The Early Days

The history of McKinney, one of the oldest towns in North Texas, dates back over one hundred and fifty years to 1841, when the first settlers arrived in the region from Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Collin County got its name five years later, when the state’s first legislators, meeting under the Constitution of the State in 1846, created Collin, Denton, Hunt, and Grayson counties out of the territory that had been named Fannin County, an area that encompassed most of Northeast Texas.

The original county seat was established in Buckner in 1846, but just two years later, the seat was moved three miles eastward to a more central location, and was renamed McKinney. Both the county and its seat were named after Collin McKinney (see accompanying article). The town was originally incorporated in 1849, and was re-incorporated on May 28, 1859.

McKinney Texaco Station - circa 1910

Old McKinney Postcards

Read about the Lee-Peacock Feud

Another Lee-Peacock Link

1948 McKinney Tornado Damage Photo

1959 McKinney Phonebook Image

Collin County Historical Society

1800s News Articles

Photos from the Old Collin County Prison

1889 Wedding Photo

Old McKinney Texas Bank Notes

Firsts

McKinney’s first postmaster was Joel F. Stewart in 1848, the first merchant was John L. Lovejoy, and the first newspaper in town was the McKinney Messenger, published by James W. Thomas in 1858. McKinney’s first church was organized in 1848 by J.B. Wilmeth, who had also created Collin County’s first church two years earlier. The initial meetings of the First Christian Church of McKinney were held in the Wilmeth blacksmith shop, and were later moved to an upper room of the Wilmeth house. McKinney was also the home of James W. Throckmorton, the 11th governor of Texas, who later served in the United States Congress. Other frequent visitors to the town were Jesse and Frank James and their James Gang, who came to McKinney to visit their cousin "Tuck" Hill, whose historic house still stands just west of downtown.

The railroad came through McKinney in 1872. The first City Hall was built in 1882 on S. Kentucky St., the second built in 1909. The first McKinney fire company was organized in 1878, and electric lights were introduced in 1889.

In 1850, the population of Collin County was 1,950. By the turn of the century, it had topped 50,000, while today nearly 300,000 people call the county home. Land value has increased proportionally as well: the taxable value per acre in 1849 was a mere 68 cents; by 1872 it was up to $5.75 an acre, and in 1923 that number had jumped to $25-50 an acre.

Historically Significant Buildings

There are a number of historically significant buildings in McKinney, contributing to a certain 19th century charm that has earned the town a listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Among the oldest and most interesting are:

• The Old Collin County Courthouse: built in 1876, the first permanent building on the downtown square.

• The Old Collin County Jail: built in 1880, a site that has become popular with Hollywood filmmakers in recent years as a movie location.

• The First Methodist Church: built in 1900, which stands as the oldest existing church in town.

• The original home of Captain "Tuck" Hill, friend of Jesse and Frank James: built in 1877 and located at 616 W. Virginia.

• Another place made famous by Hollywood, the house used as the haunted house in the movie Benji built in 1870 and located at 1104 S. Tennessee.

In 1818, Collin moved his family to Tennessee, where he was hired to manage the estate of Senator George Washington Campbell, when the Senator was appointed Minister to Russia. In this post, Collin began to meet and befriend influential people of the region, and in 1831, when he moved to Hickman’s Prairie on the Red River, he was acknowledged as the political helmsman for his large section of the Red River District. A few years later, Collin and four other representatives to the convention meeting at Old Washington-on-the-Brazos were drafted by Judge Richard Ellis to write a declaration of separation from Mexico. That document became known as the Declaration of Independence, and it bears Collin McKinney’s signature. He later went on to serve the Red River District in the First, Second, and Fourth Congresses of the Republic.

From 1844 to 1846, Collin served as a guide for people settling in North Texas from Kentucky and Arkansas, making the trip eleven times on horseback. Around 1846, Collin moved his family again, this time to an area near Anna, Texas, and in 1846, the county was renamed Collin County. Two years later, his legacy was further cemented when the county seat, recently moved from Buckner, was named McKinney in his honor.

He served under eight different governments in his life: he was born a subject of King George III, and later became a citizen of the Colonial Government of the 13 Colonies; the United States; Mexico; the Provisional Government established by the Texans in 1835; the Texas Republic until annexation; the United States again; and finally the Southern Confederacy.

Collin died on September 8, 1861, at the age of 95, and he is buried in a marked grave in the cemetery at Van Alstyne.  (Pictures and more here)

In his book about the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, The Men Who Made Texas Free, Samuel Houston Dixon wrote, "Mr. McKinney was a man of most admirable character. He possessed a spirit of progressiveness which dominated his life. No one of that group of pioneers exercised a more wholesome influence over those with whom he came in contact than Mr. McKinney. He lived a life worthy of emulation and was held in high esteem."

Fun Facts about McKinney

• 1841- First pioneer settlers came to Collin County

• 1848 - The U.S. Post Office Department changes the name of the new county seat from Buckner to McKinney

• 1866 - Jesse and Frank James and their James Gang are frequent visitors to McKinney where their cousin "Tuck" Hill lives.

• 1872 - The first railroad comes through Collin County.   The East Line links McKinney to Jefferson, Texas.

• 1878 - McKinney organizes its first fire company, complete with a small, hand-pulled pumper and a hose cart.

• 1889 - The city of McKinney gets electric lights.

• 1910 - Street cars come to McKinney.

• 1912 - Professor C. F. Walsh flies the first airplane flight in Collin County, taking to the skies over the McKinney Fair Grounds.

• 1915 - The County Federation of Women's Club is organized to include women's literary and service clubs from around the county.

• 1996 - McKinney Online! is launched.  : )