Person:Walter McBride (1)

Rock Island City directories have the following information: 1909: works at Rock Island Sash Works; living at 2823-6th Ave., Rock Island. 1913: conductor; same house 1915: sub-carrier for post office; Carolyn is wife; same house 1917-19: conductor for Tri-City Railway (street-car company); living 2820 1/2-6th Ave 1921: conductor; living at 2803-6th Ave; living at 2803-6th Ave., Rock Island. 1923: streetcar operator: Tri-City Railway Co.; living as above. 1924: streetcar operator; Tri-City; living as above. 1927-1932: car operator; Tri-City; living 2818-6th Ave. 1933-1939: car operator; now living 2911-6th Ave. 1942-47: bus operator 1955: investigator for the State 1959: State Revenue Department 1970: retired The 1930 census shows that Walter and Carolyn paid $27/month rent and had two lodgers: Edward and Nellie Kramer, ages 37 and 35; he is a woodworker in a wood mill.

According to grandson Larry Wendell, Walter was standing on a street corner in Rock Island by the Sherman Hotel in downtown Rock Island where he saw Conner Looney, son of Quad City gangster chief John Looney, get shot and killed on Oct. 26, 1922. The Looney gang published a weekly newspaper that maligned people who aggravated them and solicited payoff money to the paper. The gang held City Hall hostage for several days until the Illinois National Guard intervened. Walter told of public hangings by Rock Island County officials at the foot of the Centennial bridge site over the Mississippi; law required a public hanging, so tickets were handed out to document that the prescribed number of persons were in attendance. A sack was placed over the felon’s head prior to the hanging. Lots of hobos came to the back porch (glassed in) of Walter’s house and knocked on the door for handouts; the hobos would never come to the front door. A few days before Halloween one year when I was in high school, two of my buddies and I threw a firecracker out of our car and it exploded close to the car following us- which was what we hoped for. Unfortunately, the Assistant Fire Chief was driving the car and he pulled us over using his siren and told us to report to the Police Station in Rock Island. We were scared to death, but we did so. Probably because the police discovered that my "great uncle" was the police magistrate at the time, we were lectured about the hazards of fireworks and released. Kinship to Walter paid off! Walter was a gregarious person who was active in political and civic affairs as documented in his obituary below. He died in the Lutheran Hospital in Moline, IL, on March 11, 1982 at the age of 89; the cause of death was probable acute leukemia arising from refractory thromb---topena. Walter and his wife are buried in Greenview Memorial Gardens, East Moline, IL. SS# 331-09-0069.

“Walter McBride Walter E. McBride, 89, of 2911 6th Ave., Rock Island, died at 3:30 a.m. Thursday in the Pathway Hospice Unit at Moline Hospital. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Christian Church, Moline. The Rev. Paul H. Ausherman will officiate, and burial will be in Greenville Memorial Gardens Cemetery, East Moline. Friends may call from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Knox-Larsen Funeral Home, Rock Island. Memorials may be made to the Pathway Hospice Unit at Moline Lutheran Hospital. Mr. McBride was born Sept. 11, 1892, in Rock Island, the son of George W. and Malinda Curtis McBride. He was a life resident. He was married to Caroline Price April 23, 1913, in Rock Island. Mr. McBride was a bus driver with the former Tri-City Railway Co. for 20 years. He has served as a Fifth Ward alderman in Rock Island from 1941 to 1947, and was mayor protem in Rock Island from 1945-46.. He was a Republican precinct committeeman for 50 years and was chairman for 17 years. He also was a member of the First Christian Church, Moline, where he also had served as a Sunday school teacher and was an elder emeritus. Mr. McBride was a member for more than 50 years of Modern Woodmen of America and of Trio Lodge 57, AF & AM. He was past president of the Rock Island Rotary Club. Mr. McBride was a police magistrate from 1947 to 1955, was a former auditor with the State of Illinois Revenue Department, and retired in 1962 as a real estate salesman. He also was chairman of the Island View Project in Rock Island and was a former County Board member. Surviving are his wife; a daughter, Mrs. Bernice E. Wendell of Rock Island; two grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.”

Carlina “Carolyn” S. Price was born in Clinton, IA, on July 23, 1893, the daughter of Taylor and Martha Evans Price. One or both of the parents made and sold large quantities of horseradish for many years. It is not known when Carlina abandoned her given name, but after her marriage to Walter on April 23, 1913, her new family all knew her as Carolyn (pronounced Caroline). Granddaughter Sandra Peisch reports that she remembers her grandma saying that she floated down the river from Clinton to Rock Island on a raft with her family. Caroline’s daughter, Bernice, says her mother became licensed as a beautician in 1924 and worked at home until the 1970s, although only sporadically in later years.

Caroline died on May 16, 1893, in Rock Island, IL. She had been an inpatient in the Lutheran Hospital for three weeks prior to her death from respiratory and renal failure related to diabetic glomerulus mellitus as a consequence of diabetes mellitus. SS# 331-09-0069.

“CAROLYN MCBRIDE Funeral services for Mrs. Carolyn McBride, 91, of 2911 6th Ave., Rock Island, who died Thursday, will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Knox-Larson Funeral Home, Rock Island. Dr. Herbert Davis, pastor of First Christian Church, Moline, will officiate, and burial will be in Greenview Memorial Gardens Cemetery, East Moline. Visitation is from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. today at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the First Christian Church Conley Education Fund. Pallbearers will be Jack Bixby, Kenneth and Russel McBride, Dan Peisch and Mark and Jeff Wendell. The former Carolyn Price was born July 23, 1893, in Clinton, Iowa, the daughter of Taylor and Martha Evans Price. She had lived most of her life in Rock Island. She was married to Walter E. McBride April 23, 1913, in Rock Island. He died March 11, 1982. Mrs. McBride has worked as a beauty operator in her home for many years. She was a member of First Christian Church, Moline, and of the Loyal Married Peoples Class of the church. She also had served as church historian and was a member of the King’s Daughters in Rock Island. Surviving are a daughter, Bernice E. Wendell of Rock Island; two grandchildren, Larry Wendell and Sandra Peisch, both of Davenport; seven great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild.”

1. ↑ Birth number 920003692.
2. ↑ Illinois state file number 85622.
3.   1930 census: Rock Island, Rock Island Co., IL; roll 553; ED 84, page 12B..
4.   Roald Tweet, 1996, Quad Cities: An American Mosaic: East Hall Press, 106 p..
5.   Death Certificate: registration district 81.0; state file number 85622..
6.   Obituary from The Argus, Rock Island, IL., 3/11/82..
7.   Birth Certificate, Clinton Co., IA, Book 4, page 27..
8.   Death Certificate: Illinois State Document number 90514, 1895..
9.   Obituary in The Rock Island Argus, May 17, 1985..
10.   Document 85P242 from the Rock Island County Probate Court..