Pittsville is an unincorporated area that formerly held a distinct community in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. The site is along Farm to Market Road 359 near Hunt Road and is nineteen miles northwest of Richmond, Texas and three miles north of Fulshear. Some consider Pittsville a Texas ghost town since its last residents left in the 1940s. The area is growing as Greater Houston stretches westward into the Katy–Fulshear–Simonton area.
There is a Texas Historical Commission marker on the west side of FM 359 a short distance north of the intersection of FM359 and Hunt Road:
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. [1]
Another account of Pittsville history explains:
The settlement began to grow when early plantation owners, finding it impossible to live in the swampy, though fertile, Brazos River bottoms, built their homes on the high prairie lands away from the threat of floods. The settlement was named for the Pitts family, who operated a store and distributed the mail. All the people up the Brazos River who did not get their mail at Richmond were included in Pittsville. The 1860 census listed some 240 people living in Pittsville. Farming and stock raising were the main occupations, but also listed were wagoners, carpenters, schoolteachers, a brick mason, an engineer, a minister, a merchant, a clerk, a physician, a wheelwright, a machinist, an artesian-well borer, and other workers. As the years passed the town had several general stores, as well as a blacksmith shop, a millinery shop, a photo studio, and a two-story school or academy. Pittsville acquired a post office on May 31, 1870, with Mrs. Lucy Upton and postmistress. The post office was discontinued on June 15, 1889, because the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad had bypassed the community, the town of Fulshear had been established, and the people of Pittsville were moving to Fulshear to be near the railroad. The last residents of Pittsville were Mrs. Alice (J. R.) Nesbitt and her daughter, Doris, who moved away in 1947. Since that time the only evidences of Pittsville are an abandoned cistern and a clump of trees. [2]
Prominent Pittsville families included the Bains, Walkers, Nesbitts, Cumings, Hugginses, Brookshires, Harrises and Pools. [3]
Oral history that has been captured revels that Pittsville residents openly support the Confederate Army in the US Civil War.
James Ashley Davis was a handsome, happy-go-lucky, man from Pittsville who was kind to both men and animals. When he was still a young man, he joined the Confederacy and engaged in the Civil War. Accompanied by a man servant, he rode off too battle mounted on a grey horse. When his friends suggested that he made a good target on a grey horse, he said he did not think the Yankee soldiers were marksmen. He was mistaken, however, as he was wounded several times. One of his wounds was through the mouth and would appear as dimples on both cheeks for the rest of his life. Davis fought at Shiloh and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, before returning to home to recover from his wounds. Once healed, he rejoined the fighting until the war ended. It's told he was a sober Christian man who was trusted by local ranchers to drive their cattle to market. He made several trips over the trails with Texas Longhorns to the rail head at Abilene, Kansas. While living in a ranch house at Foster, Davis died in 1906. [4]
As mentioned above, Pittsville acquired a post office on May 31, 1870 and was discontinued on June 15, 1889 when most residents moved three miles south to be near the new railroad depot built in Fulshear.
The following served as a Pittsville Postmaster: [4]
In being discontinued 28 May 1889; the Postmaster papers were sent to Leslie in Waller County.
Around 11 pm on Saturday, October 13, 1888, an incident reflecting deep socio-political divisions occurred at the Liberty Hope Church, which was in the vicinity of Pittsville. While local black residents gathered for a church festival, half a dozen white men rode up to the church and called out for two local black politicians, Taylor Randon and his half-brother Lamar Johnson. As Randon and Johnson came out of the Church and headed toward the bushes, the white men opened fire injuring Randon's hand and killing Johnson. Randon supposedly had made some anti-Jaybird comments early that evening in Richmond, Texas where the county government was located. [5] After this incident, Randon supposedly fled the county to Houston out of fear for his life. [6] [7]
The six young white men arrested by the local sheriff were members of the Fort Bend County Jaybirds, who were predominantly white and used violent means like this killing to remove the Woodpeckers, who were predominantly black with some white allies, from running the county government. [6] Those arrested included Dick Preston, Walter Sims, Theophilus Simington, Seth Miller, Fred Fuller, and George Lass. [6] Most revealing is Theophilus Simington, whose last name is most likely misspelled. The Simonton's were a predominant Fort Bend family and the founders of the Simonton plantation that eventually evolved into the present-day town of Simonton. The Simonton's were avid Jaybirds who resisted the post-Civil War Reconstruction efforts.
Between 1888 and 1889, the Jaybird-Woodpecker feud raged throughout Fort Bend country. [8] This particular incident created quite a stir in regional and national newspapers that included testimonials and conflicting information, including from Taylor Randon and the local Sheriff, Tom Garvey. Randon plays down the political feud, stating the incident was about a fight over several women, and asked for the Jaybirds to protect him when he planned to return. [5] Sheriff Garvey, who was a Woodpecker, was forced to move his family to Galveston, Texas for their safety as he was "compelled to apologize for his severe strictures upon the negro killers." [9]
This small incident reflected a larger feud over power, money, and race in Fort Bend and Texas. Retaliatory murders occurred on both sides, including "the 1889 killing of the local sheriff Tom Garvey (a Woodpecker). The violence culminated in the Battle of Richmond, the county seat, on August 16, 1889, when Sheriff Garvey was killed." [12]
Area residents are zoned to schools in the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District.
Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days.
Wallis is a city in far southeastern Austin County, Texas, United States. The city is located along State Highway 36 (SH 36) and the BNSF Railway between Rosenberg and Sealy. The city's population was 1,292 at the 2020 census.
Fulshear is a city in northwest Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, and is located on the western edge of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. The population was 16,856 as of the 2020 census.
Greatwood is a neighborhood within the city of Sugar Land in the state of Texas. It was formerly a census-designated place located in Fort Bend County. The population was 11,538 at the 2010 census, up from 6,640 at the 2000 census. It was annexed into the City of Sugar Land on December 12, 2017.
Richmond is a city in and the county seat of Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. The city is located within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city population was 11,627. It is home to the founders of the former company Oswego, Nick Mide and Trace.
Rosenberg is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area and Fort Bend County. The population was 38,282 at the 2020 census, up from 30,618 at the 2010 census. The community holds the Fort Bend County fair in October. Rosenberg is adjacent to the city of Richmond, the Fort Bend County seat.
Simonton is a city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. Simonton is located at the intersection of Farm roads 1093 and 1489, approximately fourteen miles northwest of Richmond, Texas and five miles west of Fulshear, Texas. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city population was 647, down from 814 at the 2010 census.
Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, also Lamar Consolidated ISD, Lamar CISD or LCISD, is a public school district in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Metropolitan Area.
The Jaybird–Woodpecker War (1888–89) was a feud between two United States Democratic Party factions fighting for political control of Fort Bend County, Texas, in the southeast part of the state. The Jay Bird Democratic Association was an all-White political organization formed in 1887 by young men to challenge and regain control of the county government from the biracial coalition of former White and Black Republicans who had dominated the county Democratic party and county government since 1869. Murders and political assassinations were committed against persons in each faction in 1888 and 1889.
The Westpark Tollway, also Fort Bend Westpark Tollway, is a limited-access toll road in Texas, serving western Houston and Harris County, and northeastern Fort Bend County. Construction on the facility began in 2001 and portions of the road were opened to traffic in May 2004. Construction of the roadway was completed in August 2005. The Westpark Tollway begins on Westpark Drive just past the South Rice Avenue intersection in the Uptown District of Houston and runs approximately 22 miles (35 km) west to Farm to Market Road 1093 just past Farm to Market Road 723 in Fulshear, Texas. It runs roughly parallel and to the south of Westheimer Road in Harris County and concurrently with FM 1093 in Fort Bend County.
Area codes 713, 281, 832, and 346 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) forming an overlay complex for Houston, Texas and its environs. Area code 713 is one of the original four area codes established for Texas in 1947.
Foster exists in memory as a pioneer Texas community that is located in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States along Farm to Market Road 359, beginning approximately 1.0 mile (1.6 km) northwest of its intersection with Farm to Market Road 723. It is considered by local homeowners to be an unincorporated community.
Weston Lakes is a city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. Residents voted to incorporate the community in an election held on May 10, 2008. At the time of incorporation, there were about 2,300 residents living in Weston Lakes. The population was 3,853 as of the 2020 census.
Ira Aten was a Texas Ranger who was inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.
Following the defeat of the Confederate States in the American Civil War, Texas was mandated to rejoin the United States of America. Union Army soldiers officially occupied the state starting on June 19, 1865. For the next nine years, Texas was governed by a series of provisional governors as the state went through Reconstruction. As stated by the Texas State Library and Archive Commission, in 1869, the United States Congress passed an act allowing the citizens of Texas to vote on a new State Constitution. Later that same year, President Grant approved their Constitution. Texas fully rejoined the Union on March 30, 1870, when President Grant signed the act to readmit Texas to Congressional Representation. Texas later repealed the State Constitution of 1869 and enacted the Texas State Constitution of 1876 on February 15, 1876, which remains their current state constitution though with numerous amendments.
Benjamin Franklin Terry raised and commanded the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment, popularly known as Terry's Texas Rangers, during the American Civil War. An enslaver, planter and prominent citizen of Fort Bend County, he organized the regiment for the Confederate States Army. Terry was killed in the regiment's first action at Rowlett's Station near Woodsonville, Kentucky.
Farm to Market Road 359 (FM 359) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas. The highway begins at U.S. Route 90 Alternate (US 90A) near Richmond in Fort Bend County. FM 359 heads in a northwesterly direction through Pecan Grove and Fulshear to Interstate 10 at Brookshire in Waller County. Continuing to the northwest, the highway passes through the small communities of Pattison, Monaville and Pine Island before ending at U.S. Route 290 (US 290) and Texas Highway 6 (SH 6) east of Hempstead.
Duke is a ghost town in Fort Bend County, in the U.S. state of Texas. The former settlement's location was west of Arcola along the BNSF Railway near Houston Southwest Airport. In 2014 the town site was no longer accessible by public roads.
Arizona Fleming was an African-American small business owner from Richmond, Texas who became part of the Civil Rights Movement by joining a lawsuit against an all-white political club that prevented black voters from participating in the Democratic Party Primary in Fort Bend County. While John Terry's name headed the legal petition, Fleming and Willie Melton provided much of the financial support and work behind the lawsuit. The case was won in United States District Court in 1950 and overturned on appeal in 1952. The case went before the United States Supreme Court in 1953 and African-Americans won full voting rights in the county. In 1994 Arizona Fleming Elementary School was opened in Fort Bend Independent School District.
Walter Moses Burton was a farmer, sheriff, and Republican politician who served four terms in the Texas State Senate. Born into slavery in North Carolina in 1840, he was brought to Texas about 1850. His owner, Thomas Burke Burton, a plantation owner in Fort Bend County, taught him to read and write. After emancipation, he purchased several tracts of land from his former owner. He became active in Republican party politics and was elected as the sheriff and tax collector in Fort Bend County in 1869. He was the first Black elected sheriff in the United States. He was first elected to the Fourteenth Legislature in 1874 and served almost continually until 1883. After leaving office, he returned to farming, but continued to be active in the Republican party until his death in 1913. He is buried in the Morton Cemetery in Richmond, Texas.
Municipalities and communities of Fort Bend County, Texas, United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties ±Former community annexed by Missouri City ^Former community annexed by Sugar Land | |
Coordinates: 29°43′23″N95°55′29″W / 29.72306°N 95.92472°W
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