Collin County, Texas History
Collin County
was
created out of Fannin County in April of 1846 when Texas became a state. Fannin County was created
from Red River County in 1837 when Texas became a Republic.
Any Collin County marriages or deeds between 1837 and
1846 are in
the courthouse in Bonham, Fannin County.
The ruling to create the new counties in Texas
stated that the counties should be about thirty miles square with the county seat
within three miles of the geographic center of the county. This ruling made
the county seats of Dallas, Sherman, Denton, and Greenville all about thirty miles from McKinney.
(1936) Republic
of Texas Centennial Historical marker.
Moved to McKinney to the southwest corner of courthouse square in 1998
FORMED FROM
FANNIN COUNTY
CREATED
ORGANIZED
APRIL 3, 1846 JULY 13,
1846
NAMED IN HONOR OF
COLLIN MCKINNEY
1766 - 1861
LAND SURVEYOR
SIGNER OF THE
TEXAS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
MEMBER OF CONGRESS,
REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
MEMBER OF THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE
COUNTY SEAT, BUCKNER 1846-1848
MCKINNEY, SINCE.
PETERS COLONY
The officials of the Peters Colony made a contract
with the Republic of Texas in 1841 to bring six hundred families into the land
that was designated for the colony by 1848.
After three contracts, the land
area started just east of McKinney, went south to include most of Dallas
County and parts of Johnson and Ellis Counties. It extended west to include
most of Denton and Cooke counties and half of Tarrant County.
The headquarters
for the company was in St. Louis, Missouri, with the local representative,
Oliver Hedgcoxe, having his office at the area known today as The Colony.
The
settlers who took advantage of the Peters Colony’s offer of free land were
mostly from Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Many
families moved to the Peters Colony, but not the required six hundred
families. The Peters Colony was considered a failure for that reason.
SETTLEMENT
The earliest settlers to the county lived
predominately near the middle of the county along the major
creeks.
Collin County was settled in two parts. The eastern
part was settled by people coming from the eastern counties and states and by
bounty land claims for the Texas Revolution. Each soldier who fought in the
revolution was given land, some as much as a league and a labor of land (4605
acres). Many settlers moved to this area after the Civil War They were
predominately from East Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The western part of the county, starting just east of
McKinney was in the Peters Colony. A single man was given 320 acres of land
and a married man was given 640 acres. Many of these settlers were from
Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky.
If you were to look at a head right map of Collin
County, you would notice that the claims on the eastern part of the county are
irregular in shape and size, some of them being rather large. The large claims
were the bounty land claims for the Texas Revolution. The claims on the
western part of the county are in squares, all about the same size. These were
the claims of the Peters Colony.
Early settlers came either up the Red River to
Jefferson and across to Collin County in wagon trains or in wagon trains through Oklahoma and
Arkansas, crossing the Red River at various places. The Red River was
un-navigable due to a large
logjam north of Shreveport, Louisiana. The logjam was dynamited during U. S. Grant’s presidency,
making the river navigable.
After the Civil War many families moved to Collin County, especially to its eastern side.
Some of the land in the county was given as Bounty Land for fighting in the
war.
History Index
Recommended
citation:
"County History - COLLIN COUNTY TEXAS HISTORY." Collin County, Texas
History and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc.
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