marriage ended sometime before 1899: ai search August 26, 2026 - LW Luginbuel Rebecca Jane McKinney Shannon From the Shannon-Fisher Feud to the Unresolved Texas Trail The McKinney Family Rebecca Jane McKinney was born about 1849, a daughter of Dr. John C. McKinney and Elizabeth A. Malone. Research now substantially identifies the man historically called “Dr. J. C. McKinney” as John C. McKinney, born April 27, 1820, in Monroe County, Mississippi. He married Elizabeth A. Malone on December 13, 1838. The reconstructed family includes W. Thomas Richard James John Rebecca Jane Andrew Jackson McKinney. The McKinney family was not confined to Arkansas. Evidence places John C. McKinney in Hill County, Texas, in 1860, demonstrating that Rebecca's family had Texas connections long before her own possible appearance there late in life. By the Civil War era, however, the McKinneys were closely connected with Evansville in western Washington County, Arkansas, where Rebecca's life became intertwined with one of the area's most violent Reconstruction-era conflicts. Marriage to Finis M. Shannon By the mid-1860s Rebecca had married Finis M. Shannon, born November 8, 1842. Their known or probable children included: Laura Alice Shannon, born about 1865-1866 Sophie or Sophia J. Shannon, born about 1867-1868 L. B. Shannon, born about 1869, whose exact identity and relationship still require confirmation. The feud-era account is especially valuable because it independently identifies Finis and Rebecca's daughters as Laura Alice, about three years old, and Sophie, about one year old. Thus Rebecca was not simply a later name attached to Finis Shannon by genealogy. She and her children were part of the Shannon household when the events remembered as the Shannon-Fisher feud erupted. Rebecca and the Shannon-Fisher Feud The feud that engulfed the Shannon and Fisher families in 1868-1869 directly involved Rebecca's father. Dr. John C. McKinney was Finis Shannon's father-in-law and became aligned with the Shannon side of the conflict. On January 21, 1869, John K. Fisher shot Dr. McKinney through the heart in George W. McClure's store at Evansville. The identification of Rebecca's father is therefore important to the larger history. Dr. J. C. McKinney was not merely an associate of Finis Shannon. He was Rebecca's father and the grandfather of Laura Alice and Sophie Shannon. His killing made the conflict intensely personal for Rebecca and her immediate family. The reconstructed evidence now supports with high confidence that John C. McKinney was the Dr. J. C. McKinney killed at Evansville on January 21, 1869, and that Rebecca Jane McKinney was his daughter and Finis Shannon's wife during the feud. What Happened to Rebecca's Marriage? For years, an apparent contradiction complicated Rebecca's history. Finis Shannon died on May 1, 1907, and the woman who subsequently applied for his Confederate widow's pension was identified as Mrs. Nannie Shannon, not Rebecca. Research now provides a reasonable explanation. Nannie Shannon was not Rebecca Jane McKinney. The later wife has been identified as Nannie Arkansas Ellison, and the reconstructed evidence places her marriage to Finis in 1899. Nannie survived Finis and was the woman who applied for his widow's pension in 1907. The known sequence therefore appears to have been: Finis M. Shannon + Rebecca Jane McKinney married by the mid-1860s ↓ marriage ended sometime before 1899 ↓ Finis M. Shannon + Nannie Arkansas Ellison married 1899 ↓ Finis died May 1, 1907 ↓ Nannie applied for his Confederate widow's pension. Rebecca and Nannie consequently must remain separate individuals in the genealogy. What remains unknown is exactly how Finis and Rebecca's marriage ended. No documentary evidence yet located establishes whether they divorced, formally separated, or whether some other circumstance intervened. Rebecca Disappears from the Record Rebecca's whereabouts become increasingly difficult to establish after the nineteenth century. The census investigation presently stands as follows: 1870: Rebecca would have been about twenty-one years old and should probably appear with Finis, Laura Alice and Sophie, but the household has not yet been established from a satisfactory primary census image. 1880: Rebecca would have been about thirty-one. Again, a sufficiently strong primary identification remains to be made. 1890: Most of the federal census was destroyed, eliminating the very census that might have explained what happened to Rebecca and Finis. 1900: Finis was already associated with Nannie, so Rebecca must be sought independently. 1910, 1920 and 1930: No census household has yet been proved to be Rebecca. The reported endpoint of her life is March 24, 1931, in Tarrant County, Texas, but this remains unverified. A Texas Trail Through Rebecca's Brother One of the strongest discoveries came from abandoning the search for Rebecca herself temporarily and following her relatives. Rebecca's brother Richard James McKinney, born in 1842 in Mississippi, married Emma Jane Nunn in 1865 and established a family in Texas. Richard and Emma were living at Reno, Parker County, Texas, in 1900, with six of their children. By 1910, they were at Weatherford, Parker County. Richard remained associated with Weatherford in 1921. This is significant because Parker County lies immediately west of Tarrant County and Fort Worth. Rebecca therefore had a close brother and a growing network of nieces and nephews living only one county away from the place where she reportedly died in 1931. That makes Rebecca's eventual migration to the Fort Worth area entirely plausible. The Family of Richard James McKinney Richard James McKinney and Emma Jane Nunn reportedly had nine children-four sons and five daughters. Among those presently identified are: Lala Jane McKinney, born about 1867 in Texas John William McKinney, born about 1870 in Texas Lola Emma McKinney, born about 1872 in Texas, who married William Calvin Jones in 1892. The identities of the remaining children still require documentary reconstruction. Lola Emma McKinney Jones is especially important because her descendants remained in the Parker County area. Her children included Gladys Arlena Jones, born about 1894, and Walter Calvin Jones, born about 1901. Another daughter, Marjorie Alabama Jones, born April 5, 1912, was identified in Dicey Cemetery records as the daughter of William Calvin Jones and Lola Emma McKinney. She later became Marjorie Alabama Jones Ashcroft. Thus, by the early twentieth century, Rebecca had an extended McKinney family network firmly established immediately west of Fort Worth. Andrew Jackson McKinney Rebecca's brother Andrew Jackson McKinney, reportedly born about 1851 and dying in 1876, initially appeared to offer another possible Texas trail. Research has not substantiated that theory. Several men named Andrew Jackson McKinney appear in Texas and southern records, but none can presently be demonstrated to be Rebecca's brother. Andrew therefore should not be used as evidence of Rebecca's Texas migration until a primary record establishes his residence and death. Richard James McKinney remains the much stronger Texas connection. Searching for Rebecca's Daughters The second approach to finding Rebecca has been to follow her daughters. If an elderly Rebecca survived into the 1920s or 1930s, she might have lived with a daughter or grandchild and consequently appeared in a census household under her daughter's married surname. The two daughters requiring identification are: Laura Alice Shannon, born about 1865-1866 and Sophie/Sophia J. Shannon, born about 1867-1868. Searches have been conducted under Laura Alice Shannon, Laura A. Shannon, L. A. Shannon, Alice Shannon, Sophie Shannon, Sophia Shannon, Sophia J. Shannon and S. J. Shannon. No marriage has yet been proved for either daughter. Correcting an Earlier Marriage-Record Error During the investigation, an earlier search result was mistakenly attributed to Washington County, Arkansas, when the database actually concerned Washington County, Nebraska. That result must be discarded. The correct Washington County, Arkansas marriage records survive from the nineteenth century, and a new search of the appropriate Arkansas material for 1879-1882 did not reveal a marriage that can presently be positively identified as either Laura Alice or Sophie Shannon. Importantly, this does not prove that the daughters did not marry in Washington County. It means only that a proven marriage has not yet been identified. They could have married elsewhere in Arkansas, moved to Texas before marriage, appeared under unexpected given names or initials, or died young. An Intriguing Alice Shannon Appears in Texas The two-state search produced one particularly interesting possibility. In Gonzales County, Texas, courthouse-derived records identify a marriage in 1891 between: J. E. McMicken and Alice Shannon. J. E. McMicken subsequently died before July 1899. A deed from that year identifies his surviving widow as Alice McMicken. Then, in 1900, Gonzales County marriage records show: Mrs. Alice McMicken married J. H. Snelling. The resulting sequence is: Alice Shannon ↓ married J. E. McMicken, 1891 ↓ Alice McMicken, widow by 1899 ↓ married J. H. Snelling, 1900. Could this woman be Laura Alice Shannon, daughter of Finis and Rebecca? It is possible. Laura Alice was born about 1865-1866. She therefore would have been approximately twenty-five years old in 1891, making the marriage chronologically plausible. But the identification is not proven. The Problem With the Gonzales County Theory Geography is the greatest weakness. Gonzales County is in south-central Texas, whereas Rebecca's brother Richard James McKinney and his family were centered in Parker County in north Texas. There is presently no evidence connecting J. E. McMicken with Rebecca's McKinney relatives, and the similarity between the surnames McMicken and McKinney must not be treated as evidence of kinship. Nevertheless, an appropriately aged Alice Shannon marrying in Texas in 1891 deserves further investigation. The identity of Sophie/Sophia remains even more elusive. No comparable Texas marriage candidate between 1880 and 1900 has yet been found that can responsibly be connected with Rebecca's daughter. The Mystery of March 24, 1931 Modern genealogical material reports Rebecca Jane McKinney as dying March 24, 1931, in Tarrant County, Texas. That date is tempting because the geography fits the family story remarkably well. Her brother Richard had settled in neighboring Parker County. His children and grandchildren continued to live in that area. Rebecca therefore had close relatives near Fort Worth. But repeated searches for: Rebecca Shannon Rebecca J. Shannon Rebecca Jane Shannon Rebecca McKinney Rebecca Jane McKinney have not produced a publicly indexed Texas record that conclusively identifies Finis Shannon's former wife as the woman who died March 24, 1931. That is particularly important because Texas death certificates from 1931 survive and normally contain exactly the information needed to solve the problem: residence, birthplace, parents, informant, burial place and undertaker. Until the actual certificate is found, the death should be recorded as: Rebecca Jane McKinney Shannon - reportedly died March 24, 1931, Tarrant County, Texas - UNVERIFIED. Three Possible Explanations The evidence presently leaves three possibilities. 1. Rebecca remained Rebecca Shannon If Rebecca never remarried, she should eventually appear in census, cemetery or death records under the Shannon surname. The continued failure to locate her under that name makes this possibility less convincing. 2. Rebecca remarried Rebecca may have separated or divorced from Finis and subsequently married another man. If so, virtually every search conducted under Rebecca Shannon after the nineteenth century would be looking under the wrong surname. This would also neatly explain how Finis was able to marry Nannie Arkansas Ellison in 1899. 3. The 1931 death belongs to another Rebecca It remains possible that a later genealogist encountered a Rebecca McKinney or Rebecca Shannon who died March 24, 1931, in Tarrant County and mistakenly attached that death to Finis Shannon's first wife. At present, the evidence makes the second or third explanation more plausible than simply assuming Rebecca remained Rebecca Shannon until 1931. The Two Families Converge in Texas Despite the unanswered questions, the research has uncovered an important geographical pattern. Rebecca belonged to the McKinney family that had already lived in Texas before the Civil War. Her brother Richard James McKinney later established himself permanently in Parker County. Richard's children and grandchildren remained in that area. Immediately east lay Tarrant County, where Rebecca is reportedly said to have died. Meanwhile, a woman named Alice Shannon-possibly, but not yet proven to be Rebecca's daughter Laura Alice-appeared in Texas marriage records in 1891. Taken together, these facts make a later migration of Rebecca and perhaps one or both daughters to Texas historically plausible. They do not yet prove it. Present Reconstruction of the Family Dr. John C. McKinney (1820-1869) married Elizabeth A. Malone (c.1821-c.1884) ↓ Rebecca Jane McKinney (b. c.1849; death unverified) married first Finis M. Shannon (1842-1907) ↓ known/probable children: Laura Alice Shannon (c.1865/66-?) possible but unproved candidate: Alice Shannon → J. E. McMicken → J. H. Snelling Sophie/Sophia J. Shannon (c.1867/68-?) L. B. Shannon (c.1869-1883?), relationship requiring additional verification. Finis later married: Nannie Arkansas Ellison, in 1899. Nannie-not Rebecca-was Finis's widow when he died in 1907 and was the woman associated with his Confederate widow's pension. Rebecca's brother: Richard James McKinney (1842-1934) married Emma Jane Nunn ↓ nine reported children, including: Lala Jane McKinney John William McKinney Lola Emma McKinney → William Calvin Jones ↓ a substantial descendant network in Parker County, Texas. Conclusion Rebecca Jane McKinney was much more than the wife of one of the principal figures in the Shannon-Fisher feud. She was the daughter of Dr. John C. McKinney, whose murder by John K. Fisher at Evansville on January 21, 1869, became one of the central episodes in the feud. She was the mother of Laura Alice and Sophie Shannon, children who experienced the violence surrounding their family while still very young. Rebecca's marriage to Finis Shannon eventually ended under circumstances that remain unknown. By 1899 Finis had married Nannie Arkansas Ellison, conclusively demonstrating that the Nannie Shannon who later received his widow's pension was a separate woman. Rebecca then disappears from the easily identifiable record. Yet her family provides a tantalizing trail westward. Her brother Richard James McKinney settled in Parker County, Texas, and his children and grandchildren created a large family network around Reno and Weatherford. Just east of them was Tarrant County-the very county where Rebecca is reported to have died in 1931. The Texas connection is therefore credible but not yet proved. The decisive evidence will probably come from one of three discoveries: Rebecca's post-Shannon marriage record, the married identities of Laura Alice and Sophie, or the original Texas death certificate underlying the reported March 24, 1931 death. Until one of those records is recovered, Rebecca's final decades remain the unfinished chapter of the McKinney-Shannon story. Her early identity is now reasonably secure. Her role in the Shannon-Fisher feud is clear. Her connection to Dr. John C. McKinney is substantially established. Her brother's migration gives us a credible path from Arkansas to north Texas. But the final question remains: What name was Rebecca Jane McKinney using when she died-and where is the record that proves what became of her?