More about the McCoys

This post has gotten out of order. It should had been posted after the first McCoy post.


MCCOY. Daniel, Green, Jesse, John "Devil/Padre", John, Joseph, Prospect, Samuel. [In addition to diverse sources, the following was compiled in large part by analysis of articles in the History of Gonzales County Texas by Linda Alford and Jackie Paschal and data supplied by May Thompson Yoss]

Like many DeWitt Colonists including founders Green DeWitt and James Kerr and the author's five related Burket, Kent and Zumwalt families, the McCoy families were pioneers in the Missouri Territory of Upper Louisiana while it was still or had just been released from Spain. The McCoys begin with John and Martha Humphrey McCoy who had children Daniel, Samuel, John McCoy Sr., Catherine, Sarah, Hester, Margaret, Joseph Hill and James. Daniel McCoy (b. aft 1762, bef 1774 in VA or KY; d. 1844; m. Rachel Zumwalt in 1797 in HarrisonCo, KY, daughter of Johann Henrich and Mary Catherine Hiatt Zumwalt), along with brothers John McCoy Sr. (b. abt 1771 PA?; d. 30 Aug 1836 VictoriaCo, TX) and Joseph Hill McCoy, came to the Missouri Territory in 1797 with Daniel's father-in-law Henry Zumwalt and related Zumwalt pioneers from Kentucky. Daniel and Rachel Zumwalt had children John (b. abt 1754), Frances, Sarah, Nancy, Mahala, Margaret, Joseph and Elizabeth.

Texian pioneer Frank W. Johnson History of Texas and Texans, who was from the same area of Missouri and knew Green DeWitt well relates:

"about the middle or latter part of the fall [1826] three families, the Messrs. McCoy, arrived and encamped near Mr. Heddy's [between Harrisburg and San Felipe de Austin]. They, like myself, were from Missouri. We soon formed an acquaintance and, as we were from the same state, formed a sort of brotherhood. They, however, intended going to DeWitt's colony, and had only stopped for the season, believing that provisions could be more readily procured in Austin's than DeWitt's colony. The winter proved to be a mild and dry one, until the latter part and early spring, when we had frequent and heavy rains, which made the streams high and the roads almost impassable........ In the spring of this year, 1827, being invited and solicited by the Messrs. McCoy to accompany them to DeWitt's colony, and, being desirous to see more of the country, though still subject to chill and fever, I accepted the invitation. Our first day's travel brought us to San Bernard, some fifteen miles distant from San Felipe de Austin, and on what is known as the Atascosito road. From thence we proceeded to the Colorado, which stream we crossed above the road. The weather, though cloudy, with an occasional shower, was quite pleasant, and we pursued our journey without accident or incident until within some ten miles of DeWitt's station on the La Baca. Though the day had been fair it became cloudy at nightfall. We had built a large log fire and got our suppers; soon after we discovered a portentous cloud in the northwest, and occasional peals of thunder---it had been lightening in the north for some time before we heard the thunder. The cloud formed rapidly, and soon darkened the heavens, and sent---down torrents of rain, So heavy was the rain that it not only wet us to the skin, notwithstanding we were wrapped in our blankets, but extinguished our fire. After an hour or two the rain ceased and the clouds broke up. The storm was accompanied by a heavy blow from the north and was quite cold. After the rainstorm the wind continued to blow fiercely, but we rekindled the fire and dired our clothing and blankets, and spent the remainder of the night quite confortably. While enjoying the fire and drying, I observed to the elder McCoy that I thought that the drenching I had received would either kill or cure me; to this he replied that I need be under no apprehensions of ill consequences. In this opinion he was right. I improved in health and strength from that day forward." Johnson continues description of their arrival at DeWitt's station on the La Baca River.

Six McCoy's received land grants in the DeWitt Colony. Land records indicate a John McCoy Sr. (John "Devil/Padre" McCoy) arrived married 9 Mar 1827 with family of 4, Joseph McCoy arrived married 29 Jan 1829 with family of 7 (son of John McCoy Sr., by census he was in the colony in 1828), another John McCoy (believed son of John McCoy Sr.) arrived married 9 Mar 1827 with family of 4, Jesse McCoy (son of John McCoy Sr.) arrived single 9 Mar 1827, Samuel McCoy (son of John McCoy Sr.) arrived single 4 Jan 1829, Daniel McCoy arrived married 20 Mar 1830 and Joseph McCoy Jr. arrived single 20 Mar 1830. Grants to father John Sr. and sons Joseph and Jesse were next to each other southeast of the Gonzales town tract on the east bank of the Guadalupe River near the current Gonzales-DeWittCo line while those to putative brothers, John and Samuel McCoy, were further south on the east bank in current DeWittCo. The grant to Daniel McCoy was on Peach Creek between Gonzales and the FayetteCo line while that to Joseph McCoy Jr. was further east in current FayetteCo northeast of current Waelder. Relation to the John "Padre" McCoy clan of Joseph McCoy Jr. and Daniel McCoy, who list the same arrival date in land grant records, is unclear, but they are thought to be a father and son pair, brother and nephew of John "Padre" McCoy, respectively.

John McCoy Sr., son of John and Martha Humphrey McCoy, arrived with wife Martha and children Daniel and Louisa in 1827 and are listed in the 1828 census of the colony. They were among the first settlers of the DeWitt Colony at Old Station on the Lavaca. John McCoy, known as "Devil" or "Padre" McCoy Indians and Mexicans, respectively, was apparently the head of the McCoy clan and an accomplished Indian fighter as were other McCoys serving under both Daniel Boone and son Capt. Nathan Boone in Missouri. John and Martha McCoy Sr. had children Joseph Hill, John Jr., James, Thomas, Jesse, Timothy, Samuel, Daniel and Louisa. Sons Jesse (b. 1804 in MO) and Joseph Hill (b. abt 1791 in KY) came to TX with their father in 1827 and are also listed in the 1828 census. The single John McCoy listed in the 1828 census from PA is believed also to be a son, John McCoy Jr. (b. abt 1794 in KY; d. BlancoCo, TX). Son Samuel McCoy (b. 1806 in MO) arrived later in 1829. Son James McCoy (b. 1796 in KY; m. Matilda?) also came to Texas and died at Goliad in 1836 while serving in Capt. Pettus' Company of San Antonio Grays. Daniel McCoy (b. 1813 LincolnCo, MO) married an Elizabeth and sister Louisa McCoy (b. 1816 LincolnCo, MO) married Thomas M. Mathews.

John McCoy, age 33, from Pennsylvania with a wife in the USA, was listed in the 1828 census of the colony. A John McCoy listed in DeWitt Colony land records as having arrived married in 1827 with family of 4 received a sitio land grant on the east bank of the Guadalupe River on Queens and McCoy Creek in current DeWittCo, south of the cluster of grants to the John "Padre" McCoy relations (Joseph, Jesse and Samuel). These John McCoys are believed to be one and the same and the son of John "Padre" and Martha Dunbar McCoy Sr. A John McCoy participated in the Battle of San Jacinto in Capt. Hayden Arnold's 1st Infantry Company, 2nd Regiment of Volunteers. Dixon and Kemp in Heroes of San Jacinto described him as born in Missouri in 1794 having emigrated to Texas with wife, two sons and a daughter in 1828. He enlisted in the Republican Army on 6 Mar 1836 for 6 months. In 1871 he was living in BlancoCo, receiving a pension and died there. This John McCoy married Elizabeth Ann Castleman 15 Mar 1830. Probably this is the John McCoy family of the 1850 census of CaldwellCo: McCOY: John 55 m KY; Elizabeth 50 f TN; Rimber 19 m TX; John 12 m TX; Green 10 m TX.

Jesse McCoy, son of John and Martha Dunbar McCoy, was a member of the Gonzales Alamo Relief Force and died in the Alamo in 1836. A letter from Empresario Green DeWitt to Jefe-Politico of Bexar in 1829 suggests that Jesse played an important emissary or intelligence role early in the colony's history in its relationship with Indians.

"His Excellency, Ramon Musquiz, Chief of the Department of Texas, May 8th, 1829. Dear Sir, On last evening a man by the name of Jesa McCoy who is a resident of this colony who has been with the Comanche Indians for several weeks passed arrived here, and gave me the following information; the principal chief of the Tawaccanes, and the principal chief of the Wacoes, called upon the head chief of the Comanches and solicited from him to join them the Wacoes and Tawaccanes in a general war against the Mexicans and the American settlements---Saying at the same time that the Mexicans had taken from them a Caveard and the Americans had killed some of there men, and therefore they have declared war against both; he further states that the Comanches entirely refused to join in the war fare; saying that they were now at perfect peace with the people of this country and wished to remain so. I believe my informant to be a man of truth and that what he has stated my be relied on. God and Liberty. Gonzales, 8th May, 1829 Green DeWitt. (From The Austin Papers, E.C. Barker, ed.)

Joseph Hill and Catherine Clark McCoy. Joseph McCoy, oldest child born about 1791 of John "Padre" and Martha Dunbar McCoy came with his father's family to Texas. Althought land records say Joseph arrived 26 Jan 1829 with his wife Catherine, daughter of Major Christopher Clark of Kentucky, and five children, probably: Prospect Clark, Green, Elizabeth, Christopher and Joseph L. (or possibly an infant born in MO which died--Joseph L. was born 1 Nov 1827 at Old Station on the Lavaca), the family of 7 is listed with children Prospect, Green, Elizabeth, Christopher and a male infant in the 1828 census of the colony. Two other children were born in Texas, Richard Texas M. on 22 Dec 1830 on Peach Creek, and Lowrey Sylvestor McCoy on 12 Feb 1835 on Sandies Creek. Prospect Clark, Green and Joseph McCoy married daughters of Zachariah and Rosanna Chinault Davis. Prospect married Elizabeth Ann Davis August 18, 1840, Green married Susan, and Joseph L. married Eliza in 1848. Daughter Elizabeth wed Christopher Williams in WashingtonCo and later Archibald Gibson in GonzalesCo. Richard Texas married Matilda Caroline "Carrie" Crane, and Lowrey S. married Ann Elizabeth Little. Christopher, a lifelong bachelor, lived with his widowed mother Catherine after their father's death in June 1836 near Neches or Washington-on-the-Brazos on the Brazos River where he became ill during the Runaway Scrape. Widow Catherine and family are listed in the 1850 census of GonzalesCo, Peach Creek District: 12-12, McCoy, Caterine, 53, f, $13,284, Ky; McCoy, Cristepher, 28, m, Mo; McCoy, Texas, 18, m, Texas; McCoy, Laury C., 14, f, Texas.

Prospect Clark McCoy (2 Jan 1816 St. Charles or LincolnCo, Missouri) was thirteen when the family arrived in Texas. During the Texas Revolution, with other members of his family, he contributed to the cause of freedom serving with Captain Albert Martin's Company of John H. Moore's Regiment. To his marriage to Elizabeth Ann Davis were born eleven children among them three sets of twins.

The children were: Jesse M., Elizabeth L., Mary M., Zachariah Davis, Prospect C. Jr., Constanna Katherine, Rosanna, Emaline, Adaline, Vianna and Lavinia. His eldest son Jesse M. was named for his great uncle, a brother of Joseph, who fell at the Alamo, married first Jane Shelton Bivin January 9, 1867 in Guadalupe County, Texas and second in Kansas while on a trail drive in the late 1870's Lucretia L. Contplin. His eldest daughter Elizabeth L. married George W. Lookingbill. Mary M. McCoy, the second daughter, became the wife of Edward T. Pearson November 2, 1859 and after bearing three children died May 16, 1869. Zachariah Davis McCoy, the second son and fourth child, married Mollie Dees and died but a week after their nuptials were celebrated. The story came down that he swam the river to obtain the marriage license, became ill and died February 20, 1869. Prospect C. Jr. died at age seventeen. Constanna Katherine wed first William Pinckney Moore and second following a divorce C.B. "Bon" Burris. Her twin Rosanna married E. Fred Morris and in 1886 went with their family to Harvey County, Oregon. Emaline (1853) died at age eleven about the same time as her brother Prospect Jr. Her twin sister Adaline wed W.H. Little October 14,1872. Vianna "Fannie" (May 19, 1856-July 25, 1886) married Benjamin L. Lynch October 4, 1875 and died eleven years later. Her twin sister, Lavinia, was found dead in the family yard when she was only fourteen.

The family of Prospect McCoy lived near old Sandies Chapel. They and most of their children, some of their grandchildren, his mother Catherine, two of his paternal uncles and Rosa Chinault Davis, mother of Elizabeth Ann, were all buried in Sandies Chapel Cemetery. To the Edward T. Pearsons were born three children: Elizabeth Ann "Bettie" married James Robert Gordon, a Confederate veteran; Fillmore M. "Phillip" became the husband of Rachel T. Smith, an orphan girl Phil's uncle Jesse befriended and brought home to Texas from one of his trail drives; and Zachariah C. Pearson who died when not quite a year old. Linda Ivy Alford (Adapted from The History of Gonzales County, Texas by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission)

Green McCoy was the "boy from Gonzales" described in the 13 men and boy volunteers under Capt. George B. Erath who intercepted a group of about a hundred Indian raiders on the way to a nearby settlement known as Erath's Fight on 7 Jan 1837 at Elm Creek in current MilamCo. Other participants were Lishley, Robert Childers, Frank Childers and soldiers McLochlan, Lee R. Davis, David Clark, Empson Thompson, Jack Gross, Jack Houston. Other boys were Lewis Moore, Morris Moore and John Folks. David Clark, a brother of Green McCoy's mother, Catherine, that came to TX with the McCoys from LincolnCo, MO, was killed in the fight. Green McCoy was also in Ben McCulloch's company that responded to a night raid by Indians on the town of Gonzales in 1841. The troop comprised of Arthur Swift, James H. Callahan, Wilson Randle, Eli T. Hankins, Clement Hinds, Archibald Gipson, W.A. Hall, Henry E. McCulloch, James Roberts, Jeremiah Roberts, Thomas R. Nichols, William Tumlinson, William P. Kincannon, Alsey R. Miller and William Morrison, pursued up the Guadalupe to near the headwaters and killed all but 8 of the raiders.

Samuel McCoy. Samuel McCoy was born in 1806 in Lincoln County, Missouri and on 19 Feb 1832 married Mahala Zumwalt who was born in 1814 in St. Charles, Missouri. Before going to Texas, the McCoy and Zumwalt men had served together in Daniel Boone's Mounted Rangers. They served under his son, Captain Nathan Boone, in Lincoln County, Missouri where in April, 1814 James McCoy was killed by Indians one and one-half miles north of Riggs Ford. Samuel McCoy was a son of John "Padre" McCoy, so called by the Mexicans because he was head of the McCoy family who went with DeWitt to Gonzales March 9, 1827. Originally Samuel did not go to Texas with the family. According to land records, he arrived in Gonzales January 4, 1829 and received his one-fourth league of land on the east bank of the Guadalupe River just north of current Hochheim 9 Jul 1831. Samuel also had four lots in the inner town of Gonzales: Block 7, Lots 4 and 5, deed dated December 28,1833 and two outer town lots, Tier 1, Lots 15 and 16 east of Water Street, deed dated September 28, 1835.

Wife Mahala Zumwalt was the daughter of Adam Zumwalt. She and Samuel McCoy had two children: Hester Ann (b. 19 Sep 1832) (photo) and Adam Zumwalt McCoy (b. abt 1837). (See Red Adam Zumwalt Family Bible). Samuel died intestate after October 7, 1836 [10 Sep 1837] and before March 12, 1838. Adam Zumwalt applied for guardianship of his grandchildren, Hester Ann and Adam Z., at the request of his daughter Mahala, widow of Samuel McCoy. On August 25, 1838 Mahala McCoy married Henry R. Crawford. They had one son, Felix Grundy Crawford. On April 30, 1841 Henry Crawford applied for guardianship of Hester Ann and Adam Zumwalt McCoy. Adam Zumwalt was released from his guardianship September 29, 1841. Mahala died before March, 1845 whereupon Eli Mitchell petitioned for guardianship of the Samuel McCoy heirs. Bond was granted May 16, 1845 but in May, 1853 Eli had to bring suit against Henry Crawford to gain control of the Samuel McCoy estate. Eli Mitchell resigned his guardianship of the Samuel McCoy heirs December 27, 1853 in favor of Robert J. Carr of Caldwell County, husband of Hester Ann McCoy. On December 28, 1853 Henry Crawford as guardian of his son, Felix Crawford, and Robert Carr as guardian for his wife, Hester Ann, and Adam Z. McCoy, petitioned the court for the partition and distribution of the McCoy estate. At the time of his death Samuel McCoy had three-fourths league of land situated on the waters of Peach Creek in Gonzales County and two lots east of Water Street on East Avenue in the outer Town of Gonzales, Tier 1, Lots 15-16, deed dated September 28,1835. These two lots were bought at public auction by Eli Mitchell February 27, 1855 for the sum of $315.50. The three-fourths league of land was divided: 1366 acres to Hester Ann Carr, 1366 acres to Adam McCoy, 765 acres to Felix Crawford, son of Mahala McCoy Crawford. The Samuel McCoy estate was finally settled in 1855. Jackie C. Paschal (Adapted from The History of Gonzales County, Texas by permission of the Gonzales County Historical Commission)

Daniel McCoy was among the band of Gonzales volunteers under Dr. James H.C. Miller who responded to a Comanche depredation in 1835 on a French and Mexican pack train on its way to Mexico. Daniel McCoy with Mathew Caldwell and Ezekial Williams were sent forward to determine the bands position when from behind Daniel was grasped by the tails of his long coat by an Indian from the bushes. According to author John Henry Brown ..."but 'Old Dan' as he was called, threw his arms backward and slipped from the garment without stopping, exclaiming, 'Take it, d--n you!'" The relationship of Daniel McCoy to the John McCoy's of DeWitt Colony and whether this is the same Daniel McCoy receiving title to the sitio east of the Gonzales town tract on the Sandy Fork of Peach Creek is not completely clear. The fact that Daniel and Joseph McCoy Jr. list identical arrival dates in DeWitt land records suggest that they may have been related. The reference to "Old Dan" suggests that he might have been up in age in 1835. Daniel McCoy (b. bef 1774), son of John and Martha Humphrey McCoy, brother of John "Padre" McCoy Sr., would have been at least 61 years old and maybe older at the time. Daniel and Rachel Zumwalt McCoy had children John Lewis (b. 1798), Frances (Fanny), Sarah (Sally), Nancy, Mahala, Margaret (Peggy), Joseph (b. 1811) and Elizabeth (Betsy). Daughter Margaret (b. 1809-1812) married first Ambrose Tinney in 1828 in St. CharlesCo, MO.  According to descendant Tory Crook, this is Ambrose Fenney.   Margaret McCoy and Ambrose Tinney had children John, Griffin (b.  23 Sep 1834), Addison B. (b. abt 1837) and Jacob (b. abt 1840). John (b. 14 Mar 1830 in MO) and a son who died before the 1850 census arrived with the Ambrose Tinney family.  The marriage record of 30 Oct 1828 of an Ambrose "Tena" and Peggy McCoy is in St. CharlesCo, MO records.  Ambrose Tinney died before 1845 and Margaret McCoy Tinney later married Alexander Morris in 1848 in GonzalesCo, TX, but later divorced.  They had children George Washington, Isabel and Alexander Jr. The 1850 census of CaldwellCo lists household: MORRIS: Alexander 28 m PA; Margaret 35 f MO; TINNEY, John 20 m MO; Griffin 17 m MO; Austin 13 m TX; Jacob 10 m TX; MORRIS: George W. 2 m TX; Isabella 6/12 f TX