Pontotoc County, Mississippi
Genealogy and History
Peggy A. Young, County CoordinatorJeff Kemp - State Coordinator Denise Wells - Assistant State Coordinator
Ann Allen Geoghegan - Assistant State Coordinator
Sunday, 13-Jun-2010 13:43:55 EDT
W. P. A. History of Pontotoc County, Mississippi
CHAPTER 1 CONTINUED
Pioneer Families
The history of THE PITTS FAMILY is given by Reuben Pitts III:
Henry Pitts, great great grandfather of Reuben S. Pitts III , was a citizen of Newberry, South Carolina. He was a descendant of Pitts, Lord of Londonderry, who, when he received his title, changed the name of Pitt to Pitts, and also the coat-of-arms.
To Henry Pitts and his wife, Belton Pitts, were born six sons: Drewery, Starling, Carey, Belton, Reuben, and Hiram and two daughters: Martha and Tabitha.
One of the sons, Hiram, born in 1800, married Clarissa Calhoun of Hamburg, in Laurena County, South Carolina. The couple moved to Alabama and after a year or so to Mississippi and settled in Pontotoc County on Mud Creek, around 1823, near what is now known as Rocky Ford. Nine children were born to this couple: Henry, Drewery, Nancy, Elizabeth, Lucinda, Francis, Theresa, Reuben, and Jake.
The family later moved about two and a half miles east of the town of Pontotoc and settled in what is now known as the New Hope Community. The spot on which they settled is still owned by the family.
At that time there was a school on the location of the present New Hope Cemetery. In 1861 New Hope Church was established. Hiram Pitts was a charter member. He died in 1898. One of his children, Henry, married Miss Mollie Ellis and to them were born three children: Pearl, Dick, and Reuben. Elizabeth married Martin Hardin and reared six children, one of whom is Henry Y. Hardin, present citizen of Pontotoc; Lucinda married Ed Reaves, of New Albany, and to them were born the following children: John Henry, Joe L., William Franklin, Elizabeth, Nancy Jane, Martha Theresa, James Reuben, Drewery Jackson, Chester Young, and Emma Katherine. Fannie married John Taylor and to them were born seven children: James, Ed, Dolly, Etta, Dick, Sam, and Will, none of whom remain in Pontotoc County; Theresa married William H. Seale and to them were born six children,: Robert, Lawrence, Florence, Modena, Hester, and Ira. Florence (Mrs. E. T. Winston), and Modena (Mrs. W. M. Donaldson) reside in the town of Pontotoc, 1938.
Reuben Simpson Pitts, after his return from the War Between the States, married Harriet Arminta Seale and built his home on his father's place. To this union were born two children: Reuben Simpson and Fannie May. Drewery and Jake were killed during the War Between the States.
The Pitts home, built two and a half miles east of Pontotoc by Hiram Pitts and his sons, stood on the exact site of the present R. S. Pitts' home. It was a large log house with a long hall, and was covered with three-foot cypress boards, rived in Mud Creek bottom.
The house that Reuben Simpson built on his father's land, a three-room house of hand sawed and hand dressed lumber still stands, 1938, on the place and is used as a tenant house. After his return from he War Reuben Pitts farmed and made furniture and violins; some of the furniture remains in his son's home. After his death his wife Arminta and his two children, Reuben and May, moved into the home of their grandfather, Hiram Pitts.
Reuben married Audra Velma Fuqua in 1910 and moved into the old home. They had one child, Reuben Simpson III, who now lives with his father on the original home site of his great-grandfather, Hiram Pitts. (1)
(1)Reuben S. Pitts, Jr., Pontotoc, Miss.
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