P.H McBRIDE, M.D., a well known physician of Coffee County, was born in that county, December 27, 1825. He is the son of William S. and Milly (Conwell) McBRIDE, the former born at Lynchburg, Va., and the latter born at Abbeyville, S.C. in 1801. They died in 1879 and 1877 respectively in Coffee County, where he was a farmer.
Our subject, one of ten children, after his school life ended, was for two years a blacksmith. Serving in the Mexican war for over a year, he fought at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. Returning to Coffee County he worked at blacksmithing and mechanics until 1861, when he enlisted in the Sixteenth Regiment Tennessee Infantry (Confederate), and was for one year its flag-bearer. In 1862 he organized a company of cavalry, and was their captain at Richmond (Ky.), Fort Donelson, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and with seventeen men, August 24, 1862, fought a regiment for fifty-five minutes. On account of ill health he was discharged in 1863.
After blacksmithing at Beech Grove until 1869, he studied medicine and began his successful practice in 1871. August 27, 1848, he married Elizabeth A. EMERSON, a cultured lady, born July 26, 1826, in Kentucky. Their children are William H., Thomas M., Pleasant H., Burr H., Mollie C., and Demillion E., who died in 1862. A decided Democrat, he was State senator in the XLIV Assembly. He has been several times justice of the peace and superintendent of weights and measures in Coffee County. In 1848 he was elected colonel of the Forty-eighth Tennessee Militia.
Goodspeed Pub. Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of the Counties of White, Warren, Coffee, DeKalb, and Cannon, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, Etc., Etc. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1887.