Kate R. McKenzie
Kate R. McKenzie
Mother
Photo Credit: Rosa G. Gonzales
Biography
Kate McKenzie’s parents, James and Agnes (Brown) Rankin, read Henry L. Kinney’s advertising and migrated to Corpus Christi from Glasgow, Scotland. They arrived with their five children via New Orleans in 1852, the year Corpus Christi got its city charter and elected its first mayor, Benjamin F. Neal. Kate’s father was a baker and died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867. Katherine “Kate†was reportedly only 5 years old when the family landed in the area of Corpus Christi, and she experienced not only the tragedy of the 1867 yellow fever epidemic but also the hardships of the Civil War. During that period her family moved to Brownsville for at least a year before returning to the Corpus Christi area. It was also during the Civil War that her future husband, James McKenzie, came to this area and fought under Capt. Ireland. Because of shortages during the war many settlers were forced at times to go to Cuero or Victoria to get supplies such as corn meal. They also parched corn to use in making a type of coffee. Kate’s family members were strict Scotch Presbyterians, and on Sunday their mother would not permit her sons to whistle or do anything she considered improper for the Sabbath. One of Kate’s brothers, W. S. Rankin, was born here in Corpus Christi on September 27, 1856. He operated a wholesale grocery in the downtown area and when he died in 1848 at 92 years old, he was the oldest living native of the city of Corpus Christi (see C.C. Caller article of May 15, 1952 on the Rankin family). Kate Rankin McKenzie outlived many of her children as well as her husband James (also a native of Glasgow, Scotland). He painted houses and signs until his death in 1891 when he accidentally slipped and fell beneath the wheels of a street car he was trying to enter. In the 1900 census (ED 130, sheet 5, p. 125A), living on Chaparral with her four daughters, she reported that only 4 children survived of the 8 she had brought to birth. These were four daughters who also joined their mother and father to rest in Old Bayview, along with their brother James D. McKenzie (see also 1880 census Nueces County, ED116, p. 8/or 15 if counting sheets separately). The other siblings may also have been buried in Old Bayview, but not listed because of infancy or they may have been buried originally at the family home as was often the case with infants in those years. Kate Rankin McKenzie died 13 October 1909 at the relatively young age of 61 years old.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell