John McSween: Physician and Stock Raiser in 19th Century Texas (1816–1895)
By: William V. Scott
Published: August 15, 2024
Updated: August 15, 2024
John McSween, physician and stock raiser, was born on February 8. 1816, in Moore County, North Carolina, to Daniel Murdoch McSween and Margaret (Jackson) McSween. McSween married Elizabeth Ann Wright, daughter of William J. and Sarah Ann (Pigford) Wright, on January 10, 1848, at Auburn, Mississippi. The McSweens were reported on the 1850 U.S. census in Hinds County, Mississippi, with a one-year-old son. They eventually had eleven children.
In 1855 McSween (sometimes spelled McSwain or Swain) made himself available under contract to the Department of Texas. He served as acting assistant surgeon or civilian physician at Fort Mason, Texas, from October to December 1856, while Assistant Surgeon Joseph Rowe Smith, Jr., was serving on a general court-martial. McSween served the garrison, which was commanded by Edmund Kirby Smith, Captain of B Company, Second United States Cavalry, for fifty dollars monthly until Assistant Surgeon Charles Henry Smith returned from leave on December 21, 1856. In his Inspection Report of 1856, Col. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield reported that the post hospital at Fort Mason was of log construction, with no iron bedsteads present. Mansfield continued that the hospital was staffed by a steward and attendants and was stocked with medicine in apportionment to the post. He concluded, “Dr. Swain appeared to be well qualified for the occasion & the sick cared for. This post is healthy.”
McSween may have served as a deputy surveyor of the land office at Fort Mason in 1857 and 1858 as well as postmaster of Mason around that time, but records show his name listed as (Jas.) McSween[T1] . On the 1860 census, McSween was listed as a physician, and he and his family lived in San Antonio.
In March 1861, forty-five-year-old McSween enlisted at Mason as a private in Capt. Herman Biberstein’s thirty-one-man Mason County Minute Men. McSween entered service with a $60 horse and $25 in horse equipment, while he was armed with a $12 long gun and a $20 pistol. These minute men were made up of settlers whose duty it was to protect frontier residents from American Indian raids.
After the Civil War, McSween returned to San Antonio. In 1867 he offered his services “in the practice of Medicine and collateral branches[T2] " to the citizens of San Antonio and vicinity. McSween officed at the drug store of Lindmiller & Company, along with a Dr. J. G. Walker. By 1870 McSween and family were recorded on the census at Double Horn in southern Burnet County. He was listed as a physician and owned real estate valued at $13,000[T3] . In 1880 McSween, by that time retired, was operating 230 acres, which supported five horses, ten milk cows, eighteen head of beef cattle, two hogs, and twelve head of poultry. [T4] John McSween died at age seventy-nine on May 19, 1895, and was buried in the Old Burnet Cemetery in Burnet, Texas.
Bibliography:
“Dr John McSween,” Find A Grave Memorial (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16197569/john_mcsween), accessed July 25, 2024. Returns from U. S. Military Posts, 1800–1916 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M-617, 1,550; rolls), Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780s–1917, National Archives, Washington, D. C. San Antonio Ledger , November 14, 1857; March 2, 1867.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
William V. Scott, “McSween, John,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mcsween-john.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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- August 15, 2024
- August 15, 2024
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