William Harrison Pitts

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about William Harrison Pitts, out of Camp County, Texas. Now, every town's got an origin, and Pittsburg, Texas has got one worth sittin' with for a spell. It starts in Georgia, where a man named William Harrison Pitts was born in 1815 to Hardy and Drucilla Neal Pitts.

Whatever Georgia had to offer, it wasn't enough to hold him. By 1854, Pitts had moved his entire plantation household to this corner of East Texas. He didn't come to browse.

He purchased two hundred acres and built himself a home right near this very site. And something about that decision, about a man planting himself that firmly in a place, has a way of drawing others in. A settlement began to spring up.

A post office was established, and the name it took was Pittsburg. Pitts kept acquiring land over the next few years, and here's where the man showed something beyond ambition. He set aside fifty acres specifically for the town's development.

He wasn't just building a home. He was building a place. Then came 1874, and a question that mattered quite a bit to the future of this part of Texas.

Camp County had just been organized, and somebody had to be named the county seat. William Harrison Pitts made an offer: fifty dollars toward a new courthouse if Pittsburg got the nod. That offer, according to the marker, was a deciding factor in the election.

Fifty dollars, and a town's destiny tips one direction. The late 1870s brought two railroad lines right through town, turning Pittsburg into a junction. By 1880 the population had climbed to seven hundred and fifty people.

In 1884, the Pittsburg Gazette rolled off its first press. The man behind all of it was married four times and had two children. He was a merchant, a civic leader, and a veteran of the Creek Indian wars.

William Harrison Pitts died in 1898. He came to this land with two hundred acres and a plan, set fifty of them aside for the rest of you, and then put fifty dollars on the table when it counted. Not a bad hand to play.

What the marker says

(1815 - 1898) Born in Georgia to Hardy and Drucilla (Neal) Pitts, William Harrison Pitts moved his plantation household to this area by 1854. He purchased 200 acres and built a home near this site. A settlement began to spring up, and a post office was established with the name "Pittsburg." Pitts acquired more land over the next few years, setting aside 50 acres for the town's development. In 1874, his offer of $50 toward a new courthouse was a deciding factor in the election of Pittsburg as the seat of the newly organized Camp County. The town became a junction of two railroad lines in the late 1870s and by 1880 it had a population of 750. The "Pittsburg Gazette" was first published in 1884. William Harrison Pitts was married four times and had two children. A merchant, civic leader, and veteran of the Creek Indian wars, he died in 1898. (2000)