| Birth: | Aug. 26, 1798 | | Death: | Feb. 5, 1861
Austin
Travis County
Texas, USA | 
John Drayton Pitts (1798-1861) was a government official and land promoter. He was born at sea, to John and Jane Ingram Pitts on a ship heading from England to Charleston, S.C. They lived in Charleston until the War of 1812 and then moved to Georgia. In April of 1819, John D. Pitts married Eliza Permelia Daves of Washington County.
In Stewart County, Georgia, John D. Pitts served as a justice of the peace, an education trustee from the Twenty-second District, an organizer of the town of Florence, and a trained civil engineer. He was authorized to build a bridge over the Chattahoochee River and in 1841 was elected representative to the legislature. In 1841, Pitts traveled with his brother Henry, a brother-in-law, James Vickers, and several slaves to the Republic of Texas. He settled in Washington-on-the-Brazos, wrote home to his wife and asked her and their children to join him. Eleven families came to Texas from the bidding of the Pitts.
John D. Pitts served as an engrossing clerk in the House of Representatives in Texas in the First and Secon legislatures, 1846 and 1848; respectively. Governor George T. Wood appointed him adjutant general of Texas. In 1850 Pitts bought 640 acres of Gen. Edward Burleson's San Jacinto grant at San Marcos and deeded the land to the new Methodist Episcopal Church, which occupied the land until 1990. Pitts helped to develop San Marcos. He served on the jury of the first district court and in 1854 he and six friends organized the Cushney Lodge No. 128, the first Masonic Lodge in Hays County.
After his first wife died, John D. Pitts married Ann Durham of San Marcos. In the mid-1850s he and James H. Callahan organized the Pittsburg Land Company and laid out a town called Pittsburg. In 1858 when Blanco County was organized, the townsite was moved across the Blanco River and renamed Blanco. The Pittsburg Land Company gave the new town 120 acres of land.
Pitts was attending the Secession Convention in Austin in 1861, when he became ill and died on February 5, 1861. He was buried next to his first wife.
Family links:
Children:
Sylvirah Rebecca Pitts Kone (1828 - 1910)*
Eliza Pope Pitts Malone (1832 - 1923)*
*Calculated relationship
| | | Burial:
Pitts Cemetery
Hays County
Texas, USA |
Created by: Stephanie Sorensen
Record added: Nov 29, 2005
Find A Grave Memorial# 12542021 |
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This image placed on this site indicates this individual is documented with either the Sons or Daughters of the Republic of Texas as having lived in Texas in the years (1836-1846) of the Republic.
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Mervin D. Peters
Added: Jan. 26, 2012 |
Rest in peace, John...
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Sam
Added: Jan. 30, 2008 |
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