George Wycliffe McBride

George Wycliffe McBride (March 13, 1854 – June 18, 1911) was an American politician and businessman from the U.S. state of Oregon who served as a United States Senator from Oregon from 1895 to 1901. An Oregon native and a member of the Republican Party, he was the first native Oregonian to serve in the Senate. Over the course of his public career he served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly as Speaker of the House, held two terms as Oregon Secretary of State, and then represented his state in the United States Congress during a significant period in American history. His father and two of his brothers were also prominent in public life, making the McBride family one of the notable political families of early Oregon.

McBride was born on March 13, 1854, near Lafayette in Yamhill County, Oregon. He was one of fourteen children of James McBride, a physician who had come to Oregon after living in Tennessee and Missouri, and Mahala (Miller) McBride. The family’s political influence extended beyond George: his brother John Rogers McBride served as a U.S. Representative from Oregon, and another brother, Thomas McBride, later served on the Oregon Supreme Court from 1909 to 1930. Growing up in a large family with strong civic and professional traditions, McBride was shaped early by the political and social development of Oregon during its formative years as a state.

McBride attended local public schools in Oregon before pursuing further education. He enrolled in the preparatory department of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he studied for one year. He then continued his education at Monmouth Christian College (now Western Oregon University) in Monmouth, Oregon, spending two years there. After his collegiate studies, McBride read law and was admitted to the bar, but he chose not to practice law as a profession. Instead, he moved to St. Helens, Oregon, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for nine years, establishing himself in business and gaining experience that would later inform his work in public office.

McBride entered elective politics in the early 1880s. In 1882 he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Republican, representing Columbia County. During his lone session in the Oregon Legislative Assembly, his colleagues selected him to serve as Speaker of the House, a position that placed him at the center of legislative activity in the state. Building on this experience, he successfully ran for statewide office and was elected Oregon Secretary of State in 1886 to a four-year term. He was re-elected in 1890, serving two consecutive terms in that office from January 10, 1887, until January 14, 1895, when Harrison R. Kincaid succeeded him. As Secretary of State, McBride played a key role in the administration of Oregon’s governmental affairs during a period of growth and institutional consolidation.

On February 23, 1895, the Oregon Legislative Assembly elected McBride to the United States Senate. A Republican, he served one term in the Senate from March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1901, representing the interests of his constituents during a significant era in American political and economic history. During his tenure, he participated in the legislative process and committee work that shaped national policy. He served as chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard during the Fifty-fourth Congress, though the committee is believed not to have met during his chairmanship, and he was also a member of the Committee on Coast Defenses during both the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses. McBride’s service in Congress thus included oversight of issues related to transportation and national defense. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1900, concluding his Senate career at the end of his term in 1901.

After leaving the Senate, McBride remained active in public and commercial affairs. He was appointed a United States commissioner to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis Exposition) of 1904, a major world’s fair that showcased American economic and cultural development at the turn of the twentieth century. Subsequently, he worked in the private sector as an agent of the Western Pacific Railroad in California, drawing on his political experience and familiarity with transportation issues developed during his Senate service. On May 24, 1902, in New York City, he married Laura W. Walter; the couple had one daughter.

George Wycliffe McBride died in Portland, Oregon, on June 18, 1911, at the age of 57. His remains were cremated, and his ashes were interred in the Masonic Cemetery in St. Helens, Oregon. Remembered as a pioneering native-born Oregonian in the United States Senate and as part of a family deeply involved in the state’s political and judicial life, McBride’s career spanned local business, state legislative leadership, statewide executive office, and national legislative service.