DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Crockett, Houston County, there's a site that carries the weight of two generations of McConnell men, and the story starts across an ocean. John McConnell came over from Ireland in 1847, landed in Crockett, and set up a blacksmith shop right here at this very spot.
Now, a blacksmith shop in a young Texas town is no small thing. That's the kind of place a community gets built around, anvil ring by anvil ring. John didn't stop there, though.
Later, he and his sons picked up and moved to another location, where they launched into a hardware business. And while he was at it, John McConnell made himself useful to Crockett in every way a man could. County Treasurer.
City Alderman. Born in 1818, he lived until 1898, and somewhere in those decades he wove himself into the fabric of that town so thoroughly that his son Robert Emmett McConnell had something real to carry forward. Robert Emmett, born in 1867, did exactly that.
In 1901 he built a home right back here at this original site, as if the land itself had a pull on the McConnell name. He kept the family business going, and he stepped into local government just like his father before him. As a member of the City Council in the early 1900s, Robert Emmett was described as an effective leader during a period of dramatic growth and change for Crockett.
He passed in 1918. Two men, two generations, one piece of ground in Crockett, Texas. Some families leave a town better than they found it.
The McConnells, by every measure this marker offers, were that kind of family.
What the marker says
John McConnell (1818-98) came to Crockett from Ireland in 1847 and opened a blacksmith shop at this site. Later, with his sons, he moved to another location and started a hardware business. An active civic leader, McConnell served as County Treasurer and as City Alderman. His son Robert Emmett McConnell (1867-1918), who built a home at this site in 1901, continued his father's business and also served prominently in local government. As a member of the City Council in the early 1900s, he was an effective leader during a period of dramatic growth and change for Crockett. (1981)