Collin Chronicles, Volume 18, Number 2, Winter 1997/8 Page: 5 of 30
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Collin Chronicles, Records of Collin County, Texas and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Collin County Genealogical Society.
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PAGE 32 WINTER 1997/98 COLLIN CHRONICLES
The following article was submitted by Margaret Mack, whose husband's great-great-grandfather was
W.R.H. Mack and George O. Mack was his great uncle. Transcribed from the THE DAILY COURIER
GAZETTE Sept. 2, 1936.
GEORGE 0. MACK CALLS HIMSELF "TEXAS
RAMBLER" VISITS LEGAL HOME HERENearly
80 year old rover finds plenty of changing scenery in vast domain of The Lone Star StateReared
on Collin County Farm
Member prominent Pioneer Family
carried "Star Route" mail on
horseback from McKinney to Rockwall and Lewisville between 60 and 70 years ago.
Carrying a Star Mail Route from the McKinney Post Office in the early part and middle seventies is
the experience of George 0. Mack, now nearing his eightieth birthday, who styles himself, a "Texas
Rambler," but who still claims McKinney as his permanent place of abode and legal residence.
In conversation with this editor, he gave particulars of that pioneer postal service experience of sixty
to sixtythree years ago. It was during the second tenure of McKinney postmastership of the late James
Waller Thomas-in about 1874, when his father (W.R.H. Mack) was awarded the Star Route contract to
deliver the mail from McKinney on two routes-one to the town of Rockwall, in Rockwall County, and the
other to Lewisville, just over the Collin line, in Denton County.
As the mail had to be delivered by horse-back, the son, George O. Mack, working for his father, the
late Esq. W.R.H. Mack, contractor, could make only two trips per week to Rockwall and one per week to
Lewisville.
It required one day to make the trip going from McKinney to Rockwall and the next day for the return
trip. En route to Rockwall, he stopped at several places-country stores or country residences to deliver
and receive mail. One of these points between McKinney and Rockwall was Wylie. McKinney and Wylie
he delivered mail to Boyd's sawmill, Nale's store and Randall Jones home and store. At Rockwall, he
spent the nights at Frank Clark's Hotel and came back to McKinney with mail the following day.
On his trip to Lewisville he delivered mail at Mr. Stewart's home, Rock Hill, to the late J.J.
Thompson's gin at that point 10 miles west of McKinney and another point or two between that and
Lewisville.
One of the most vivid episodes in his three-year experience in Star Route mail delivery on horseback
that Mr. Mack yet remembers happened to him in the town of Rockwall. A man named Cannon was
due to be hanged the following day for murder. He pleaded successfully with authorities to allow his wife
to spend his last night on earth with him in the jail.
Next morning to the jailer's horror he found both of them dead. The husband had cut his wife's throat,
then committing suicide by the same method. It was believed that the wife had agreed to the murder of
herself and suicide of her husband as no evidence of a struggle was apparent.
Born In Tennessee...
George Octavus Mack was born, October 16, 1856, six miles south of Columbia, Maury County,
Tennessee. He will, therefore be eighty years old on the sixteenth of the coming October. His parents
came to Texas soon after the close of the Civil War-probably 1867 or 1868. His Father, W.R.H. Mack,
and his Mother, Margaret (Campbell) Mack, had ten children-eight sons and two daughters. One of the
latter was the wife of the late Tom H. Emerson, pioneer McKinney banker, who passed away just a few
years ago at her home in McKinney. The other daughter, Mrs. H.B. Scott, was the wife of a farmer near
Blue Ridge for many years, who died while visiting her son at Sulphur Springs, where she is buried. The
eight sons were William Mack, who died at Denison; Jack Mack, who died at his home near McKinney;
Henry Clay Mack, school teacher, early day McKinney editor and lawyer during his mature years, who
died at McKinney; James H. Mack, who died in the Confederate home at Austin; Rev. Lee Mack, who
passed away in Collin County; Frank W. Mack, who died in Ft. Worth; E.Y. (Young) Mack, who was
accidentally killed a few years ago by being struck by an auto in the town of Gainesville and George O.
Mack who is the youngest child and last survivor of this large pioneer Collin County family.
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Collin County Genealogical Society. Collin Chronicles, Volume 18, Number 2, Winter 1997/8, periodical, 1998; Plano, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth10770/m1/5/?q=Mack: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Collin County Genealogical Society.