John McGarrah arrived from Arkansas in the early 1840s to claim a headright of 640 acres (260 ha), marking the beginning of settlement.

In the middle of the 1840s, as the number of settlers increased, McGarrah established a trading station to accommodate them and gave 50 acres (20 ha) of property for a townsite.

A conference that was most likely conducted at McGarrah's store on Independence Day in 1846 was attended by roughly 75 people, who decided to designate that location as the county seat.

After mail service to Buckner was cut off in May 1848, the town's citizens and businesses relocated to McKinney a year later.

However, due to the influence of a nearby Texas Instruments company and a "Third Monday Trade Day" at the site, activities in the Buckner region picked back up in the 1980s.