National Register Listing

McKinney Homestead

a.k.a. McKinney House and Mill Complex District

SW of Austin between TX 71 and U.S. 183, Austin, TX

Thomas F. McKinney, the man for whom the district is name<^, was born in Kentucky in 1801. He moved to Missouri in 1815 with his family and there, undoubtedly made the connections which affected his later life. As a young man he entered the Sante Fe trade from Missouri to the New Mexican capitol, and eventually reached the Chihuahua trade centers.

In the early 1820's, he came to Texas as one of Austin's first three hundred colonists. He continued his trade with Chihuahua, first from the San Antonio area and then from Nacogdoches. It was in that east Texas town that McKinney reportedly married his first wife. In the early 1830's, he had moved to the present Galveston vicinity and had ceased his cross-country trading ventures.

In 1834, McKinney entered a business partnership with Samuel M. Williams, a close friend of Stephen Austin and perhaps the second most important man in Austin's colonization efforts. The firm of McKinney and Williams was successful in shipping, merchandising and land speculation. During the Texas revolt against Mexico, the firm was a primary source of men, money and supplies for the Texas army. Its ships formed a part of the quickly assembled Texas Navy. With the completion of the revolution, McKinney and Williams proved to be the financial underpinnings of the Texas Republic. McKinney later served as senator from Galveston in the First Texas Legislature, and as a representative in the third. He also began to seek payment of the money paid out by him and William^ in the name of the Republic. They never received full reimbursement. Some time between 1850 and 1852, McKinney moved to Travis County and his property on Onion Creek. Here he made his permanent home with his second wife, Anna Gibbs, whom he married in Galveston in 1841. He built his large two-story home, stone fences and the first flour mill in the area with slave labor; by 1860, he was a comparatively wealthy man.

McKinney was ruined by the Civil War and its aftermath. Although too old to take part in the fighting, McKinney supported the C.S.A. as a supply agent under Simeon Hart. Speculation in cotton proved ruinous to McKinney and by 1865, he was hopelessly in debt. He died on October 2, 1873, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. His wife continued to live on Onion Creek although she was forced to sell all but her homestead to pay previous debts. She finally sold the home and associated acreage in 1885 having moved in with nearby relatives four years previously. She died in 1896.

Local significance of the district:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.