While his older brothers established their own homes and families on the Pittman Plantation lands, it appears from records that Daniel was the son who spent his life as the caretaker of his father's original home in what finally became Gwinnet County, Georgia. He was educated, motivated, capable and dedicated to his family and country.
Certainly, Daniels handling of the Pittman Plantations during the 1820's into the 1840's was a period of significant financial growth as well as accumulations of land and prestige among Southern Plantation owners. In the 1830 Census, Daniel, his wife Asenath, infant daughter and his father John Ichabod age 78, were listed as residents of the home with thirty-five slave workers...the majority of them being women and children. Daniel was thirty-two when he married Asenath Haynes Baber, twenty, on March 17, 1826. Their first child was named Eunice Marshall after his mother Lucy Eunice Marshall Pittman who died in 1821.
Daniel and Asenath had five more children...two sons and three daughters. Three years after Eunice, Abigail Baber was born. Abigail lived to the age of 96 and was the source of much of the family history being preserved in her letters to later generations. One of which has been included in Eight Is Enough...Second Son's Testament to The Scriptures.
Daniel J. was born in 1837, and as an adult he was probably instrumental in the legal complications that would befall the Pittman land holdings by the 1840's through the 1860's as the US government began what is generally accepted as Pre-Civil War land taxes. Known as the Honorable Daniel J. Pittman of Atlanta, he followed in his father's footsteps, not as a farmer, but as a well educated and civic minded Attorney and Judge.
The two younger daughters, Lucy Asenath and Henrietta Lucinda were born in 1844 and 1846, respectively. Lucy married Billings Socrates Ivy who had the distinction of being the first male child born in Atlanta, Georgia. His family were early Pioneers in Atlanta and Lucy and 'Sock' lived their entire married life in the city where he was a Foundry Foreman. Lucy's mother Asenath was listed as residing with them in the 1880 Census which would have been nine years after Daniel's death in 1871. Lucy and 'Sock' had four children, one son Lyman and three daughters Cora, Mary Ellen and Rosamond. These four 2ndCousins3xRemoved, along with other Cousins from this Second Generation will be profiled in 'Georgia Cousins'...a later section to come.
Before I lay Daniel to rest, there is the matter of what is referred to by previous family historians as the 'Financial Reversals of the Wealthy'. A National Financial Crisis in 1829 through 1838 resulted in multiple Court Judgments against Daniel Pittman et. al, in the sale of land by Gwinnet County Sheriff's Land Sales. Lots of Pittman Land were sold off in 150 to 500 acres at a time. The Court Judgments were conducted well into the 1840's with hundreds of acres of the Pittman Family land sold to satisfy Banks and private citizens claims. Also during these years, Daniel represented Gwinnett County in the State Legislature and served in the State Senate.
In the 1850 Census, Daniel lists himself as a farmer on property valued at $800. His land dealings had to do with the donation of five acres for the formation of Mount Carmel Methodist Church where his parents are buried as well as other family members. Missing from the 1860 Census, it is presumed that Daniel, Asenath and their children continued their lives on the same property as was enumerated in 1850. However, it is known that Daniel served the Confederacy during the 1860's Civil War. His daughter Lucy Pittman Ivy wrote that he was stationed in Pensacola and Mobile. He was in several battles but was not injured. At the end of the Civil War and documented in the 1870 Census, Daniel and Asenath were living in Evans District in DeKalb County which was next to Gwinnett County. It is not known by this author if the lines of the counties were redrawn or if Daniel and Asenath were on a different property, which Daniel listed as valued at $1000 and personal property valued at $745. On this property, Daniel had one farm hand, 18 year old John M. Tweedy. The ravages of the Civil War and the beginnings of the Re-Construction of the South had taken a toll on Daniel and the Pittman Family holdings in Georgia.
Daniel died on August 18, 1871 at the age of 78. He is buried at Stone Mountain Cemetery near Stone Mountain Baptist Church where he and Asenath were founding members. Stone Mountain is in DeKalb County, not far from Atlanta where Asenath went to live with daughter Lucy and husband Socrates Ivy. Asenath died ten years later on October 29, 1881. Her obituary appeared in the Atlanta paper.PITTMAN.~Mrs. Asenath Haynes Pittman, widow of the late Daniel N. Pitman, deceased, died at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. B.S. Ivy, No 113 Walton Street, Atlanta, Georgia, at sunset, Saturday evening, October 29th, 1881. She was born in Oglethorpe county, Georgia, August 24, 1805, and died in the 78th year of her age.
Funeral services at her grave in the cemetery at Stone Mountain, 10 o'clock a.m., Monday, October 31st, 1881. Rev. H.C. Hornady, of the Baptist church, will officiate. Friends and acquaintances affectionately invited to attend. Train leaves the union passenger depot at half-past eight o'clock Monday morning.
Daniel a Hebrew name meaning 'God is my judge'.
Inscription on his headstone...
He trusted in the Lord God of Israel.
