My Ancestors.....McKean's of Texas

My Ancestors.....McKean's of Texas

Judge John Clunn McKean 1797-1880

MCKEAN. John Clunn McKean was born February 20, 1797 in Wheeling, Ohio County Virginia. He was the older of two brothers born to Joseph McKean and Mary Pearson Clunn. His father Joseph was born January 12, 1768 in Ireland. Joseph arrived in Philadelphia in 1789 and it was in there that he met Mary Pearson Clunn, born in Philadelphia in 1775. They were married on May 13, 1796 in Philadelphia. They migrated to Tennessee shortly after marriage. John was apparently born during the migration to Tennessee. John married Margaret Taylor Kearney on September 29, 1819 in Tennessee. Their oldest son William Clunn McKean was born May 21, 1826 in Hardeman county, Spring Hill, Tennessee. Caleb P. Alexander was a partner along with Caleb Brock and Joseph and John McKean who went together with William Matthews to form the Tennessee-Texas Land Company which brought at least 17 families to the DeWitt Colony. Under the contract John and his brother Joseph W. were to take twenty families from Tennessee to settle in the DeWitt Colony in Texas. In DeWitt Colony land records he is listed as arriving married with a family of 25 on 26 Feb 1830 and receiving title on 5 May 1831. The contract stated the arrival date to be on or before April 15, 1831. Survey records do not appear and records indicate the title or grant along with that of Caleb Brock was "set aside by decree of court in 1843." The large number listed as family likely include servants although the number may in some way been related to the land contract to bring families to the DeWitt Colony. According to testimony by John McKean in 1837, Alexander and Brock failed to fulfill their part of the contract. In 1845 while living in Shelby Co, TX, Alexander released all rights to land obtained under the Tennessee-Texas Company contract to John C. McKean for the sum of $5000. Joseph also did not make it to Texas. He settled with his family in Arkansas. In 1836 John was a probate judge in Gonzales County. He settled in Prairie Lea, Texas in 1858 and lived there until he died on July 18, 1880. He is buried in the Caldwell county cemetery in Prairie Lea, Texas.

The Judge was the first of my family line to settle in Texas.

William Clunn Mc Kean 1826-1916