FOR HISTORY BUFFS: ABOUT THE MCCORD FAMILY
Col. James E. McCord, Last Commander of the Texas Rangers, Frontier Regiment (1834 – 1914)
Our Great-Great Grandfather
James E. (Ebenezer) McCord, born July 4, 1834 in the Abbeyville District of South Carolina to William Pressley and Lucinda (Miller) McCord, first served in the Texas Rangers as a scout, first lieutenant and then major in 1861 and 1862. The Texas Rangers Frontier Regiment served from 1861- 1865 where they protected settlers on the Texas frontier until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
In February of 1863, Governor Francis Lubbock reorganized the regiment and allowed the men to elect their own officers. James E. McCord was a popular leader and was elected Colonel.
Headquartered at Camp Colorado throughout his tenure, Colonel McCord was bold and aggressive. Under McCord’s leadership, the Rangers more successfully protected the settlers from the raiding Comanches and Kiowas, recapturing more stolen horses, cutting short more raids, and regaining lost territory. McCord was the final Commander of the Rangers in 1863 and 1864.
The Texas State Historical Survey Committee erected a marker at the Coleman City Park to Col. McCord and to Camp Colorado.
More about the Texas Rangers Frontier Regiment, and J.E.’s service, are in the Handbook of Texas:
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mccord-james-ebenezer
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/frontier-regiment
After the Civil War, in 1867, J.E. moved to Prairie Lee in Caldwell County where he married Sarah Elizabeth Mooney in 1868. They had six children. In the mid 1870s, J.E. and Sarah moved their family to Coleman County, back to the Pecan Springs Ranch J.E. had surveyed as a younger man. He established the McCord & Lindsey land business (which later became J.E. McCord & Sons,) and the first private bank in Coleman, McCord-Cameron & Co. which later became the Coleman National Bank, where he served as president. As a school trustee, he developed the public school system for Coleman County. He was a Mason, and a charter member of the First Presbyterian Church where he served as clerk of the Session.
