This excellent and highly sought-after county history and
collection of over 200 genealogies has been in constant demand
since it was first published in 1975. It is a virtual encyclopedia
of information about Collin County, Capt. Hall having used his
resources as a local newspaper columnist and historian to gather
material from old newspapers, archives, and personal acquaintances
with some of the old pioneers. The book contains more than 100
photographs of pioneer people and scenes, thumbnail biographies of
several hundred pioneer settlers, a list of old post offices, and a
county map showing thirty-three historical sites including ghost
towns, early villages, and Indian massacres, plus the locations of
127 early schools. It was during his career in the 1950s as a
newspaper columnist for the McKinney Examiner that Capt. Hall began
to collect material and write a history of his county. He and Mrs.
Hall spent two years "on the road," researching and locating the
site of every battle fought on Texas soil. Well-known and admired
in the community (he was later elected mayor), he received letters
from readers who sent him biographies and treasured family
photographs. After Capt. Hall died in 1970, Mrs. Hall, a retired
school teacher and local history enthusiast, took on the huge task
of organizing the accumulated information into this first-rate
book. Penned in the narrative style of a good feature writer are
the stories of Spotted Tail, the Kiowa chief who protected area
towns from Plains Indian attacks during the Civil War; the life and
customs of the early settlers; the Dallas-Sherman Interurban; and
of course, the county's pioneers and prominent people: from Collin
McKinney, for whom both the town and county were named, to Audie
Murphy, Hollywood hero and highest decorated U.S. soldier of World
War II. It is hard to imagine a more complete county history. A
book could be written about the colorful life of Capt. Hall, who
was born in 1884 in his great-grandfather's house just north of
McKinney. He served in the army before and during World War I, was
a bodyguard for President Teddy Roosevelt, played professional
baseball for the Cincinnati Red Legs, was a motorman on the old
Interurban in McKinney, worked on a ranch in West Texas, and taught
school. He became a feature writer for the San Antonio Express, and
later a columnist for the McKinney Daily Courier-Gazette and the
McKinney Examiner. He belonged to several civic associations, and
he organized the Collin County Historical Committee in 1956.
General
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