Fifrty Feet North to Grave of Collin McKinney

Collin McKinney was seventy at the 1836 convention, its oldest delegate, and the Handbook says that after the signing he was given the pen. Before Texas he had lived in New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas Territory; from 1818 to 1821 he managed a senator's Tennessee estates. He is credited with insisting that new North Texas counties have straight boundaries. The Handbook counts six governments over his lifetime: England, Virginia, the United States, Mexico, the Republic of Texas and the Confederacy. He died at home in Collin County and was buried at Van Alstyne.

What the plaque says

Fifrty Feet North to Grave of Collin McKinney (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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 18 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Van Alstyne — 0.3 mi
• First Christian Church — 0.4 mi
• Howe Lodge No. 430, A. F. & A.M. — 0.5 mi
• Site of Campus of Old Columbia College — 0.7 mi