Early in life, Patrick McBryde was employed as a Miner's Agent, but attracting, by his natural forces, & executive ability, the attention of Alexander McDonald, the great Scotch labor leader. He was persuaded to surrender his vocation & enter the ranks of organized labor. He led the mine workers out of the 'Nights of Labor' & in the end of the 19th century, he guided the founding of the 'United Mine Workers' in America. Patrick McBryde was the father of the 'Interstate Movement'. The reason Patrick McBryde broke the miners away, was the crookedness of the 'Knights of Labor', who controlled the unions at the time, but also the fact, that unionized tailors & railroaders did not know any of the hardships, & the problems of the coal workers, who were serfs of the coal corporation. 'Pluck me stores' bound by department to company & uniform laws.
Patrick McBryde went to Scotland to find work & his mother joined him. He worked in Glasgow,Scotland industry & he has 'mined coal' in nearly every large pit in the British Isles.
Patrick McBryde came to this country in 18?. He took a position as a digger in Squire Oaks Mines in Washington County,Penn. It was Coal Bluff Mines at Lincoln Bend,Washington County,Penn. that he met with the accident in blasting 'that destroyed the sight in his right eye'. Patrick McBryde was badly burned in 1880 in the Banner Mine in Washington County,Penn.
Patrick's mother, Mary McBryde, died of a broken heart in Glasgow,Scotland, after being ordered out of their home for non-payment of rent. The postman, with a letter containing her son's, Patrick, savings passed the funeral procession of Patrick's mother, Mary McBryde, as he walked up the path to the McBryde home.
In 1889, after Patrick McBryde was a clerk weightman for several terms of office, he was elected National Secretary for the Open Branch of the American Protective Union. And when the United Mine Workers arose from a confrontation of the Open & Secret Branches of the Protective Union, he was elected a member of the National Executive Board. Patrick McBryde was the National Secretary(4 Ohio Operators), Treasurer of the United Mine Workers. In 1894, he succeded as Factory Inspector for Watchhorn, as National Secrtary Treasurer. He wrote of the great strike of (April) 1894. He was the Secretary & Treasurer of the Miner & Operator, & the Superintendent of Tunnel Work in Scotland. The commisioner of Coal Operator's Association in Jefferson, Guersey, & Belmont County, Ohio. He had an office in Wheeling, West Virginia. Two years on the National Board Members of Miners Organization(presently the United Mine Workers) & five years National Secretary.
Patrick was a coal miner, iron worker, & labor leader. He died of Pnuemonia with complicated Asthma(Black Lung) at North Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia, five days on the first ward. Dr. O.D. McCoy M.D. Rev. R.A. McEachon Barton, Ohio (age:60 years 9 mths 2 days) at 2:00 A.M. (White Male Widower)bur. Mt Calvary Cemetary in Wheeling, West Virginia. ?d.Dec. 5,1908
(Who ?bur.Finnwood in Cleveland,Ohio Dec. 5,1908)
The miners wanted to erect a monument in his honor, after his death, but his children,John McBryde & Arthur McBryde, refused to permit it, & asked that the money be used for the benefit of the sick miners.
Submitted by:Lisa Meeks