Jesse McCoy

Latest link for Jesse: Others may have found this historical article, but I just came across it. Here is the link to W.T.Blocks' interesting story.

Jesse McCoy- He is one of my favorite family tree members. His story is more documented than many of my ancestors, and thus, he has more personality. He shows forth as a brave man who died young. He was from an illiterate family who had to sign papers with an x, but they survived long enough to carve a new nation in Texas. Although he was from a family that fought in the Indian wars, he must have had the integrity to judge them on an individual basis rather than prejudice. ¹He left a wife, Kitty, but she is a mystery. To this date, I can find no marriage papers, nor does she appear in early census records. She received money from the Texas Republic in recompense for the supplies Jesse provided, but she did not inherit any of his property. I first thought she had died, or remarried and moved. But John "Devil" McCoy's probate papers dated 9th term 1840 refer to Kitty: "that said affiant has just reason to believe that Kitty McCoy. Green McCoy, Thomas Mathews and wife & John McCoy all of the county of Gonzales and republic of Texas and one Williams of the county of Jackson and republic aforesaid are indebten to the said Daniel McCoy or have effects of said Daniel McCoy in their hand or possession". Therefore, Kitty is in the area and not remarried at least 4 years after Jesse died.

There is a link to the left with the transcript of Jesse's probate papers. A PDF file with photocopies of a couple of the papers. is also there.

Wallace L. McKeehan, writes: Jesse McCoy, 32, born 1804 in Gyrosburg, Tennessee, a resident of Gonzales and Private rifleman in the Gonzales Rangers. He was son of John and Martha Dunbar McCoy who were among the first settlers of the DeWitt Colony at Old Station on the Lavaca. Jesse McCoy arrived with his parents in the DeWitt Colony on 9 Mar 1827 from MO where he received one fourth league. His tract on which he paid his first installment "At Gonzales, this 4th of July 1835, we having been appointed by the Ayto of Gonzales as Commissioners of the State for collecting the State dues for lands under the 25 art of the law of the 24th of March, 1825 certify that we have been paid the sum of three Dollars and ninety cents and 5/6 in full of first installments in Jesse McCoy's Quarter of a league of land deeded to him by the Commissioner Jose Antonio Navarro. Thomas R. Miller Adam Zumwalt B. D. McClure" was on the east bank of the Guadalupe River south of Gonzales on the current Gonzales-DeWitt County border. The author's 3rd great grandparents David and Mary Ann Zumwalt Burket purchased a portion on the tract after their return in 1837 from the Run Away Scrape. Jesse McCoy's widow was named Kitty.

Jesse McCoy's father and family of four received a sitio of land next to Jesse McCoy's tract at the same time. Father John "Devil" or "Padre" McCoy as he was known by Indians and the Mexicans, respectively, was the head of the McCoy clan in TX and Indian fighter in LincolnCo, MO before coming to TX. John McCoy and members of the Zumwalt family served together in Daniel Boone’s Mounted Rangers in MO and directly under his son Capt. Nathan Boone in Lincoln Co, MO. On 12 Apr 1834, Jesse McCoy requested "...to have his stock mark and Brand recorded which he says is as follows--Ear mark a swallow fork in each ear and an under bit in the left, and his brand the letters J and T joined which he declares to be his true mark and that he has no other." A claim presented to the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Republic of Texas in Dec 1837 by "Alamo widow" Kitty McCoy suggests that Jesse provided supplies to the young Texas Army: "...the first auditor is authorized to audit the claim of the widow Kitty McCoy as per vouchers of Byrd Lockhart and Colonel William H. Patton for beef and corn valued at three hundred and seventy dollars in military script." Joseph Rowe, Speaker of the House (signed); S.H. Everett, Pres. Pro Tem Senate (signed); Approved by Sam Houston (signed).

Jesse McCoy, son of John and Martha Dunbar McCoy, was a member of the Gonzales Alamo Relief Force and died in the Alamo in 1836. A letter from Empresario Green DeWitt to Jefe-Politico of Bexar in 1829 suggests that Jesse played an important emissary or intelligence role early in the colony's history in its relationship with Indians.

"His Excellency, Ramon Musquiz, Chief of the Department of Texas, May 8th, 1829. Dear Sir, On last evening a man by the name of Jesa McCoy who is a resident of this colony who has been with the Comanche Indians for several weeks passed arrived here, and gave me the following information; the principal chief of the Tawaccanes, and the principal chief of the Wacoes, called upon the head chief of the Comanches and solicited from him to join them the Wacoes and Tawaccanes in a general war against the Mexicans and the American settlements---Saying at the same time that the Mexicans had taken from them a Caveard and the Americans had killed some of there men, and therefore they have declared war against both; he further states that the Comanches entirely refused to join in the war fare; saying that they were now at perfect peace with the people of this country and wished to remain so. I believe my informant to be a man of truth and that what he has stated my be relied on. God and Liberty. Gonzales, 8th May, 1829 Green DeWitt. (From The Austin Papers, E.C. Barker, ed.)

The following is an excerpt from
Texian Iliad A Military History of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836
By Stephen L. Hardin, Illustrated by Gary S. Zaboly (Jesse McCoy reference)

Nevertheless, prior to September 1835, the citizens of DeWitt's Colony had been staunch supporters of the Mexican government. On the tenth day of that month, however, a Mexican soldier entered Adam Zumwalt's storeroom and with little or no justification bludgeoned Jesse McCoy with the butt of his Brown Bess musket. This act of military brutality appeared to have altered the sentiments of the DeWitt colonists. Tales of centralist maliciousness, formerly dismissed as war party propaganda, seemed to have been authenticated. Suspicions were further confirmed when Colonel Domingo Ugartechea, military commander at San Antonio de Béxar, recalled the Gonzales cannon. Ugartechea could not have foreseen the consequences of that fatal command.

The cannon became a point of honor and an unlikely rallying symbol. Gonzales citizens had no intention of handing over the weapon at a time of growing tension between Texians and the Mexican government, especially since McCoy's beating, and they escorted out of town the squad sent to pick it up.

Angered by the Texian action, Colonel Ugartechea sent Lieutenant Francisco Castañeda and a hundred dragoons to redeem the cannon. Once Ugartechea had ordered its return, it became a matter of principle; his demands must be enforced. Ugartechea nevertheless ordered Castañeda to demand the cannon but if possible to avoid confrontation. Late in September 1835, presidial troopers left Béxar, as most settlers now called San Antonio, on what seemed a routine mission, making their way toward the tiny settlement on the banks of the Guadalupe.