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Texas Day by Day

May 19, 1829


Irish trader takes citizenship oath

On this day in 1829, George B. McKinstry took the oath of Mexican citizenship, required of all settlers in Texas at that time. McKinstry, born in Ireland in 1801, had arrived in Texas about a month before, probably by way of Georgia. In Stephen F. Austin's Register of Families McKinstry is listed as a trader, and in 1830 he was appointed the first postmaster of Brazoria. In 1833 Austin, deploring McKinstry's central role in the Anahuac Disturbances and the battle of Velasco, wrote that McKinstry had "done as much harm to Texas as any man in it." Ironically, Austin died at McKinstry's home in Columbia in December 1836. McKinstry himself died less than a year later, on December 10, 1837.

Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
MCKINSTRY, GEORGE B.
AUSTIN, STEPHEN FULLER
MEXICAN COLONIZATION LAWS
IRISH
ANAHUAC DISTURBANCES
VELASCO, BATTLE OF

Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
Indians take captives at Fort Parker (1836)
Halley's Comet drops meteorite in northeast Texas (1910)


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