Neil and Christain McLennan

Neil and Christain Campbell McLennan

See picture of Neill McLennan and Christian McLennan from "Waco: a Sesquicentennial History"

Neil McLennan was born September 02, 1787 in the Parish of Straith, Isle of Skye, Scotland, son of John McLennan and Katherine MacKinnon. Neil had four brothers and sisters: John, Laughlin, Flora, and Abigail.

According to Norma McLeod at www.skye-roots.co.uk, much of Strath Parish was held by the MacKinnons. There are no records of births or marriages before 1800 for any Skye parishes, and the parish of Strath did not begin keeping such records until the 1820's. It may be difficult to trace the family back any further than John and Katherine.

In 1801, the McLennan family emigrated to the United States, settling in North Carolina.

Neil married Christan A. Campbell about 1812. Christan was born in August 1796 in North Carolina.

In 1816 or 1818, Neil and his brother-in-law, Daniel Douglass Campbell travelled to the Florida panhandle, then known as the Southwest Territory. They met Sam Story, a half-Scot chief of the Euchee Indians, who invited them to stay the winter. They returned to North Carolina and persuaded the family to move to Florida.

Neil and Christian came to Florida with at least one child, Neil's mother, his brothers Laughlin and John, his sister Abigail, and her husband John Folk. Other relatives came to join them later.

In 1834, a large group of family and friends built a 3-masted schooner named either Caledonia or Euchee (after their friend Sam Story) and set sail from Pensacola for Texas that December. The group included Neil and Christian, their 6 children, Neil's mother, Laughlin and John and their famolies, Abigail and John Folk, Aaron C. Dodd, and two Robinson families.

The ship was captured by pirates, who chained the ship to their own. At night, a storm nearly capsized both ships, and the pirates loosed the chains. By morning, they had drifted out of sight of the pirate ship, and continued sailed into New Orleans for repairs. John Folk left the group here; it is said that he received an urgent message to return to Florida, and they never saw him again.

They reached the mouth of the Brazos River in early 1835, and continued up the river as far as the ship could travel. They continued by foot to Pond Creek in Robertson's Colony.

Neil was granted a league of land by Coahuila and Texas near Pond Creek on July 28, 1835, and built a home there. The home was situated on a bluff on the northwest side of Rosebud Lake in what is now Falls County. The hill is still called McLennan's Bluff.
See Neil's original Spanish land grant at the Texas General Land Office website.

The others also procured land; Laughlin's grant was just north of Neil's, and Abigail's, Dodd's, and the Robertson's were on the San Gabriel River.

That October, Indians raided Laughlin's home, killed him and his mother, and captured his wife, Peggy, and three children. The story is that they split Laughlin's mother's head with an axe, then burned the house with her body in it. Peggy and Daniel died in captivity. Neil was supposedly sold to a white man and never heard from again. The third child, John, was adopted by the tribe. He later returned to his family.

See Laughlin McLennan's page for more information.

Neil's other brother John McLennan was killed in an Indian raid in 1838, but his family escaped. Neil's family was also attacked, but all survived.

The rest of the McLennans moved back to the Robertson settlement of Nashville-on-the-Brazos (Fort Nashville) for safety.

In 1839 Neil McLennan joined George B. Erath on a scouting and surveying trip to a site on the Bosque River near the Hueco indian village. McLennan thought that the land resembled his native Scotland, so he exchanged his Pond Creek land for land on the Bosque, and in 1845 he moved his family there, becoming the first white settlers in the area.

There is a mural in the post office in Mart, Texas, depicting the McLennan family arriving in the area. The mural was done by Jose Aceves as part of the WPA Section of Fine Arts in 1937.

McLennan County was established by the Texas Legislature on January 22, 1850, named after Neil McLennan.

The McLennans welcomed new settlers, often giving them supplies. They kept their Gaelic language and traditions.

Neil McLennan died in November of 1867 in Waco, McLennan County, Texas, and was buried in the McLennan family cemetery. Christian died in 1871, and was buried with her husband.
See USGS GNIS map information for McLennan Cemetery (ID# 1362508).

The M cLennans buried in the family cemetery were moved to Oakwood Cemetery in Waco in 1963 when Lake Waco was created and submerged the old homestead. A marker placed there by the DAR in 1932 was moved to the courthouse lawn in Waco.
See USGS GNIS map information for Oakwood Cemetery(ID# 1364317).

There are at least four Texas State historical markers that mention Neil McLennan. The first two are in Oakwood Cemetery:
(See images on the Cemeteries page)

Neil McLellan - Pioneer Texan for whom McLennan County was named born on the isle of Syke, Scotland Sept. 2, 1787. Came to Texas in 1834 died in 1867. Mrs. Neil McLennan born in North Carolina August, 1797 died in 1871.

Oakwood Cemetery - Before Oakwood Cemetery was established here in 1878, this tract of land contained a fairgrounds and race track. The 157-acre burial ground is successor to First Street Cemetery, oldest important cemetery in Waco. Many bodies from early graveyards were moved here in 1878 and later because of the better maintenance of these grounds. Since 1898 the Oakwood Cemetery Association, a private group, has operated this tract, although the land remains the property of the city. The board of directors of the association consists of women only, as provided in the original by-laws. Among the eminent Texans interred here are three governors: Richard Coke (1874-1876), L.S. "Sul" Ross (1887-1891), and Pat M. Neff (1921-1925). Also, Neil McLennan, Texas pioneer of Scottish birth for whom McLennan County is named, is buried in Oakwood. In addition there are two old adversaries: Rufus C. Burleson, president of Baylor University,and William Cowper Brann, Crusading Editor of the "Iconoclast", who was shot in 1898 by another man who resented Brann's acid attacks on hypocrisy an self-righteousness. Also interred is William Cameron, "Lumber King of the South." As of April 2, 1969, burials totaled 18, 804.

The third is on Highway 81, 2 miles north of Waco Drive in the town of Lacy Lakeview:

McLellan County - Created January 22, 1850. Organized August 5, 1850. Named in honor of Neil McLennan 1787-1867. Came to Texas in 1835. Located on the Bosque River in 1840. Built the first dwelling a log cabin, in McLennan County Waco, the county seat.

The fourth is in Falls County at McLellan's Bluff, on County Road 347 about 1/2 mile north of FM 1963:

McLellan's Bluff - Once known as "Sugar Loaf," this bluff overlooking Pond Creek was a landmark to early settlers in area. In 1835, Neil McLennan, a native of Scotland, built his home here, on land that had been granted to him as a member of Sterling Clack Robertson's Colony. The present town of Rosebud is located on part of Neil McLennan's land grant. McLennan's brother Laughlin settled his family about one mile north of this site. During the spring of 1836, Indians killed Laughlin McLennan, his wife and his mother, and captured three of his sons. As a result, the Neil McLennan family spent much of their ten years in Falls County in the nearby town of Nashville, a haven for settlers that had been begun by Sterling Robertson. In 1839, while a member of Capt. George Erath's scouting expedition, Neil McLennan first saw the territory that was to become McLennan County. He returned there in 1846, built a home, and lived there until his death in 1867. As part of the earliest Anglo settlement in this part of Texas, the McLennan family helped open the frontier for later immigrants. Their part in the area's history has been remembered with the naming of this bluff and the neighboring county.

Return to the McLennan family tree