Younger Scott McKinney Home
Van Alstyne, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The land surrounding this house was originally owned by Collin McKinney, a prominent early Texas statesman. In 1857 McKinney deeded the acreage to his son Younger Scott (1819-1907), who was born in Kentucky but grew up in Red River County. When Younger Scott McKinney moved to his property in Grayson County, he built this home for his wife Sarah (Janes) and their six children. In addition to being a farmer and an ordained Methodist Episcopal minister, McKinney served as Grayson County surveyor in 1852-53. The land remained in the family until 1928.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1857 the Texas statesman Collin McKinney—one of the men who helped shape the young republic—deeded this Grayson County land to his son Younger Scott McKinney, a Kentucky-born farmer and Methodist Episcopal preacher who had grown up on the Red River frontier. He raised a family of six here with his wife Sarah while also serving as county surveyor, one of the essential jobs of a settling country still being measured and mapped. The homestead stayed in McKinney hands for more than seventy years, until 1928.
Why it matters
It ties a working farm to the wider story of how families, faith, and the surveyor's chain turned raw Texas grant land into settled communities in the decades before the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Collin McKinney
- · Younger Scott McKinney
- · Sarah Janes McKinney
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cannon Cemetery
Van Alstyne, TX
Elijah Cannon brought his eleven sons and the people he enslaved from South Carolina to Texas in 1852, settling this corner of Grayson County. In 1874 the family graveyard was formally deeded as a community burial ground; its oldest documented grave is that of ten-year-old Nancy J. Bowen from 1857. A separate section was set aside for formerly enslaved people, beginning with Billy and Glory Boyd in 1880, and today the cemetery holds more than 700 graves of pioneers and war veterans.
Old Town of Cannon
Van Alstyne, TX
Elijah Cannon founded this Grayson County settlement in 1852, arriving from South Carolina with his children and enslaved workers to develop 700 acres. The community built a church, cotton gin, grist mill, and wagon factory and by 1885 had an academy and 400 residents—but when the Houston & Texas Central Railroad bypassed it, the town swiftly faded in the 1890s.
James P. Dumas
Van Alstyne, TX
James P. Dumas (1820-1875), a South Carolinian, married and moved to the Republic of Texas in 1841 and worked as a surveyor, helping map land that became part of Dallas. He fought in the Mexican War of 1846, served as Grayson County surveyor, and amassed holdings so vast he could ride the twenty miles to Sherman without leaving his own land, later helping found a Sherman bank in 1872.
Site of Collin McKinney Homestead
Anna, TX
Collin McKinney had already helped draft the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the Republic of Texas when he settled this area around 1846, buying 640 acres for $500. His family helped build the Mantua Road, organize the town of Mantua, and found a church before he divided his land among his heirs and died in 1861. His house stood until it burned in 1980, and both a county and its seat carry his name.