Pitts Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Pitts Cemetery has to say — and friend, this one starts before the man even touched dry land. John Drayton Pitts came into this world on August 26, 1798, somewhere out on the open Atlantic, born at sea while his parents, John and Jane Pitts, were making the crossing from England to Charleston, South Carolina. Not many men can say their first breath of air smelled like saltwater and ship timber.

The Pitts family put down roots in the Carolinas, then shifted to Georgia during the War of 1812, and young John D. grew into a man of some standing. He married Eliza Permelia Daves in April of 1819, and by 1841 he'd been elected to the Georgia Legislature. A man with roots that deep doesn't uproot easy — but Texas had a way of calling to people back then.

John D. Pitts made the move to Grimes County, Texas, and once he got there, he didn't keep the secret to himself. He went back to Georgia and persuaded his extended family to come along.

In 1843, eleven Pitts families pulled up stakes and moved to Texas. Eleven families. That's not a migration, that's a convoy.

And John D. kept rising. He served as adjutant general under Texas Governor George Wood from 1848 to 1849. Then in 1850, he bought land right here in Hays County — bought it from his friend General Edward Burleson — and gradually much of that extended family settled in along the nearby San Antonio–San Marcos stage route, in a little community that came to be known as Stringtown.

Now, a cemetery needs a first soul to be a cemetery. That melancholy distinction belongs to John Malone, an infant boy, son of James L. and Eliza Malone — Eliza being a Pitts by birth, daughter of John D. and Eliza Pitts, making little John Malone their grandson. He was buried here in 1850, the same year John D. bought the land.

The ground had barely been broken before it became sacred. Eliza Pitts herself was laid to rest here in 1851. And then 1861.

John D. Pitts had lived a life that stretched from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to the halls of the Georgia Legislature to the frontier of the Texas republic. He'd moved eleven families across a continent on the strength of his word.

He'd served a governor and bought land from a general. In 1861, he attended a secessionist convention in Austin — and on his way home, he died. He was buried here alongside his wife, in the ground he'd bought from his old friend.

Fourteen years later, in 1875, the cemetery was formally set aside by Pitts' sons-in-law, James Malone and Samuel Kone, Sr. And it hasn't stopped since. To this day, Pitts Cemetery continues to serve as a burial site for the descendants of John D. and Eliza Pitts.

A man born at sea, who crossed half the world and then persuaded a whole family to follow him west — his name is still written in the land right here in Hays County.

What the marker says

John Drayton Pitts was born at sea on August 26, 1798, during the voyage of his parents, John and Jane Pitts, from England to Charleston, South Carolina. They moved to Georgia during the War of 1812, and John D. married Eliza Permelia Daves in April 1819. John D. Pitts was elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1841, but later moved to Grimes County, Texas. He persuaded his extended family in Georgia to join him, and in 1843 eleven Pitts families moved to Texas. John D. Pitts served as adjutant general under Texas Governor George Wood from 1848 to 1849. Pitts bought land here from his friend General Edward Burleson in 1850, and eventually much of his extended family settled along the nearby San Antonio-San Marcos stage route in a community called Stringtown. Pitts Cemetery began in 1850 with the burial of John Malone, infant son of James L. and Eliza (Pitts) Malone and grandson of Eliza and John D. Pitts. Eliza Pitts was buried here in 1851. In 1861 John D. Pitts died on his way home from a secessionist convention in Austin, and was buried here. The cemetery was set aside by Pitts' sons-in-law, James Malone and Samuel Kone, Sr., in 1875. The cemetery continues to serve as a burial site for the descendants of John D. and Eliza Pitts. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995