The Trails of our Past
Bi Weekly in The Van Alstyne Leader

From the Orphaned Boy
By: Dusty Williams

Dead. Drowned.  By letter, telegraph or a personal message delivered.  We may never know how Mrs. Mary Ann McKinney receeived the news of her husband's death, but it most certainly left her and her young son devasted.  Aside from the devastation of losing a loved one, the inheritance that William B. McKinney left behind would eventually impact us all as it would eventually become Van Alstyne.

Long before the marriage of William and Mary, there was the marriage of his parents, James McKinney and Polly McKinney.  They were cousins, James being a son of Daniel Young McKinney and Polly a daughter of the famed Collin McKinney.  The cvouple were wed on May 08, 1823 in Todd County, Kentucky.  They had four known children: Marcus Smith, James Ashley, William B. and Samuel C.  James was granted a tract of land for his services to the Republic of Texas; however, he died before he cvould make it home in 1836.  The land, which would be the future site of VanAlstyne, was then deeded to his heirs and the mourning family moved to the area to live off of the inheritance that James had left them.  The McKinney homw was located wast of the Van Alsttyne Cemetery on the corner of Austin Street, thus making it the first home in the future site of Van Alstyne.

James' brother, Hiram Carroll McKinney, was also living in the area with his family and his niece, Mary Ann Stut.  Mary was a daughter of Hiram's first wife's sister, Miss Epperson.  Mary Stout and William B. McKinney were married in Grayson County on May 2, 1862 and the following year on April 17, their son, William L. McKinney was born.  During the Civil War, duty called William B. McKinney away on a journey that he would never return from.  According to a letter which gave a persona account, William B. McKinney was witnesses to have died in or near a river duting the Civil War.  W.B. McKinney's mother, Polly passed away on January 27, 1864 and was buried in the Van Alstyne Cemetery near her son, Samuel C.  This left Mary and her son as the sole heirs of her husband's estate.

On January 24, 1867, Mary Ann was married a second time to Judge William Arron Wells in Grayson County.  However happy the couple might have been, it was short lived as Mary passed away within the year, leaving her young son an orphan.  Mr. Wells remarried and moved away, leaving William to be raised by relatives.  In 1870 he is listed at the household of H.C. McKinney, the same man who raised his mother.  As a minor, it is likely that H.C. McKinney helped oversee all business transactions that William L. McKinney was a part of as he was still a minor and the heir to quite a large estate.  Another possibility is that his uncle, James A. McKinney helped oversee his finances.

On February 21, 1872, William L. McKinney, still a minor, sold a little over 35 acres to the Houston and Texas Central Railway for $20 gold coin, per acre.  This land became the future site of the town of Van Alstyne, which was established later that year.  For five years William McKinney was able to see the small town grow, centered around the railroad that had come through his homeland.  At the age of 14, for unknown reasons, WIlliam L. McKinney away on July 11, 1877 and was laid to rest in the Van Alstyne Cemetery next to his mother.

Although the young boy had passed away, there would still be one last dispute regarding his large estate.  His closest relatives were his uncle, James Ashley McKinney and his cousins on his father's side.  Before the land was granted to them, it was disputed by D.Y. McKinney, his mother's cousin and son of Hiram C. McKinney.  Mr. McKinney felt as though a part of the boy's estate should go to his mother's relatives and it should be split equally among them.  After much debate, the courts ruled in favor of the boy's paternal relatives and the land was granted to them.

The entire city of Van Alstyne owes its existence to a young boy named William L. McKinney.  Although he may have had a helping hand in selling the land when he was 9 years old, the fact remains that it was his inheritance that paved the way for us all.  So the next time you are walking down the streets of Van Alstyne, remember that once a young orphaned boy walked along the same trails before they were paved by railroads and cement.  Take a stroll through the city cemetery and when you come across an old cracked stone that is missing the top of it, say a little "thank you" to the boy who truy built this town.
  

The Trails of the Past
Bi-Weekly in the Van Alstyne Leader