The McCord family goes deep into the history of West Central Texas. Even before Coleman County was created, Colonel J.E. McCord came into this area in 1857, on a surveying trip covering the western edge of the Texas frontier; lands that in the next few years would become a new chain of counties including Coleman, Brown, Runnels, Callahan, McCulloch, Eastland, and other adjoining counties.

James Ebenezer McCord was born in the Abbeyville District of South Carolina, July 4 1834, to William Pressly and Lucinda (Miller) McCord. By 1853 the McCord family moved to Henderson, Rusk County, Texas, where James completed his education and learned the skill of surveying; soon finding himself in a surveying partnership with a cousin, Andrew E. Lindsey, at San Marcos. McCord and Lindsey made several trips to various sections of the frontier in order to survey the lands on the western edge of the Texas frontier. The party in the summer of 1856 also surveyed the future site of Camp Colorado. While he was on this trip, he found Pecan Springs in Coleman County, filing a certificate of ownership on it and two other tracts of land in the same area, land which is still owned and operated by the McCord family in 1983.

After the end of the Civil War—in which he fought on the side of the South and obtained the rank of Colonel. He moved to Prairie Lea in Caldwell County. Here it was he met Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Clementine Mooney; they were married January 30, 1868, had six children, two boys (Thomas Mooney and James Pressly) and four girls (Lou Clement McCord Gillespie, Mary Virginia McCord Bateman, Julia Thompson McCord Wilkinson, and Gertrude McCord Tolson).

In the mid-1870 s they moved their growing family to the Coleman County area that he had surveyed and claimed as a much younger man. He established a real estate business, J. E. McCord & Sons, which is still in operation. He was active in the banking business, establishing a private bank under the name of McCord-Cameron & Co. which later became the Coleman National Bank, of which he served as president until his death. Pie served as a school trustee, working out the system of public schools for Coleman and the rest of the county; was a member of the Masons and a charter member of the 1st Presbyterian Church where he served as Clerk of the Session until just before his death, December 23, 1914, buried at Coleman.

James Pressly was born May 2, 1878, in the Trickham community, the McCord home being located on the banks of Home Creek about three miles west of Trickham. The family moved to Coleman in March of 1879, to establish perma¬nent residence. “Press” attended Coleman schools and upon graduation, went to Daniel Baker College in Brownwood, and Austin College at Sherman. At the age of 16 he began working in the land offices of McCord & Lindsey. In 1899, at the death of E.A. Lindsey, Colonel McCord took his son into the business under the firm name of J.E. McCord & Sons. On April 27, 1910, Press McCord married Stella Juanita Beaumont, daughter of pioneer physician and surgeon Dr. Gabriel Bouthroyd and Nancy Doris (Duke) Beaumont in Coleman (see Beaumont). They had two children, James Beaumont (J. B.) and Mary Velma. At the time of his father s death in 1914, Press was elected a director in the Coleman National Bank, later vice-president,then president. During the depression, about 1931, when the three Coleman banks were merged into one institution, now the First Coleman National Bank, Press was its first president and was serving as chairman of the board at the time of his death. He was one of the organizers of the Coleman Country Club, served as chairman of the building committee or construction of the club house and was elected as the club’s first president; a member of the Coleman Kiwanis Club, serving both as director and president; served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Coleman Independent School District for a number of years; was a member of the Masonic Lodge; he served as trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, where he was a lifetime elder; served as president of the Coleman County National Farm Loan Association; and also as trustee of the Federal Land Bank in Houston. Press died October 9, 1967, in the Overall-Morris Memorial Hospital, of which he served as long-time trustee, buried at Coleman.

Mary Velma was born August 31, 1916 in Coleman and attended local schools. She attended Texas Christian University and Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia. She mar-ried Thomas Richard Sealy, a native of Santa Anna, January 16, 1936 in Coleman (see Dr. T. Richard Sealy). Mary Velma and Tom have made their home in Midland since that time.

James Beaumont (J. B.) was born January 14, 1914, in Coleman. He attended Coleman schools and upon graduation, attended Schreiner Institute in Kerrville, and the University of Texas in Austin, where he was a member of AlphaTau Omega fraternity. On March 17, 1942, while stationed at Fort Slocum, New' York, J. B. married Billie Simmons, in the famous Little Church Around the Corner in New York City. Billie was born in Mexia, Texas November 30, 1919, a daughter of pioneer East Texas families, Billie Webster and Etta (Adamson) Simmons. She was valedictorian of her high school graduation class in Mexia and attended the University of Texas in Austin, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, Orange Jackets, elected secretary of the U. of T. student body, served as vice- president of Delta Delta Delta sorority, listed two years in Who s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Upon graduation from the University of Texas in 1941, with both bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, she came to Coleman to teach English and Spanish in the high school and met J.B. They had two daughters: Nanetta (Netta), born January 21, 1944, and Linda Lou, born November 4, 1949. Netta married Hershell Wilson (son of Herman Olan Wilson) of Coleman. Their children are: Linda Michelle (Missy), a student at Southern Methodist University, and James McCord, a high school student at Coleman.

During World War II, J. B. served over four years in the United States Army, enlisting December 1, 1941. He served ln the South Pacific theater of action, as company commander in New Guinea, Luzon, and Manilla. He was honorably discharged with the rank of captain, February 5, 1946, returning to Coleman to pick up his civilian, personal, and business life. He was a partner with his father in J. E. McCord and Sons, active in ranching and property management. In the financial world he served for many years as director and then chairman of the board of the First Coleman National Bank. In the world of agriculture and ranching, he operated Pecan Springs Ranch and served as director and then president of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers’ Association; was a long-time director of the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers’ Association and of the National Wool Growers’ Association. He served on numerous commissions and boards on the local, state, and national levels. He was a life long member of the Presbyterian Church, serving as deacon, elder, trustee; member of the Palo Duro Union Presbytery Council; commissioner to General Assembly; a member of the Coleman Masonic Lodge No. 496; a 32nd degree Scottish Rite; member of the Dallas Consistory, a Shriner; member, director, and president of both Coleman Kiwanis Club and Coleman Country Club; a member of Coleman School School Board of Trustees, and a life patron of the Coleman Public Library. J.B. died March 22, 1983, in San Angelo Community Hospital, buried March 24, 1983, in Coleman.