Martha Patsy, referred to as Patty by her father, was the sixth child of John and Mary Polly Pittman. She no doubt was very close to her parents, having been with them until she was thirty years of age.
She was likely the one to care for her mother after the Torries attack on their home while her father and brothers were off fighting on behalf of the Sons of Liberty during the height of the Revolutionary War. The Torries ransacked the log cabin and Mary Polly was thrown from the porch while defending her home and children. She suffered a broken hip which left her a cripple for the rest of her life. Patty was about fifteen at the time.
On April 9, 1791, at the age of 31, Martha Patsy Pittman married David Langston and brought to the marriage her dowry of 100 acres in Wilkes County. Wilkes county was unique among the early seven counties in that it was formed from land ceded in 1773 by the Creek and Cherokee Nations in the Treaties of Augusta. With it's location on the Savannah River, it was considered prime land, and the owners were fortunate indeed. Patsy and David Langston spent most of their 47 years of marriage in Georgia. They had four children with the oldest Etheldred born in Virginia in 1796, and Mary, Isaac and Frances born in Georgia in 1797, 1892 and 1803 respectively.
David died on Christmas Eve, 1838 at the age of 75 and is buried in Cherokee Corner Cemetery in Oglethorpe County, Georgia next to his daughter Mary who died at the age of 25 in 1822. Her headstone inscription an eerie prediction...
The debt of natures paid.
My grave you see:
Look: reflect, and prepare
To follow me.
John Pittman's beloved daughter Patty, outlived all but one of her children, and all but one of her siblings. Her death was recorded in Madison County, Georgia Death Register with cause of death listed as Old Age. She died in March 1850 at 90 years of age. She was laid to rest beside her husband, daughter Mary and daughter Frances who died in 1825 at age 34. Martha Patsy's son Isaac died six years after his mother at age 56. Records indicate that Martha Patsy and David had only one grandson by their oldest son Etheldred.
Daughter Mary's Tombstone's inscription may have set the tone for the those who followed all to quickly.
