DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Fifty feet north of where you're standing right now lies a man whose name you've likely seen on a highway sign, a county line, or a courthouse — and most folks drive right past without knowing a thing about him. Let's fix that.
Collin McKinney. Born April 17, 1766, in New Jersey, the son of Scottish immigrant parents. By 1780 the family had pulled up stakes and moved to Kentucky, and if that sounds like a family that didn't mind a long road, well — Collin McKinney was just getting warmed up.
In 1824 he crossed the Red River and settled near what is now Texarkana. North Texas. Frontier country.
The kind of place that sorted people out in a hurry. Now here's where the story takes a turn nobody would've written for a man who started life in New Jersey. In January of 1836, McKinney was elected a delegate to the General Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
And when he got there, he didn't just attend — he served on the committee of five that drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Five men. One document.
On March 2, Collin McKinney put his name on it. He also served on the committee that prepared the Constitution for the Republic of Texas, and later he served in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Congresses of the Republic. The man was not a bystander to history.
He was in the room where the whole thing was written down. Back in private life, McKinney was a leader in establishing the first Disciples of Christ Church in Texas — because apparently signing a republic into existence wasn't enough to fill a week. In 1846 he settled near the Grayson-Collin county line, and that became his permanent home for the rest of his days.
He'd married Amy Moore back in 1792, and they had four children together. His second wife, Betsy Leake Coleman, by whom he had six children, is buried here in this cemetery alongside him. He died September 8, 1861 — ninety-five years after that New Jersey birth, ninety-five years of a life that stretched from the Atlantic seaboard to the Texas frontier.
Collin County and its county seat, the city of McKinney, were named in his honor. And in 1936, the Texas Centennial Commission had his house moved to Finch Park in McKinney, so the walls that sheltered a signer of the Declaration of Independence wouldn't just disappear into the grass. The grave is fifty feet north.
Take a moment. Some signatures take a whole county to say thank you.
What the marker says
(April 17, 1766 - September 8, 1861) A pioneer leader of north Texas and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Collin McKinney was born in New Jersey, a son of Scottish immigrant parents. In 1780 the family moved to Kentucky and in 1824 McKinney migrated across the Red River and settled near present Texarkana. In January, 1836, he was elected a delegate to the General Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos and there served on a committee of five that drafted Texas' Declaration of Independence from Mexico. On March 2, he signed the document. He also served on the committee which prepared the Constitution for the Republic of Texas. Later he served in the 1st, 2nd and 4th Congresses of the Republic. In private life, McKinney was a leader in establishing the first Disciples of Christ Church in Texas. In 1846 he settled near the Grayson-Collin county line; this became his permanent residence. In 1792 he married Amy Moore; they had four children. He and his second wife, Betsy Leake (Coleman), by whom he had six children, are both buried in this cemetery. Collin County and its seat, McKinney, were named in his honor. In 1936 the Texas Centennial Commission had his house moved to Finch Park in McKinney. (1968)