DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some homesteads just sit quiet on their lot, holding their stories close. The Waddill-Morris homesite in McKinney, Collin County, is one of those places.
Let me walk you through it. Judge R.L. Waddill was a Kentucky man, born in 1811, and in 1853 he made his way to McKinney — bringing along his stepson, George Shackelford Morris.
McKinney had already been established as the Collin County seat five years prior, so this wasn't raw frontier, but it was still a place being built, and Waddill and Morris came ready to build. The two of them bought up large tracts of land in town, put up a home, and only then sent word back for the rest of the family to follow. And that family was something — Judge Waddill's wife Sarah, and their children: R.L., Joe, Ben, Gaston, and Fannie.
That is a full house by any measure. Now, Judge Waddill wasn't a man content to let the world sit still. Come the late 1850s, he erected a schoolhouse right there in his backyard — his own backyard — and went all the way to Bethany College in West Virginia to hire a teacher to come instruct the children of the area.
Think about that. A man who saw a gap and filled it with a building and a paycheck. Then, starting in 1860, Waddill was serving as district judge, riding his circuit on horseback.
Right up until his death in 1865. Here's the part that stops you cold, though. At some point, fire took the original house.
Gone. But this family didn't scatter — they built again, and that second home, the one raised for the Waddill-Morris family after the fire, that's the one that endured. Meanwhile, George S.
Morris had gone off to serve in the Confederacy during the Civil War, came back, studied law, and settled into work as a deputy county clerk in McKinney and as administrator of the Waddill-Morris Estate. He carried the name and the responsibility both. And that house — the one rebuilt from the ashes of the first — stayed in the family for more than one hundred years.
Some losses you don't recover from. Some families just build again.
What the marker says
Kentucky native Judge R.L. Waddill (1811-1865) came to McKinney with his stepson, George Shackelford Morris, in 1853, five years after the town had been established as the Collin county seat. The two men bought large tracts of land in town, built a home, and then brought the remainder of the family to settle in McKinney. The family included Judge Waddill's wife, Sarah, and their children R.L., Joe, Ben, Gaston, and Fannie. During the late 1850s, Judge Waddill made a major contribution to the field of education in McKinney by erecting a schoolhouse in his backyard and hiring a teacher from Bethany College in West Virginia to teach the children in the area. Waddill had a law practice in town and served as district judge, riding his circuit on horseback, from 1860 until his death in 1865. This home was constructed for the Waddill-Morris family after a fire destroyed their original house. George S. Morris, who served in the Confederacy during the Civil War and later studied law, served as a deputy county clerk in McKinney and as administrator of the Waddill-Morris Estate. This house has remained in the family for more than one hundred years. (1985)