MRS. GEORGIE McBRIDE
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: MEASON, HOLLINGSWORTH,
established her home on Plummer Avenue, between Curtner Avenue and the Foxworthy road, in the Willow District, in January, 1881. Here she lives with her family of four boys, the eldest of whom was then in his fifteenth year. She came from St. Louis, Missouri, and commenced improving what was then a naked wheat field, buying fifteen acres and paying $125 per acre.
Mrs. McBride has, in her life here, illustrated what a woman of energy and executive ability can accomplish, in this land of sunny sky and fertile soil. Her first care was to build a house and plant a few trees around it. The first season the fifteen acres were planted to prune, cherry, and apricot trees, with the first in predominance. The third year, from five acres, she gathered six tons of prunes. In 1883 Mrs. McBride added seventeen acres to her purchase, paying from $150 to $200 per acre; this also was in a state of nature. She now has, excepting the portion occupied by buildings, thirty-two acres in trees. Twenty acres of these are bearing, and ten acres are in trees three and four years old. In 1887 her apricots yielded $260 per acre, while her total receipts from fruit in that year were $1,800.
Mrs. McBride is a daughter of B. S. and Maria (Meason) Hollingsworth. Her father was a native of Virginia and her mother of Kentucky. She has four sons : John G., born in July, 1865; Charles, in March, 1867; David E., in January, 1870; and Smith E., March, 1871.
Mrs. McBride has, by the aid of her sons, managed the place, and except in the
hurry of fruit-growing, has not expended for labor more than $100 during the
seven years she has owned it ! By her success in creating a home in a strange
land, and without assistance, Mrs. McBride has proven herself a woman of more
than ordinary ability. The healthy condition of her orchard is a sure indication
of good management, and a refutation of the charge that a woman cannot conduct a
paying business. She is most fortunate in her sons, who have their mother's
energy, and are of the greatest assistance to her in caring for their pleasant
home.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 452
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT