Marker Number: 10309
Marker Text:
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
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