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The Mercantile House of McKinney & Williams, Underwriters of the Texas Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Joe B. Frantz
Joe B. Frantz
Affiliation:
University of Texas
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Extract

From time to time historians and other recorders pursue a practice, not discouraged by business historians, of pointing out that for every Napoleon and Wellington there existed a Rothschild and Baring, and for every American Revolution—whether in the 1770's or 1860's— there lived a Robert Morris or Jay Cooke, some one person or group of persons who could supply the economic and business administrative sagacity required to keep the financial arteries of war flowing successfully. When in the 1830's the people of Texas ended their political subordination to Mexico by military revolution, the thread of this business-makes-it-possible pattern can be found to be running true. In Texas two men, unsung for military exploits, in large measure made possible the financial continuance of the Texas government and its army during a period when the stage was being set for the eventual annexation to the United States of an area roughly the size of France. Without these two men, Thomas F. McKinney and Samuel May Williams, the disputed genius of Sam Houston might not have won a decisive victory at San Jacinto, terminating the Mexican hold on Texas, for without their aid Houston's army conceivably would have lacked clothes, provisions, and most especially, arms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 1952 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1952

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References

Editor's Note: This paper was read at a joint meeting of the Business Historical Society, Inc., and the American Historical Association, held in New York on December 28, 1951.

1 There is no biography of McKinney. The best sketches are in The Writings of Sam Houston, Williams, Amelia W. and Barker, Eugene C., eds., vol. iv (Austin, 1941), pp. 34–36Google Scholar; and in Hayes, G. W.' “Island and City of Galveston” (MS. in the Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas), pp. 816–823.Google Scholar

The best sketches of Williams can be found in The Writings of Sam Houston, vol. iv, pp. 218–219; Dictionary of American Biography, Johnson, Allen, ed., vol. xx (New York, 1936), pp. 289–290Google Scholar; Hayes, op. cit., pp. 823–830; and in Armstrong, S. R.'s “Chapters in the Early Life of Samuel May Williams, 1795–1836” (unpublished master's thesis, University of Texas, 1929).Google Scholar

2 Stephen F. Austin to S. M. Williams, January 12, 1834, in Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galveston. Rosenberg has the principal collection of Williams papers, about 4,000 items. The second largest collection of papers, relating to both men, is in the Archives of the Texas State Library, Austin, Texas.

3 Elliott W. Gregory to S. M. Williams, February 19, 1834, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

4 Towné & Beckwith to S. M. Williams, February 19, 1834; E. W. Gregory to McKinney Groce & Co., February 19, 1834; T. F. McKinney to S. M. Williams, June 2, 1834 (all in Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library).

5 S. M. Williams to Spencer H. Jack, March 26, 1834, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library. Jack, a lawyer, was an agent for Austin and Williams.

6 T. F. McKinney to S. M. Williams, April 19, 1834, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

7 Ibid., April 14, 1834.

8 E. W. Gregory to S. M. Williams, April 16, 1834, Williams Papers, Rosenberg; Library.

9 T. F. McKinney to S. M. Williams, April 18, 1834, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

10 T. F. McKinney to Gail Borden and R. R. Royall, October 24, 1835, in Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1835–1836, Binkley, William C., ed., vol. i (New York, 1936), pp. 15–16.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Binkley. Borden was land commissioner and collector for Texas. Royall was a member of the permanent council.

11 McKinney & Williams to R. R. Royall, October 28, 18D5, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 21–22.

12 “Journal of the Permanent Council (October 11–27, 1835),” Barker, Eugene C., ed., The Quarterly of the Texas Slate Historical Association, vol. vii, no. 4 (April, 1904), pp. 274–275.Google Scholar

13 T. F. McKinney to R. R. Royall, October 31, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 36–37.

14 T. F. McKinney to President of the Council, November 11, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 65–66.

15 Henry Smith to T. F. McKinney, December 2, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 151–152; Gouge, William M., The Fiscal History of Texas (Philadelphia, 1852), p. 25Google Scholar; William Pettus to T. F. McKinney, December 14, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 190–191. Smith was governor of Texas at this time; Pettus was a contractor for the Texas government.

16 T. F. McKinney to the Provisional Government, December 29, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 250–251.

17 McKinney & Williams to Wyatt Hanks and J. D. Clements, January 4, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 270–271. Hanks and Clements were members of the Provisional Government.

18 See various receipts in McKinney-Williams Papers, Archives of the Texas State Library.

19 T. F. McKinney to Silas Dinsmore, November 25, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 115–116. Dinsmore was a minor official from Columbia, Texas.

20 J. W. Robinson to T. F. McKinney, December 17, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 206–207.

21 T. F. McKinney to the Provisional Government, December 29, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 249–250.

22 Gammel, H. P. N., The Laws of Texas, 1822–1897, vol. i (Austin, 1898), pp. 983–989.Google Scholar

23 T. F. McKinney to the Provisional Government, December 25, 1835, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 238–239.

24 Gammel, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 734–735, 1023–1024.

25 J. W. Robinson to S. M. Williams, February 27, 1836, McKinney-WiUiams Papers, Archives of the Texas State Library.

26 The bank described in Castañeda's, Carlos E. “The First Chartered Bank West of the Mississippi: Banco Nacional de Texas,” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, vol. xxv, no. 4 (December, 1951), pp. 242–256CrossRefGoogle Scholar, had no provision for private stockholders or private operation and was chartered before the formation of the state of Coahuila and Texas.

27 Gammel, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 296–297.

28 Citizens of New York to S. M. Williams, January 8, 1836, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library; T. F. McKinney to President and Cabinet, March 28, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 552–553.

29 T. F. McKinney to President and Cabinet, March 28, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 552–553.

30 Gammel, op. cit. vol. i, p. 1135.

31 Love, Thomas B., “Some East Texas Banking History,” in East Texas, Its History and Its Makers, White, Dabney and Richardson, T. C., eds., vol. iii (New York, c. 1940), pp. 1337–1384Google Scholar; Carlson, Avery L., A Monetary and Banking History of Texas (Fort Worth, 1930), pp. 3–4, 10–18Google Scholar; Gouge, op. cit., pp. 59–60.

32 Gammel, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 598–600; Carlson, op. cit., pp. 10ff.

33 Hogan, William R., The Texas Republic; a Social and Economic History (Norman, 1946), p. 101Google Scholar; Gouge, op. cit., pp. 231–232, 234, 236.

34 Jeremiah Brown to Henry Smith, January 27, 1836; D. C. Barrett et al., to J. W. Robinson, February 1, 1836; Jeremiah Brown to Henry Smith, March 6, 1836 (all in Binkley, vol. i, pp. 342–343, 375–376, and 483–484, respectively).

35 McKinney & Williams to the Provisional Government, January 25, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 338–339.

36 James Collinsworth to the Convention, c. March 16, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 503–504; David G. Burnet to Bailey Hardeman, March 21, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, p. 524. Burnet was president of Texas under the ad interim régime which succeeded the Convention on March 17, 1836, as the fifth governing agency during the revolution; Hardeman was the secretary of the treasury; Collinsworth was a member of the Convention from Brazoria.

37 See Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 595–596, 604–605, 608–610, 637–638, 651–653, 666–668, 678, 701, and 753–755. When later in the dispute Bryan published a pamphlet giving his side, McKinney dismissed Bryan's charges with an airy observation: “For the clamorous complaints, … we care not one copper; nor are we ambitious of becoming conspicuous by writing a book or making publications.” T. F. McKinney to Asa Brigham and H. C. Hudson, August 10, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp.921–922. Brigham was the government auditor and Hudson the controller.

38 Thomas J. Rusk to Alexander Somervell, June 22, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 810–812. Rusk was a former secretary of war now holding a field command, while Somervell was the present secretary of war.

39 T. F. McKinney to Asa Brigham and H. C. Hudson, August 10, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 921–922; Asa Brigham and H. C. Hudson to T. F. McKinney, c. August 15, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 936–938.

40 McKinney & Williams to President and Cabinet, May 25, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 681–683.

41 Lorenzo de Zavala and Peter W. Grayson to President and Cabinet, May 20, 1836, Binkley, vol. i, pp. 695–698; President and Cabinet to Thomas Toby, May 23, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 703–705; David G. Burnet to Thomas Toby, May 25, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 705–706; David G. Burnet to Thomas Toby, June 20, 1836, Binkley, vol. ii, pp. 804–805. De Zavala was vice president of Texas, and Grayson was attorney-general.

42 Affidavit of Henry Smith, n. d., in McKinney-Williams Papers, Archives of the Texas State Library.

43 State Papers, File Box 128, Senate, Archives of the Texas State Library.

44 Instrument of protest, Union Bank of Louisiana, July 2, 1836, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

45 S. M. Williams to Sarah J. Williams, August 4, 1836, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library. Sarah Williams was the wife of Samuel M. Williams.

46 Edward Hanrick to S. M. Williams, December 21, 1836, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

47 Statement of account, McKinney & Williams, January 2, 1837, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

48 S. M. Williams to Sarah J. Williams, January 6, 1837, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library.

49 Ibid., June 18, 1837.

50 Barker, Eugene C., The Finances of the Texas Revolution (Boston, 1904), p. 634Google Scholar; Miller, Edmund T., A Financial History of Texas (Austin, 1916), p. 17.Google Scholar

51 State Papers, File Box 128, Senate, Archives of the Texas State Library.