Pecan Grove Memorial Park
McKinney, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This park is situated on property granted by the Republic of Texas to Samuel McFarland in 1845, only four years after the first permanent settlement in this area was begun by a pioneer from Tennessee, Dr. William E. Throckmorton (1795-1843), and his family. By the 1850s, when the first known burials occurred, R.A. Davis owned the land. The name of the spot was derived from a handsome stand of trees. Ownership by the public began in 1870 with the purchase of a 21.3-acre tract by Isaac F. Graves, I.D. Newsome, G.A. Foote, E.R. Stiff, and Thomas J. Brown. The original charter was issued in 1889 to Pecan Grove Cemetery Association, Inc., a private corporation. Additional land was purchased in 1892 and 1960. The name "Pecan Grove Memorial Park", granted in a new charter in 1964, commemorates the courageous and compassionate pioneer men and women of this vicinity. One of these, Dr. James Webb Throckmorton (1825-1894), was a Texas Legislator in the 1850s; became a confederate brigadier general during the Civil War; was Governor of Texas in 1866-67; and was in the United States Congress intermittently from 1875 to 1888. Pecan Grove Decoration Day is held every spring. (1976) Incise on the back: Marker Sponsors: Geo C. Webb, Pres., W.P. Carter, V.P. & Supt., E.T. Simpson, Sec. & Treas., R.D. Horn, Dir., Ben Whisenant, Dir., Ova James West, Historian, (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This ground began as a Republic of Texas land grant in 1845, just four years after Dr. William E. Throckmorton led his family from Tennessee to found the first permanent settlement in the area. By the 1850s it held its first burials, and public ownership followed in 1870; a shady stand of trees gave the place its name. Among those honored is Dr. James Webb Throckmorton—Confederate general, Governor of Texas, and long-serving congressman.
Why it matters
A single burial ground here traces Collin County from its first Tennessee pioneers through the Civil War and Reconstruction careers of the statesmen buried in its soil.
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Related people
- · William E. Throckmorton
- · James Webb Throckmorton
- · Samuel McFarland
- · Isaac F. Graves
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Governor James Webb Throckmorton
McKinney, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1825, James W. Throckmorton came to the Texas frontier as a boy in 1841, served as a young hunter and scout, and fought in the Mexican War before turning to law and politics. Though he defended the right of secession, he was one of only seven delegates to vote against leaving the Union in 1861, then served the Confederacy during the war. Elected governor in 1866, he was removed the next year by General Philip Sheridan as 'an impediment to Reconstruction,' and later returned to serve in the U.S. Congress.
McKinney
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McKinney was founded in 1845 and named for Collin McKinney, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence—the same man who gave his name to the surrounding county. During the Civil War, future Texas governor J. W. Throckmorton raised Company K of the 6th Texas Cavalry here, a well-regarded Confederate unit. The town grew into a center of manufacturing, trade, and medicine for the region.
Young Cemetery
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Sam and Patience Young came to Collin County from Illinois in 1842, part of a wave of Midwestern settlers drawn to North Texas farmland. Young bought land, founded a school, and opened this cemetery when Patience died in 1847. Eleven pioneer families rest among its fifty-one known graves, including veterans of both the War of 1812 and the Civil War.
Bridges Cemetery
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