TOWNS
Collin County Courthouse is located at 210 McDonald Street, McKinney Texas 75069; phone: 972-548-4100. Collin County Administrative Offices are located at 2300 Bloomdale Road, McKinney, TX 75071.
Beginnings [1]
Collin County was organized in 1842, and early census records indicate that area settlers soon began to grow cotton in limited quantities. In 1860 Collin County farmers produced only 16 bales. Most of the state's cotton of the antebellum period was grown in the older, more established counties of East Texas. Following the Civil War, settlements pushed westward and cotton production also spread, especially along the Blackland Prairies where the soil proved particularly well suited for cotton cultivation. In 1870, according to census records, Collin County produced 4,371 bales, a significant increase from a decade earlier.
Although Collin County was never Texas' top cotton grower,it consistently ranked among the state's leaders.
Despite cotton's dominance in the local agricultural market, Collin County farmers cultivated large amounts of corn, wheat and oats, ranking among the state's largest suppliers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
When Collin County was first settled, its society was almost exclusively agrarian. Census records indicate that the vast majority of male settlers listed farming as their primary occupation, which is not surprising given the prevailing frontier conditions of the time. Collin County, like much of the state, was relatively isolated and its residents strived for self-sufficiency. To feed their families, farmers typically raised a variety of crops on their small farms which were plentiful throughout the Collin County landscape. Agricultural schedules of the 1850 and 1860 census reveal that such staple crops as wheat, corn and oats were the chief goods grown.
HISTORIC SITES