BURNEY, HANCE MCCAIN
Rebecca J. Herring
BURNEY, HANCE MCCAIN (1826–1915). Hance McCain Burney, Kerr County pioneer and county judge, son of Robert H. and Lydia (McCain) Burney, Sr., was born on May 2, 1826, at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. His family moved to McNary County, Tennessee, where his father died. Burney first came to Texas in 1853. On December 28 of that year in Washington County he married Mary A. Tatum, who had moved to Texas with her parents from McNary County the same year. After their wedding the couple returned to Tennessee, where they remained until after the birth of their first child in 1854. They returned to Texas, accompanied by Burney's mother and two sisters, and settled in the Guadalupe valley. Burney served as first postmaster of Kerrville from 1858 to 1866. He also served as Kerr county judge in 1864 and 1879–80. As one of Kerrville's early leading citizens, he established a trading business and one of the area's first sawmills, from which he sold to the United States government the building materials for forts and military camps. He owned a ranch on Turtle Creek and served as president of the First National Bank at Center Point. The Burneys had nine sons; one of them, Robert H. Burney, became a state legislator and district judge. Hance Burney died on April 23, 1915, and Mary died on May 22, 1925.
Bob Bennett, Kerr County, Texas, 1856–1956 (San Antonio: Naylor, 1956; bicentennial ed., rev. by Clara Watkins: Kerr County, Texas, 1856–1976, Kerrville, Texas: Hill Country Preservation Society, 1975).
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Handbook of Texas Online, Rebecca J. Herring, "BURNEY, HANCE MCCAIN," accessed July 17, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbu51.