AUTHOR’s NOTE: What's in a name? For example, the name Wm. Cullen McBride? For some time I've been fascinated by this question as it relates to our revered McBride High School. Do those born as a McBride still celebrate, or remember, their illustrious ancestor? And how about someone from his hometown Butler, Pa?
PLEASE NOTE: The photographs of the McBride Mausoleum by Richard and Dennis Ganahl. Click on a picture to enlarge then click on the small X in the top right corner to return to the story.
If my calculations are correct, the McBride-Malta connection is direct, and alive. But, before we jump to our story’s conclusion, let’s start at its beginning, at the McBride Family Mausoleum in Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Section 018, Lot 0261. The elegantly imposing McBride Mausoleum conveys in granite with its 20 fluted columns the financial fortitude of the country’s largest oil producer and our high school’s namesake at the time of his death.
Calvary Cemetery records seventeen McBride family members interred in the mausoleum beginning on May 7, 1917, and extending to Oct. 29, 1984. These family members include the McBride patriarch William Cullen McBride (1859-1917), his wife Katharine Mangan McBride (1864-1924), their four daughters in birth order Ellen (1888-1937), Laura (1891-1933), Kathleen (1892-1952), and Dorothy (1901-1959), at least the first husband of all four daughters, and seven children-five, listed as ‘infant.’
Various accounts of the patriarch’s last several months say he and his wife moved in Feb. 1917 to a recently purchased house next to their daughter Kathleen (daughter No. 3) in Pasadena, Ca. to help nurse her ailing husband Lacy Love who died soon after the senior couple’s arrival. Senior McBride suffered a slight stroke 10 days after his arrival, slowly recuperating over the next two months. The couple was planning to return to St. Louis when Mr. McBride ‘suffered a relapse on May 16 and never recovered.
Mrs. McBride, and three daughters Ellen, Kathleen Love, and Dorothy were with him at his death on May 21. His ‘exact’ cause of death was listed as ‘chronic nephritis, aggravated by uraemic poisoning’. The family members traveled for more than three days with his body to St. Louis in a ‘private car Colonial’. Mr. McBride’s funeral was on May 26, nineteen days after the burial of Kathleen’s husband Lacy Love.
The funeral’s honorary pall bearers numbered 68 nationally prominent bankers, mercantilists, and oil industrialists from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities including August A. Busch and Edward Mallinckrodt of St. Louis.
Kevin Checkett (Class of 1969) shared in an email, "My grandmother told me that McBride's funeral cortege came by the school and all the boys stood on the curb in honour of our benefactor."
Most significantly, her announcement on June 1921 of a $250,000 gift ($4.7 million in 2024 dollars) in her and her daughters’ name in the memory of her husband for a Catholic boys’ high school on Kingshighway ‘three blocks north of Easton Avenue” resonates still to this day through the history of McBride High School and its illustrious alumni.
Mrs. McBride “died at 6 a.m. on Aug. 13, 1924, at the family residence at 29 Washington Terrace,” surrounded by her four daughters and their husbands after an “illness of about a year” (See McBride Mania March 2015). The news story continues the 62-year-old Mrs. McBride’s death was, “due to lung disease complications and was not unexpected.” Apparently, she was in, “failing health for more than a year…and became acutely ill a few weeks ago.”
At his death, Mr. McBride was described as, “a very forceful character and a good fighter for his rights and the rights of others…he was alert and active and never a figurehead…(and) left no doubt as to his meaning (and) once his word was given it was never broken.” His business acumen certainly shaped his devotion to caring for his family after his death.
Four years before his death he detailed his plans for succession in a letter to his second-born daughter Laura McBride Mahaffey through the creation of the Delk Investment Corporation (DELK: named after the first letter in the names of the McBride daughters). He conveyed all his property to DELK and directed it be managed by a board of directors including himself, Mrs. McBride, and his four daughters.
At the time of his death at the age of 58-years-old in 1917 Mr. McBride was the largest independent oil producer in the USA, and left an estate conservatively valued at more than $10,000,000 or $264.5 million in today’s dollars. Newspaper reports at the time of Mrs. McBride’s death said, “Mr. McBride directed his estate…be left in a trust…(that) should continue until 21 years after the death of the last of the daughters…for the benefit of the daughters and direct heirs.”
The McBride’s fourth daughter Dorothy McBride Orthwein was “the last of the daughters” and died in June 1959 suggesting the DELK company continued until at least 1980.
The McBride Family Mausoleum, Section 018, Lot 0261
As you might imagine, a family-tree rooted in four daughters of one of the country’s most wealthy oilman can become quite prodigious and widespread. Certainly, this article isn’t an effort to record in minute detail the family’s heritage-our interest is in the McBride Family Mausoleum and those ancestors most relevant to the McBride High School story.
The first-born daughter Ellen's (1888-1937) husband Ralph Morris, died in the “influenza epidemic of 1918” on Oct. 31, 1918, at the age of 35. The couple’s unnamed daughter died as an infant on July 16, 1918, just three months before her father Ralph. Both daughter and father are buried at the mausoleum.
The second marriage for both Ellen and her husband Balfour Stuart Craib (1887-1949) occurred after their respective spouses Ralph and Molle (who were brother and sister!) died in the influenza epidemic. For a time, the couple lived in New York City, and apparently, did not have any children.
Ellen died at 49-years old and is buried at the mausoleum, 12-years before her husband Balfour who died at 61-years old and is buried near his parents at Lake Charles Park Cemetery, in Bel-Nor, Mo. According to the 1940 U.S Census, he lived with his mother and sister at 5033 Westminster Pl. in St. Louis at 53-years old.
The McBride’s third-daughter Kathleen’s marriage to Lacy Love was the Archdiocese’s first marriage “before the magnificent altar which her parents had donated to the New Cathedral of St. Louis.” As noted earlier, her husband Lacy died at 33-years old in May 1917, in Pasadena, Ca., less than 20 days before her father’s death who had traveled with Mrs. McBride to California to help nurse Kathleen’s ailing husband.
The young couple’s son William McBride Love was born in California on Aug. 11, 1915, and died at 69-years old in Aug. 1984. President Ronald Regan nominated him in 1982 for a two-year term to be the U.S. Representative on the South Pacific Commission. The press release announcing the intended appointment notes, “Mr. Love is with a family oil and investment business as officer and director/stockholder.”
The release goes on to say, “he is a director of Brentwood Bank, Mo., Brooks Exploration, Inc. in Co., and the National Investors Corp. in NY. He graduated from Princeton University (A.B., 1938), is married, has three children, and resides in St. Louis, Mo.” He is buried with his mother Kathleen and father Lacy at the mausoleum.
Dr. Issac Dee Kelley, Kathleen’s second husband, was the victim of a sensational, nationally reported kidnapping by four abductors that held him captive for a week before releasing him unharmed in Illinois to a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who published a front-page story with a picture of the doctor upon his release.
The abductors originally demanded a ransom of $250,000 but later reduced it to $150,000. The New York Times quotes an attorney representing the doctor, “No ransom or reward was paid…either by the family or by anyone acting for the family and none was promised.”
During a rest from the “nervous strain of seven days of captivity,” Dr. Kelley said, “I feel a little rocky…(and)…can hardly believe it now. Those fellows mean business…and don’t think they don’t work hard in their occupation. Kidnapping is a twenty-four-hour-day job…(and they)…had as hard a time as I had.”
The St. Louis Review published a story on April 25, 1952, headlined “Mass of Requiem Held in Cathedral for Mrs. Kelley.” It reports she, “died (at 60-years old) on Sunday, April 20, in her home at 51 Westmoreland Place…of complications following an operation last fall…she was a graduate of Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis and had long been active in Catholic charitable and St. Louis civic affairs.”
Survivors included her son William McBride Love, and two daughters Mrs. Anton C. Stuever of St. Louis, and Mrs. Thomas R. Shepherd of Charlottesville, Va., and her sister Mrs. William (Dorothy) D. Orthwein of St. Louis. It also mentions her late sisters Ellen McBride Craib, and Laura McBride Mahaffey. There is no mention of her husband Dr. Issac Lee Kelley. She was buried at the mausoleum on April 22, 1952.
The McBride’s youngest and fourth daughter, Dorothy (1901-1959) seems to have the most family members buried at the mausoleum including her first husband William D. Orthwein (1897-1937) who died at 40-years old, three infants who apparently died before their first birthday in 1924, 1930, and 1936 respectively, and a son Peter McBride Orthwein who died at 47-years old in 1978.
He was, “vice-president and treasurer of the Laclede Bond & Mortgage Co. and associated with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. interests.” He was survived by his wife, “formerly Miss Dorothy McBride, a daughter of the late William C. McBride oil millionaire,” three children, his mother, a sister, and two brothers.
The couple’s fourth son William D. Orthwein III died at 51-years old on April 24, 1977, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Tulsa, OK. His obituary says he was the vice president of the, “St. Louis-based brokerage firm of Stifel-Nicolaus & Co., (and) died…of cancer in Tulsa…(where)…he had worked at the Tulsa office of Stifel Nicolaus…having moved to Tulsa about 25 years ago.”
Prior to his two years with the brokerage firm, Mr. Orthwein had served as a vice president and director of the McBride-Silurian Oil Co., of St. Louis. He was survived by a sister Dorothy Orthwein Bates, a brother Peter McBride Orthwein, two sons, and six daughters.
The couple’s daughter Dorothy Orthwein Bates died at 62-years old on Jan. 21, 1991, and is buried near the McBride Mausoleum (Sec. 018 Lot 0458). Her obituary states she, “died Saturday of cancer at her home in Ladue.” She graduated from Villa Duchesne High School, and “began working as an officer in the 1950s for the old W.C. McBride Co. and continued to work for the firm until it was acquired by A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. in 1987.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published on Aug. 23, 1948, in the “Social Activities” column a short note that, “Mrs. William (Dorothy) D. Orthwein and her post-debutante daughter, Miss Dorothy McBride Orthwein, will be hostesses at a supper party for Miss Werner and Miss Weld Sunday, Sept. 25, at the Deer Creek Club.” Today the Deer Club is listed as a golf club in Ladue, Mo.
She was, “appointed to St. Louis University’s Board of Trustees in 1988 and worked as a vice president and treasurer of Bateco Properties of St. Louis until her death.” She was survived by her husband, two sons, six daughters, and 11 grandchildren.
Perhaps the second daughter Laura (1891-1933) was the McBride’s favorite, after all her dad’s letter announcing the formation of DELK was addressed to her and her “good husband” Birch Orville Mahaffey, and he sent both his love and sincere wishes for their continued happiness along with a draft for a substantial amount of money.
The Mahaffey couple is interned at the mausoleum: Laura died at 42-years old on Sept. 29, 1933, and Birch died at 80-years old on Feb. 15, 1958. They had four daughters all who were memorialized at their deaths for their long lives of public service and philanthropy. They include Kathleen M. Walsh who died at 88-years old (1914-2002), Adelaide Schlafly (discussed last) who died at 97-years old (1915-2012), Dorothy Moore who died at 97-years old (1921-2018), and Elizabeth Mullins who died at 93-years old (1917-2010).
The girls’ father Birch, who outlived his wife Laura by 45 years, was born in Hopkins County, Texas according to his death notice, and was, “reportedly one of the first white men to see the headwaters of the Amazon River.” He was a “former oil company president (and) a West Point cadet.” He was awarded a patent in 1940 for a device that, “greatly reduce(d) the cost of constructing a storage reservoir…used in storing oils…(in) a storage pit dug in the ground.”
Edward J. Walsh Jr., husband of the first daughter Kathleen, died at 82-years old in 1991 of, “cardiac arrest…after being stricken at his home in Central West End.” He was the great-great-great-grandson of Pierre Chouteau, a founder of St. Louis, and was active in numerous civic affairs including the symphony, St. Louis University, and the Catholic charities. Pope John XXIII named him, “a Knight of Malta, one of the highest lay honors bestowed by the Catholic Church,” according to his obituary. He was survived by his wife, a nephew and five nieces, but no children.
The Mahaffey’s third daughter, Dorothy Jane Mahaffey Carpenter Moore, called D.J., died “peacefully at home” at 97-years old and outlived both of her husbands: Clarkson Carpenter Jr. and Walter L. Moore, MD. Her obituary lists numerous civic and outdoor activities centered around the family farm and its riding stables. Interestingly, D.J. is credited with winning a contest and naming the Khorassan Room at Chase Park Plaza. Khorasan is Persian and means, “where the sun arrives from” according to Wikipedia.
She was survived by four children and two stepchildren. Her youngest son Birch Oliver Mahaffey Carpenter died at 34-years old in August 1992 of AIDS-related pneumonia at St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights. He graduated in 1980 from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and was appointed to a two-year term with the Viennese Academy of Diplomacy. A graduate of the Washington University School of Law in 1986, he was fluent in five languages. He was completing a graduate degree in film at the time of his death.
Her husband Fristoe had a lifetime passion for flight, founded Midcoast Aviation, had a commercial pilot license for 60 years, owned a large working farm in Pike County Mo., and was a member of a variety of agricultural and wildlife organizations. He was a founding member of the Greater St. Louis Orchid Society, and an active supporter of Catholic higher education and a supporter of anti-abortion and child welfare organizations. Born in Mayfield, Ky., he graduated from the University of Mo. at Columbia in 1935 with a degree in economics.
Adelaide Mahaffey Schlafly (Mahaffey’s second daughter) and her husband Daniel Schlafly's three adult children (Daniel, Ellen, and Thomas-listed in the order of their mother’s obituary), seem most, albeit loosely, associated with the McBride High School legacy through the long-time, dues-paying “honorary” membership in the McBride Alumni Club of brother Thomas, and their mother Adelaide until her death in 2012. Also interesting, the senior McBride’s great-granddaughter and daughter of Ellen listed her name as Katherine Margaret McBride Shafer in her wedding story published by The New York Times on Aug. 1, 2004.
In a sense, Adelaide and Daniel’s marriage on Dec. 2, 1939, by Archbishop (and later Cardinal) John J. Glennon represented a union of two prominent St Louis families with substantial wealth both representing liquid-based national dynasties: one in the oil industry and the other in bottled water through the Schlafly family’s ownership of the Mountain Valley Water Company recognized in 1928 as the only nationally distributed bottled water, including its availability in the U.S. Senate.
Adelaide’s laudatory obituary by Gloria S. Ross in the now closed Beacon, a St. Louis-based online-only news site, reflected she, “spent a lifetime advocating on behalf of people whose voice are diminished by poverty, social injustice racial discrimination and educational deficiencies.” She died at 97-years old at her home in the Central West End on Sept. 30, 2012.
Her husband Daniel Schlafly died at 84-years old of a brain tumor at his home in the Central West End on July 16, 1997. An equally laudatory obituary by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Cultural News Editor Robert W. Duffy characterized Daniel as, “a man whose life was distinguished by an intuitive understanding of the concept of noblesse oblige.” He was president of the family-owned Mountain Valley Water Company when it was sold in 1967.
Noblesse oblige, a French term translated as ‘nobility obligates’, means those with great wealth bear great responsibility to give back to the less privileged and unfortunate. And certainly, this captures the overriding spirit of the Schlafly couple’s philanthropic and civic duty activities. Frankly, it would be easier to list the St. Louis organizations that didn’t capture the couple’s interest.
Consider: The Catholic Church from St. Louis to Rome, St. Louis University and High School, Georgetown University, the Jesuits, the City of St. Louis Board of Education, human rights, social justice, poverty, and the evils of racism and segregation as some of their major beneficiaries. The St. Louis Art Museum, the Zoo, and the Symphony, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Cathedral Basilica, and St. Louis Priory were just some of the specific organizations they were dedicated to.
The Schlafly’s children, while seemingly not comparably driven as their parents by the obligation of noblesse oblige, all are remarkably noteworthy in their personal endeavours.
Daniel Schlafly, with a doctorate from Columbia University (1972), is a Professor of History at St. Louis University, with an historical focus on the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural aspects among the Russians and East and West Europeans. His vita lists seven languages (German, Russian, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Polish) in addition to English. He’s published translations of Russian and Italian historical works, and most recently focused on, “the survival of the Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire in the suppression era (1772-1820).”
Brother Tom Schlafly is a graduate of St. Louis Priory School and has a law degree from Georgetown University. He’s Senior Counsel at Thompson Coburn, a law firm founded in St. Louis in 1929 with currently over 400 attorneys in at least seven national offices and revenues of more than $234 million. He’s on the board of directors of several companies and organizations including a financial company with combined assets of $50 billion, the St. Louis Art Museum and Public Library, and is a minority owner of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. He’s also the co-founder and chairman of The Saint Louis Brewery, brewer of Schlafly Beer.
I get it!
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) is recognized under international law as a sovereign entity, some refer to it as ‘the smallest sovereign state in the world’. It’s headquartered in Rome as a Catholic lay religious order. Founded around 1099 as chivalric order, it has a membership of about 13,500 Knights, Dames, and Chaplains, issues its own passports, maintains diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries, and has tens of thousands of employees and volunteers providing humanitarian assistance in more than 120 countries.
And now the connecting road…sister Ellen Schlafly Shafer and her husband Robert L. Shafer reside on the east coast. Ellen is past President of the International Catholic Organizations Information Center at the United Nations. The ICO Center, founded in 1946, ‘provides access, references, and briefings on current UN affairs, on Church teachings in fields related to the UN and on initiatives undertaken by ICOs.” Also, Ellen is a Dame of Malta.
Her husband Robert earned his law degree from the College of Law at Georgetown University and served as vice-president of public affairs and government relations at Pfizer, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company during his more than 30-year career. He was appointed in 2004 as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s Permanent Observer at the UN and served for 11 years until 2015. Currently he is listed as the SMOM’s Permanent Observer.
Not long ago, at a time only fate could determine, I found myself seated next to the general manager of the Butler Eagle, the daily newspaper in Butler, Pa. during the quarterly board meeting of the PA NewsMedia Association’s Foundation.
I introduced myself as a graduate of McBride High School in St. Louis, and then asked what she knew about William Cullen McBride, once the country’s most wealthy independent oil producer and a native of Butler, Pa. She smiled and said, “Wish I did know him, the only McBride business I know in Butler is the McBride Station Bar and Grill.”
So, what does the name William Cullen McBride mean nearly 110 years after his untimely death? Little it seems to those still living in his hometown in Butler, Pa. Certainly, his ancestors seem to have honoured his accomplishments through deeds in their own stellar lives while staying true to his devotions of entrepreneurism and the Catholic Church.
And to us, the McBride High School alumni, the name will forever carry a special and very personal meaning. Amen.
* Alone on the stage of the musical ‘Camelot,’ King Arthur realizes his dreams for his beloved Camelot are no more. Richard Burton played King Arthur opposite Julie Andrews' Queen Guenevere in the original 1960 production. The Broadway musical was President John F. Kennedy’s favorite and he played the LP soundtrack often in their personal quarters at the White House.
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