We recently visited McKinney Falls State Park on the outskirts of Austin and there I came to know about Thomas McKinney and the role he played in Texas’s history. Bear in mind, I moved to Texas almost 14 years ago and thus am relatively new to the state’s history. However, I am a history buff and love learning about prominent historical figures.
Well Thomas F. McKinney is certainly significant enough: he was amongst Stephen F Austin’s original 300 colonists, he founded Galveston, he built his home on what is today McKinney Falls State Park, he was a slave owner, and he with his partner Samuel May Williams financed over 10% of the cost of the Texas Revolution! Naturally the park is named after him.
Here are some intriguing, fun, and not so fun facts about one of the founders of Texas!
- Thomas Freeman McKinney was born in Kentucky in 1801 and went to Mexico in 1823 as a trader and merchant.
- In his youth, he lived in Missouri and ran trade on the dangerous Santa Fe trail. The return journey from Missouri to Santa Fe and back was over 1000 miles long and took 12 arduous months and involved skirmishes with the Comanche people.
- In 1824, he was a part of the Old Three Hundred and received a land grant in Stephen F Austin’s first colony along the banks of the Brazos River.
- He moved to Nacogdoches as it was a better place to continue his reading activities.
- It was here in Nacogdoches that he met and married his first wife Nancy Watts.
- He transported a variety of goods including cotton, livestock, and spices up to New Orleans.
- He was the first keelboatman of cotton on the Sabine-Neches Waterway.
- He established a partnership with Samuel May Williams to transport cotton and other goods along the Brazos River. Their company was called McKineny and Williams.
- McKinney and Williams together contributed almost $100,000 to the Texas Revolution which is over 10% of the total cost.
- He even captured a Mexican vessel while on board his schooner San Felipe in 1835.
- He operated his business out of Quintana near Fort Velasco at the mouth of the Brazos River.
- He was amongst the first investors in the Galveston City Company and helped build the beloved Texas city in 1839. He oversaw the construction of several buildings in Galveston including the Tremont Hotel. He even built a house for himself in Galveston.
- He was amongst the first settlers to acquire land in the newest Texas city of Houston. He owned land along the Buffalo Bayou as well as was part owner of buildings in downtown Houston.
- In 1843, he divorced his first wife and married his second wife Anna Gibbs. She was 17 years younger than him. He never had any children.
- In 1849, he was elected as a senator and served in the Texas House of Representatives in Austin.
- In 1850, he bought over 40,000 acres of land in Travis county in southeast Austin on the banks of Onion Creek. He built a ranch, flour mill, dam, and several other historic structures on this land. This land is part of present day McKinney Falls State Park. Imagine a house just in sight of the Lower McKinney Falls!
- He was a slave owner and all buildings in McKinney Falls State Park are built by enslaved people. He is said to have owned 14 slaves at one time. He is even said to have been a slave trader.
- He loved racehorses and bred them. He built a cabin on his ranch for his horse trainer John Van Hagan. The corrals were located close to the cabin which still stands today within McKinney Falls State Park. He even built a racetrack on the banks of Onion Creek on his ranch.
- He was very fluent in Spanish.
- He was a Union supporter and Democrat before the Civil war, but supported the Confederacy after Texas seceded.
- He served as a cotton agent for the Confederate government but lost his fortune due to corruption within the ranks. His wealthy estate was reduced to just $5000 at the time of his death.
- He died on 2nd October 1973 and is buried at the Oakwood cemetery in Austin. You can visit his grave on a visit to the cemetery.
- Upon his death, Texas still owed a debt of $17,000 to Thomas F. McKinney which wasn’t fully paid to his heirs until 1935.