although at that time he had 45,000 acres of land under lease at Marion, Indiana, all of which was producing gas and oil in abundance.
He was one of the best known men in the oil business in Pennsylvania. He was one of the most whole-souled and kind-hearted men, also, who ever had large business dealings in that section. He not only made money for himself, much of which he lost as easily, but he made fortunes for others. His charities were open-handed and no one in financial distress ever appealed to him in vain, and his good nature was often taken ad-vantage of. He voted the Republican ticket but he never took any active interest in politics. He was a member in good standing of Argyle Lodge, F. and A. M., at Petrolia. He never married.

1 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 707, 1164.

2 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 1164.

3 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 707.

4 James A. McKee, 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1909), Pg 1165.