Pittsville, Texas

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.

During the Civil War, the Pittsville Home Guard and Confederate cavalry units, which helped recapture Galveston, camped in the area.

A. Laurence, Confederate surgeons; William Sheriff and J. Wesson Parker, Texas legislators and Fort Bend County judges; and John Huggins, innovator of horseracing techniques.

[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.

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.

[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.

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.

[6] Those arrested included Dick Preston, Walter Sims, Theophilus Simington, Seth Miller, Fred Fuller, and George Lass.

Randon played 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 for their safety as he was "compelled to apologize for his severe strictures upon the negro killers.