George McGarrah Cemetery
McKinney, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A member of the Peters Colony, George McGarrah (1804-1879) brought his family to this area in the 1840s. Prior to his arrival in Texas, McGarrah had lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he is credited with helping to build many of the historic structures still extant in that city. McGarrah's wife had died in Arkansas in 1838 while giving birth to their daughter, Harriett. George McGarrah and his three children established a new home near this site, and he later married Sarah Ford. The McGarrah Cemetery contains ten graves. George McGarrah had set aside one-seventh of an acre on his land to be used for a family cemetery. He was the first person buried here, in 1879. Two of his grandchildren, George W. (1870-1887) and Mattie A. (1874-1894) Ottenhausen, children of Harriet McGarrah and her husband Henry Ottenhausen, were the next interred in the family plot. Sarah Ford McGarrah was buried next to her husband in 1896. Also interred here are Harriett McGarrah Ottenhausen (1838-1930), Henry Ottenhausen (1839-1911), and his mother, Christina Ousenkoff Ottenhausen (1810-1904). There are three unmarked burials, one of which is that of a slave. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
George McGarrah brought his family to this corner of North Texas in the 1840s as a member of the Peters Colony, having already left his mark as a builder in Fayetteville, Arkansas. On his own land he set aside a small family burying ground, becoming its first occupant in 1879. Its ten graves hold three generations of his family—and, in an unmarked plot, a person he had enslaved.
Why it matters
A frontier family cemetery like this preserves both the settlement of the Peters Colony and the quieter, often unmarked, presence of the enslaved in early Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1840s, North Texas was still frontier. The Republic of Texas, eager to fill its empty lands, contracted with a group of promoters to settle families in the north under what became known as the Peters Colony. Settlers who came received free land in return for settling it, and they arrived mostly from the upper South and Midwest.
Those settlers helped build what became Collin County and McKinney. They cleared land, built homes, and planted crops on the rich blackland prairie. Texas joined the United States in 1845, so many of these families arrived in a republic and soon found themselves living in an American state.
Slavery came with them. Although North Texas had fewer enslaved people than the cotton plantations to the south and east, slavery was present here until emancipation reached Texas in 1865. Its traces are often hard to find, and an unmarked grave in a family cemetery is one of the quiet ways it appears.
People & events
George McGarrah was born in 1804. Before coming to Texas he lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he is credited with helping to build many of the historic buildings that still stand there. His life there ended in sorrow: in 1838 his wife died giving birth to their daughter, Harriett.
In the 1840s McGarrah came to Texas as a member of the Peters Colony and settled with his three children near this spot. He later married Sarah Ford. On his land he set aside one-seventh of an acre for a family cemetery, and when he died in 1879 he became its first burial. Sarah Ford McGarrah was laid beside him in 1896.
Harriett, the baby whose birth cost her mother's life, lived to 1930. She married Henry Ottenhausen, who died in 1911. Two of their children, George W. and Mattie A. Ottenhausen, died young and were among the first buried here. Henry's mother, Christina Ousenkoff Ottenhausen, who died in 1904, rests here too. There are ten graves in all, three of them unmarked, and one of those is the grave of an enslaved person whose name is not recorded on the marker.
Its place in the American story
This small cemetery holds a big American story. The Peters Colony was part of the push to settle the West in the 1840s, when free or cheap land drew families across the Mississippi and into Texas. McGarrah's own move from Arkansas to North Texas follows that path.
The cemetery also shows how families held together over generations on the frontier. Three generations lie here: a pioneer, his daughter and son-in-law, their children, and the son-in-law's mother. Their dates, from the 1870s into the 1930s, cover the years when this frontier became settled farm country.
Most of all, the unmarked grave of an enslaved person is a reminder of what is often missing from the record. Enslaved people helped build the American frontier, yet their names and stories were rarely written down or carved in stone. Acknowledging that grave is part of telling the full story of how Texas was settled.
If you visit
A family cemetery like this one is a quiet, personal place. If you visit, treat it with care: stay on paths where they exist, do not disturb the grave markers, and respect any private land around it.
As you look around, think about who is here and who is not named. The marked stones tell the family's story across three generations. The three unmarked graves, including that of an enslaved person, are just as much a part of the history even though no stone tells their story.
The cemetery makes a meaningful stop on a trip through Collin County, where many early settler sites and cemeteries are tied to the Peters Colony. Visiting several of them gives you a feel for how frontier families shaped North Texas, and a moment here is a good reminder of everyone who lived that history.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · George McGarrah
- · Sarah Ford McGarrah
- · Harriett McGarrah Ottenhausen
Themes & tags
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