MCCOY, JOHN MILTON (1835-1922). John Milton McCoy, first city attorney of Dallas, son of Lewis and Rebecca (Hester) McCoy, was born on a farm near Sellersburg, Indiana, on August 29, 1835. His parents were devout Baptists. He received the B.A., M.A., and LL.D. degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington. After the death of his first wife, Laura (Henderson), in 1870, McCoy moved to Dallas to practice law in partnership with his uncle, John C. McCoy. He wrote the city's 1871 charter and was elected the first city attorney by the city council in 1872. He was among the founders of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, and throughout his life he worked in that church's Sunday school program. In 1873 he married Mary Alice Peele, who died in Dallas in 1892. In 1904 he married Marie Alice Ostrom; they had two children. After his retirement McCoy owned a farm on the outskirts of Dallas. Between 1913 and 1916 hardening of the arteries necessitated amputation of both his legs. He survived his third wife by little more than a year and died in Dallas on January 2, 1922.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: John M. McCoy, A Brief History of the First Presbyterian Church, Dallas (MS, First Presbyterian Church Archives, Dallas, 1914). Dallas Morning News, January 3, 1922. Elizabeth York Enstam, ed., When Dallas Became a City: Letters of John Milton McCoy, 1870-1881 (Dallas Historical Society, 1982).
