Irish trader takes citizenship oath
197 years ago on May 19th, 1829
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.
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From Cabeza de Vaca's ship-wreck in 1528 through the Texas Revolution to present day—almost 500 years of recorded history—a myriad of significant events in Texas history have occurred. These events are arranged by day of the year to allow the reader to see into the past on any specific day.
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