James Samuel McBride and Sophronia Adams Warren McBride had two children, Alice Maude McBride (born July 15, 1860) and Guy Warren McBride (born February 1, 1864). Soon after he fathered these two children, James Samuel McBride died on June 2, 1864, at the age of 23, only a few months after the birth of his second child. He is buried at Salem Black River Church.
At his early death, James McBride had left Sophronia Warren McBride an estate one-half mile wide and seven miles long, extending east from the Black River Swamp to the other side of what is I-95 today. In addition, there was the beautiful home of Rip Raps. After her husband’s death, first Sophronia’s father, and then her daughter and son, worked with her to maintain the plantation. It is said that, with great fanfare, once a year, Guy McBride would make the trek into the then thriving town of Mayesville where the mortgage was held by the Bank of England.
There, he would pay the interest on the mortgage for the house and farm. The principal, however, remained untouched, and they seemed unable to make headway on the debt. Refusing to sell either land or timber, Sophronia Warren McBride, with the help of her family, managed to hold the plantation together for more than half a century.
