Collin County

Pecan Grove Memorial Park

Historical Marker Text

This park is situated on property granted by the Republic of Texas to Samuel McFarland in 1845, only four years after the first permanent settlement in this area was begun by a pioneer from Tennessee, Dr. William E. Throckmorton (1795-1843), and his family. By the 1850s, when the first known burials occurred, R.A. Davis owned the land. The name of the spot was derived from a handsome stand of trees. Ownership by the public began in 1870 with the purchase of a 21.3-acre tract by Isaac F. Graves, I.D. Newsome, G.A. Foote, E.R. Stiff, and Thomas J. Brown. The original charter was issued in 1889 to Pecan Grove Cemetery Association, Inc., a private corporation. Additional land was purchased in 1892 and 1960. The name "Pecan Grove Memorial Park", granted in a new charter in 1964, commemorates the courageous and compassionate pioneer men and women of this vicinity. One of these, Dr. James Webb Throckmorton (1825-1894), was a Texas Legislator in the 1850s; became a confederate brigadier general during the Civil War; was Governor of Texas in 1866-67; and was in the United States Congress intermittently from 1875 to 1888. Pecan Grove Decoration Day is held every spring. 

Incise on the back: Marker Sponsors: Geo C. Webb, Pres., W.P. Carter, V.P. & Supt., E.T. Simpson, Sec. & Treas., R.D. Horn, Dir., Ben Whisenant, Dir., Ova James West, Historian, 1975.

1976

Location: in the 1600 block of South McDonald Street (SH 5), McKinney