Much has happened since Westside News printed the story of my great uncle, Brockport’s forgotten human rights crusader John Joseph (Exile) McBride, in March of this year (https://westsidenewsny.com/features/2021-03-15/ancestral-pot-of-gold-found-as-grave-of-human-rights-crusader-discovered-in-brockport/). I have now gone from finding over 1,000 to over 1,400 newspaper articles on him that were published between 1870 and 1911. These are not only from the United States, but also Canada, Ireland, and England. I have also gathered documents from archival records at such universities as Notre Dame, Villanova, Georgetown, and Niagara. By searching Exile McBride online, one can see all of the growing news coverage.
Exile had many years of connections with United States presidents – Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, and William McKinley – working for both Irish independence and universal human rights. Now William H. Taft can be added to the list. Through my research, I also discovered that Exile had especially close ties with President Theodore Roosevelt.
I have been giving presentations on Exile McBride and his lifelong struggle for human rights. I recently spoke at a Buffalo historical event and am working on possible talks in Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica.
Having now accumulated many boxes of documents on Exile McBride, I’m planning to write a book. It will discuss researching my ancestry during the pandemic and discovering a famous great uncle who I never knew existed. Then the search began to find his missing grave, looking in six different cemeteries around Brockport and eventually enlisting the help of a ground-probing radar technician. The book will also include amazing episodes from Exile’s life, like his escape from Ireland to America to avoid being killed, leading the Fenians with the Irish flag in the Battle of Ridgeway and being captured, and later being kidnapped by undercover agents. In addition to U.S. presidents, Exile visited Prime Minister Gladstone of England three times, pleading with him to get the British government out of Ireland. Exile gave inspirational speeches on human rights at National Democratic and Republican Conventions. He also calmed the crowd that wanted to kill Leon Czolgosz, the man who had just assassinated President McKinley in 1901. After all that, Exile returned to the quiet setting of his Brockport farm, where he earned $500 selling apples in 1907.
Exile dedicated his entire life proclaiming one universal assertion: Every human being was entitled to inalienable, God-given human rights. These included life, liberty, freedom, and dignity. As one of Exile’s closest remaining relatives, I felt that he himself deserved the dignity of having a new memorial. While I did find his burial records, claiming that his gravesite and gravestone were located in section H in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, they could no longer be found.
On Saturday, October 9, at noon, the forgotten human rights crusader will receive some long overdue recognition and closure at the public dedication of his new memorial at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, East Canal Road, Brockport. The memorial is located in section H, in close proximity to where Exile’s remains were supposed to have been.
For the past 110 years, Exile and his message have been buried and forgotten. However, in rediscovering this former teenager who exiled to Brockport from Ireland, one clearly realizes that his noble cause is still very much alive and relevant in our world today.
Mike McBride
Rochester
