He was Hamilton's first Mayor, and a prominent State Representative associated with the canals, archaeologist who supplied a considerable number of sketches of earthworks for early texts on the Mississippi Valley, Ohio's leading pioneer author and antiquarian, Miami University Secretary and President of the Board of Trustees, Butler County's fifth Sheriff, a surveyor, and an officer of other various entities.

McBride became an ardent convert to John C. Symmes' Hollow Earth theory, and wrote a book in support of it in 1826.

As an archaeologist, he lived and worked near the Great Miami River, examining evidence of ancient life in the region.

Erwin, served as his assistant, making surveys of earthworks in the Great Miami River valley.

Artifacts and research by McBride was used by Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis in the Smithsonian Institution publication, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.