The MCBRIDES, Prominent settlers of Midway, Renamed Barberville.

1893 CEMETERIES ARE MORE than final resting places. They are outdoor museums that can tell us many stories about those who settled an area, their cultural practices and relationships with others. When DUNCAN MCBRIDE, a prominent settler of Midway (now Barberville}, died May 30, 1893, another chapter was added to the history MIDWAY CEMETERY has preserved.

Duncan McBride and his wife, DELILAH MCRAE, were not among the earliest settlers (they arrived in 1868), but they invested significantly in the community. In 1872 they gave land on Mill Creek to establish Barberville’s first cemetery and the adjacent Midway Methodist Church, which Duncan built. Mrs. McBride, who died Jan. 4, 1889, was buried there as were other pioneers like the Barbers, Morrisons, Reeves, Richardsons, Buckles, Cades, Bellamys, Hulls and Ropes. The grave of Mrs. Gracey McRae, Mrs. McBride’s mother, was the first in Midway Cemetery.

Born in North Carolina, Duncan moved with his parents to Montgomery County, Ga., when he was 18. He met Delilah there, they married in 1856 and their two children were born in Georgia. Just before the Civil War began, the McBrides moved to Florida, settling first in Marion County. An outbreak of yellow fever in 1868 pushed the family further south to Volusia County, where the environment seemed healthier. For $800 (about $25,000 today), they purchased 49 acres on Mill Creek from James and Martha Sauls, then added more over the years.

The Midway settlement got its name from its location at the junction of two ancient Indian/Spanish trails (now roughly paralleled by Highway 40) that connected the town of Volusia and the Tomoka River. Midway Church also was considered to be at the approximate center of the Jacksonville to Tampa Methodist Circuit.

— SOURCES for West Volusia Historical Society Post: VOLUSIA: THE WEST SIDE, pps 154-165; WVHS presentation on historic cemeteries by Julie Adams Scofield. The late 1880s photo of Duncan and Delilah (Delia) McRae McBride was donated by the McBride family and is part of the Dreggors Collection in the WVHS Archives.