DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pittsville, Fort Bend County. Now picture a stretch of Texas prairie in the 1840s — and a group of planters who looked at the Brazos River bottoms, looked real hard, and said: no thank you. Those bottoms were hazardous, and these folks knew it.
So they settled up on the prairie instead, and what grew out of that decision was a village called Pittsville. The name came from the store owners — A. R. and Amanda Pitts, Amanda's maiden name being Wade — and by 1860 this little prairie settlement had grown into a major commercial center.
Not a footnote. A destination. Then the Civil War arrived, and Pittsville felt it.
The Pittsville Home Guard made its camp in the area, and Confederate cavalry units passed through as well — units that went on to help recapture Galveston. The community produced Confederate surgeons of note: Robert Locke Harris and A. A.
Laurence both called Pittsville home. So did William Sheriff and J. Wesson Parker, men who served as Texas legislators and as judges of Fort Bend County.
And then there was John Huggins, who made his mark as an innovator of horseracing techniques. That is a range of neighbors, I'll tell you that. But here is where the story turns.
In 1888, a new railroad came through — only it didn't come through Pittsville. It came through to the south. And that railroad gave rise to a new town: Fulshear.
And what Fulshear's founding started, time finished. Gradually, steadily, Pittsville faded. By the late 1940s, it had disappeared entirely.
A community that began because some planters chose the prairie over the river — and ended because a railroad chose a different path altogether. Pittsville never saw it coming. Most places don't.
What the marker says
Planters preferring the prairie to the hazardous Brazos River bottoms settled this village in the 1840s. Named for store owners A. R. and Amanda (Wade) Pitts, it was a major commercial center by 1860. During the Civil War, the Pittsville Home Guard and Confederate cavalry units, which helped recapture Galveston, camped in the area. Notable residents included Robert Locke Harris and A. A. Laurence, Confederate surgeons; William Sheriff and J. Wesson Parker, Texas legislators and Fort Bend County judges; and John Huggins, innovator of horseracing techniques. The arrival of a new railroad to the south in 1888, and the subsequent founding of Fulshear, resulted in the gradual decline and eventual disappearance of Pittsville by the late 1940s. (2010)