Site of Buckner

Buckner lost the county seat to a rule about the map. The First Legislature required the seat to lie within three miles of the county's geographic center, and by 1848 Buckner was found to sit outside that limit. The legislature called a special election, and the Handbook of Texas says McKinney won it by ten votes to one. William Davis, who owned 3,000 acres, gave 120 for the townsite in 1849. Sources differ on the distance: the plaque says three miles, the Handbook seven. The cemetery now marks the old townsite.

What the plaque says

Site of Buckner John (Jack) and Polly McGarrah and family came to this site from Tennessee in 1842. The third settler in present Collin County, McGarrah opened a trading post to barter for hides and furs. While in the act of building a family fort, he and his men had to defend themselves from roaming hostile Indians. The Texas Legislature created Collin County on April 3, 1846, directing that its county seat, to be named "Buckner", would be no more than three miles from the geographic center. Buckner townsite was soon laid off here in McGarrah's settlement. On the Fourth of July, citizens met here and elected their first county officials. They also raised a military company for the Mexican War. On Sept. 21 there was an auction of Buckner town lots; on Nov. 25, 1846, the post office opened, with McGarrah as postmaster. By 1848 it was noticed that Buckner townsite was outside the legal limits for the county seat. The Legislature ordered another election and named the new county sear "McKinney", honoring early settler Collin McKinney, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Residents moved their homes and other buildings to McKinney (3 Mi.E), and Buckner townsite reverted to agricultural land uses. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 5.2 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.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 24 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 36 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.

More markers nearby

• Scott Cemetery — 2.1 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of McKinney — 2.1 mi
• First Christian Church of McKinney — 2.3 mi
• Collin County Farm — 2.4 mi