Father of Fifteen...Husband To Two

Thomas Augustus Pittman was born in the fall of 1808 in Columbia County, Georgia, where the Pittman name held a measure of historic and notable significance.  He was the great-grandson of Rev. Daniel Marshall, who established the first Baptist Church in Georgia. 

His grandmother Lucy Eunice Marshall Pittman upheld her father's Baptist influence by raising eight sons and a daughter to abide by the scriptures.   Her first son and Thomas' father,  Ichabod in turn continued to put down roots in Columbia County near his homestead along Kiokee Creek and the Kiokee Creek Baptist Church.

By the time Thomas was seventeen years of age, his parents had completed their family with three more children.  A small number of offspring for the times when most farming families boasted ten to twelve children.  As the oldest son, Thomas began his work on the family farm just a few years before his father's untimely and early demise in 1827 at age 45, just 20 years after his Georgia Bonded Marriage to Frances Jackson Stone.

Thomas married young at the age of 17 the year before his father's sudden death.  His June Bride, Sarah B. 'Salley' King were married on June 15, 1826.  Salley was the daughter of a Revolutionary War Soldier from North Carolina who migrated to nearby Wilkes County, Georgia and then to Taliaferro County where Thomas and Salley were married.

Thomas and Salley made their home in Taliaferro County near her parents and large extended family, with all eight of their children born there.

 Salley died on February 14, 1852, apparently either in childbirth or soon after giving birth to James, who apparently did not survive either.  There are no official death records for either of them. 

However, less than one month later Thomas age 43, married Lucy Ann Bramblett age 24.  Lucy was the daughter of Ambrose S. and Nancy M. Huckabay Bramblett of Gwinnett County, Georgia.

It was not uncommon for a widower left with young children to remarry sooner than later.  There was a large extended Pittman Family in the Gwinnett , Columbia and surrounding counties known by all and known to be a family of upstanding community minded people with strong Christian beliefs and morals.

As Lucy was a single 24 year old woman close to the Pittman Family of Gwinnett County, she was a likely bride for Thomas and a mother for his children.  Given the short time between Sallye's death and Lucy's wedding, it would not be unthinkable for the union to be another of Georgia's Bond Marriages. 

Thomas and Lucy had seven children over a period of fifteen years.  Their oldest living child was Georgia Anne Pittman who died at age 86 years in 1947.  She never married and at the time of her death, her only living relatives were the children of her thirteen siblings and half siblings.  Between the two marriages, Thomas Augustus Pittman more than made up for his parents lack of a large family with fourteen of his fifteen children living to adulthood. 

~The only exception to at least a mid-life age was Asa Pittman who died at age 20, a casualty of the Civil War.
~William Thomas-served in Co I, Georgia 16th Infantry Regiment, enlisting one month after the death of his brother Asa.
 ~Simpson Clabus-served in Co A, Georgia 42nd Infantry Regiment, enlisting in March 1862...one month before his brother Asa's death.
~Jackson G.-served in Co I, Georgia 16th Infantry Regiment enlisting July 16, 1861.

Thomas Augustus Pittman lived the last twenty years of his life in Gwinnett County, Georgia with his second wife Lucy.  He died in 1872 at the age of 64 years old in Hog Mountain, Gwinnett County, Georgia. 

Lucy was almost half his age and lived another twenty-eight years.  She died January 13, 1900.  Thomas, Lucy and Sallye are buried in the Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery in Gwinnett County Georgia.

Rest In Peace 2nd Great Uncle and Aunts.  You are remembered as the Third Generation Georgians in Tracks of My Georgia Ancestors.

The Third Generation

 

Ichabod Byrd Pittman married Frances Jackson Stone on

October 12, 1807 in

Columbia County, Georgia. 

KNOW all Men by these Presents, That we

Ichabod Pittman & Washington W. Stone

are held firmly bonded unto the Court of Ordinary of Columbia County,

in the form of

EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY-SEVEN DOLLARS and FOURTEEN CENTS,

to which payment well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves, our heirs,

executors and administrators, jointly and severally, firmly by these presents,

sealed with our seals and dated this 12th day of October 1707

The Condition of the above Obligation is such

That, whereas there is a MARRIAGE intended to be Solemnized between the above named

Ichabod Pittman and Francis J. Stone

if there be no lawful cause to obstruct the same, then this Obligation to be void,

else to remain in full force and virtue.

 

Signed, Sealed and Acknowledged in the presence of

A. Crawford, clk

 

With the Marriage Bond and Wedding Rings,

Ichabod Byrd and Francis J. Stone

were married on October 12, 1807.

 

The documents mistaken date of 1707 was not a cause to void the marriage which ended Twenty Years later in 1827 with the death of Ichabod Byrd.  The dowry (present) of $857.14 helped to establish the young couples home in Columbia County Georgia where Ichabod was born and raised...his story...First Son~Second Generation. 

 

The document, signed by Ichabod and Francis' brother Washington W. Stone, bound the couple together in Solemn Matrimony and gave lawful cause for future Heirs....The Third Generation.



First Son~Second Generation...Ichabod Byrd Pittman

Although there is not a great deal of documentation on the life of Ichabod Byrd Pittman, he was born in a well documented and historically significant time in the life of his parents and grandparents who were pioneers in the expansion of the American Colonies in Georgia and the pursuit of Religious Freedom.

The first son of John Ichabod and Lucy Eunice Marshall Pittman, his birthdate has not been definitely established.  His parents were married in 1781 and his brother Marshall is documented with a birth year of 1783, therefore, it is accepted that Ichabod was born in 1782.

Ichabods mother, Lucy Eunice was the daughter of Daniel Marshall, the Patriarch of the Marshall Family and the Kiokee Baptist Church whose rich history is well documented in the realm and the pursuit of Religious Freedom and the establishment of the first Baptist Church in Georgia. 

Ichabod's father John and his Colonial parents John and Mary Rowe Pittman were followers and founding members of Daniel Marshalls Kiokee Baptist Church established in Columbia County, Georgia in 1772. 

It is highly probably that Ichabod Byrd was Baptized in the Kiokee Baptist Church Baptismal Pool which today is recognized as a Georgia Historical Landmark along with the Church that occupies the original land of the First Kiokee Baptist Church.

Ichabod Byrd Pittman and Frances Jackson Stone were married on October 12, 1807.  Frances was the daughter of Marvel and Mary Julia Napier Stone who prior to 1807, had been residents of Wilkes County, Georgia. 

In the 'Condition of Obligation' Certificate, which states what is assumed as her dowry of EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY-SEVEN DOLLARS and FOURTEEN CENTS, Frances' brother Washington Ware Stone signed, sealed and acknowledge the document.

The wedding was likely to have taken place in the Kiokee Baptist Church with the Reverend Abraham Marshall performing the ceremony.  Abraham was Ichabod's Uncle who would have taken over the Ministry of his father Daniel who died in 1784, two years after the birth of his grandson Ichabod.

 By 1820 Ichabod and Francis were well established in Capt. Horatio Gatrells District in Columbia, Georgia, as seen in the 1820 US Federal Census.  This early Census was numerical enumerator only with the only name that of the Head of House/Landowner.  The following matches names with the numbers:
~Free White Males under 10.......Rene Marion Pittman
~Free White Males 10-15............Thomas Augustus Pittman
~Free White Males 26-44............Ichabod Byrd Pittman (38yrs)
~Free White Females under 10....Selina Ann Pittman
~Free White Females 26-44...........Frances Jackson Stone Pittman(37yrs)
Ichabod and Frances would have one more child, Joseph Marshall Byrd Pittman born July 24, 1823.

Four years and one month after Joseph's birth, Ichabod Byrd Pittman died on August 23, 1827.  Records of his death and burial have not been found.  The cause of death is not known, but there was an epidemic of Yellow Fever that swept through Georgia in 1827 which could attribute to the lack of death certification and a quick burial. 

Ichabod Byrd Pittman...3xGreat Grandfather

Memorial Burial at Family Cemetery
Mount Carmel United Methodist Church Cemetery...Unmarked grave.

Both of his Parents, brothers Hiram and Jeptha and sister Lucy Eunice Jenkins are buried there.

Frances Jackson Stone Pittman...3xGreat Grandmother 

Lived another 30 years, remained a widow and lived in Gwinnett County, Georgia

for most of the rest of her life.
Died January 28, 1857...Buried Paulding County, Georgia
Flint Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery 

 

 Her four children all grew to adulthood with son

Rene Marion Pittman

becoming the next Direct Ancestor and the beginning of the

Third Generation of American Pittmans

featured in

Tracks of My Georgia Ancestors.

Lucy Eunice...A Legacy Moniker

Lucy Eunice Marshall Pittman was no doubt 'The Matriarch Pittman' of the 'Second Generation Georgians'.   So beloved by her children and grandchildren that at least one of her names...Lucy, Eunice or Marshall...was bestowed on her descendants, both boys and girls. 

By the time Matriarch Lucy had her one and only daughter after seven sons, there were over ten grandchildren named after her.  Without hesitation, Lucy Eunice the first, passed her remarkable name to her daughter born around 1800.

Would she live up to the 'Lucy Eunice Legacy'?

Only time would tell...and tell it has.  After two hundred and fourteen years to date, Lucy Eunice II's history is vaguely documented and uncommonly missing in the well documented lives of her parents and brothers. Her exact birthdate is unknown.  In death, she was Laid to Rest in an unmarked grave.

Even so, Lucy Eunice Pittman has a story to tell.

"I will not pay any debts by William H. Jenkins, who I married in 1832...Lucy E. Jenkins, July 8, 1837."  Gwinnett County Records/Newspaper Notice

"NOTICE:  I  deny posting Libel against my husband, William H. Jenkins....Lucy E. Jenkins, July 29, 1837."  Newspaper Notice

It appears that after five years of marriage, Lucy and William have had their problems.  At this time there is no documentation or mention of children born to this union.  There is also no records to indicate that Lucy and William separate or diviorce...which would have been unacceptable in the eyes of society and the prominent Pittman Family.

"NOTICE:  March 31, 1843...Sheriff's Sale...Land Sale of William H. Jenkins to satisfy a Judgement by J.W. Cardwell."

Lucy and Williams undocumented...'No more News Notices'...life must have gone on for another seven years.  At least until the 1850 Gwinnett County Census where the Pittman name appears not only as a Resident of the County but also as the Enumerator of the 1850 Gwinnett County Census.

It is revealed by an earlier 'Pittman Family Historian' that Daniel N. Pittman noted in this Census that his sister Lucy Eunice Pittman Jenkins declared herself as Widowed.  However, her husband, William H. Jenkins was alive and likely not so well, living right next door.  It seems that the brother and Magistrate Daniel N. Pittman of Lucy Eunice had found a way to end the union without marring the family name.

Declaration by Daniel N. Pittman...The 1850 Morality Schedule

A woman may be declared a widow if she has been abandoned.

"Natural spring water, vegetation, and the 'Inebreating' fluid which is so bountifully manufactured on many of the streams of this division.  But the men must (?) partake of the juice manufactured into alcohol and are held captive by the evil one at his will.  The apple is a delicious fruit but when fermented and distilled ought not to be placed to his neighbor's mouth by the bottle which beggars many citizens of all descriptions discovering their nakedness truly as said the prophet Habakkuk chapter 2nd verse 15th." 
In his strong words backed up by the Bible, Daniel, legally and morally declared his brother-in-law a captive/maker of the devils brew, a drunk, unfit husband and dead.

Regardless of his Magistrate Brother-In-Laws 1850 Declaration as to his 'Dead ToUs' status and Unfit Family Man, William H. Jenkins survived another ten years to appear in the 1860 Gwinnett County Census.  This Census is extremely important in revealing the history of Lucy Eunice's life between the time she married William in 1832 until August 23, 1860, the date of this Census.

First, it reveals a child born to Lucy and William.  Robert born in 1837 when Lucy recanted her Libel Notice against her husband.  There is no denying Roberts birth and birthrights as the son of Lucy and William and the grandson of Lucy Eunice and John Ichabod Pittman.  His existence helps explain Lucy's staying in close proximity to her husband and father of her child.  It is suspected that Lucy's marriage and choice of a husband was less acceptable to her brother Daniel than to Lucy, and that she was caught in the proverbial  'rock and a hard place'.

Secondly, it confirms the Pittman Family Landholdings before the Civil War with Robert apparently having inherited his Mother's real estate valued at $1,500 with a personal estate of $4,000 which for the time indicates a moderate to wealthy status.  Since his father William is listed as a member of the household and not the head, it reinforces Robert's wealth came from the Pittman side of the family, since William's land was sold off in a Sheriffs Sale nearly twenty years earlier.

Next, the absence of Lucy Eunice Pittman Jenkins in any of the 1860 Census indicates that her death must have occurred in the ten year period between the Census'.    Another interesting note is the occupation listed for William...carpenter.  He must have been quite a 'Jack of All Trades' and a patriot as his Find A Grave Memorial notes:

WM. H. Jenkins is listed as Muscian in County A, 39th GA Volunteer Regiment Infantry,

Murphy Guards, Sept. 26, 1861.

This record suggests that at age 59/60 William H. Jenkins was an early enlistee in the Confederacy.  He, however, was not a casualty of the Civil War but died of a 'Fever' in August 1869 as documented in the US Federal Census Mortality Schedule of 1870.  He is buried in an unmarked grave in Mount Carmel United Methodist Church Cemetery where Lucy II, Lucy I and many other Second Generation Pittmans are interred.

Lucy Eunice Pittman Jenkins

Time Hurried On for Hiram the Seventh Son

Hiram Pittman was the seventh son of John Ichabod and Lucy Eunice Pittman. At the age of 23 he was appointed a First Lieutenant in Georgia's 131st District Company Militia by Governor John Clark. His military career of four years ended in May 1824.

Two years passed before he married Elizabeth Daughtery in 1826.  It is after this marriage that Hiram first appears in the court records of Columbia County, Georgia.  Elizabeth was the sixteen year old daughter of Neail Daughtery whose estate settlement prompted Hiram to petition the court on behalf of his young wife.

Court records show that Hiram's Hearing of the Petition took place on Monday, September 3, 1827.  He signed a receipt approximately six months later on February 23, 1828 for one fifth of the estate which included one lot of land valued at $660.67, negro slaves Betty, Peter, Tom, Sally and her three children, Peggy and Chebra with a value of $1900.  In addition Hiram and Elizabeth received $161.86 from the sale of personal property belonging to the estate. By this time Elizabeth had given birth to their first child, John M. born December 18, 1826.

John M. Pittman became one of the largest landowners in Gwinnett County with as much as 500 acres in the Pinkneyville area.  Some of his holdings were from land inherited from his father Hiram who died in 1839 when John was 13 years old.  He and his younger siblings Joseph, Emily and Louisa along with their mother Elizabeth (29 yrs.) appear in the 1840 Gwinnett County Census as living on the estate of Hiram Pittman along with 36 slaves.  One year later a notice releasing Administration of the Estate from young John and Elizabeth was published in the newspaper.

In November 1841, Peter F. Hoyle gave Bond in Gwinnett Inferior Court as Guardian for John,Joseph, Emily and Louisa Pittman, orphans and minors of Hiram Pittman.  Peter Hoyle was a wealthy and highly respected physician in Decatur and had a large estate of lands, Mills, and Negros.  In the DeKalb County 1850 Census he has listed the widowed Elizabeth as his wife and her children as members of his household.  Emily and Louisa were listed with real estate holdings of $800 and John M. now 24 yrs. old as a farmer with $1200 in real estate.  Son Joseph Hiram Pittman, migrated to Texas where during the 1880's he was elected District Clerk of Goliad, Texas.

The cause of Hiram's early demise is not known.  The inscription on his tomb suggests that perhaps he died of a sudden illness.  The tomb also is inscribed...In Memory of Hiram Pittman who died in the 42nd year of his age AD 1839.  Erected by Mrs. Elizabeth H. Pittman, His wife, AD 1841.   The inscription date is after Dr. Peter Hoyle was awarded guardianship of the estate and Hirams children.

Elizabeth and Dr. Hoyle had three daughters together.  They lived in Decatur for many years where he was a practicing physican and planter until he suffered a heart attack.  They moved to Jacksonville, Florida and lived with their daughter Fredonia and husband Doctor William Haddock.  Dr. Hoyle died in January 1871 and Elizabeth in February 1882.  They are buried in Jacksonville, Florida.

Hiram and Elizabeth's son John M. died at age 52 in Gwinnett, Georgia and is buried in a nearby cemetery to his father Hiram and his grandparents John Ichabod and Lucy Eunice Marshall Pittman.

Emily died in August 1852 at age 21 and is buried in Decatur's Old Cemetery.   Her Tomb, much like her father's is surrounded by a decorative iron fence and is inscribed  with words from a poem by L.H. Sigourney published in 1842...

Gone where no dark sin is cherished

Where no woes nor fears invade.

Gone are youth first bud had perished

To a youth that ne'er can fade.

 

Louisa Susan Pittman married William Augustine Green in 1853, had four children and last appeared in the 1860 Census with wealthy land owner husband listing his real estates value as $30,000 and personal estate of $12,000.  It is indicated that her husband died not long after the 1860 Census leaving Louisa a wealthy young widow.  It is likely she remarried and due to a change in her last name, the rest of her life and death can not be researched at this time.

 

Hiram and Elizabeth's youngest child and son Joseph Hiram Pittman as mentioned earlier migrated to Goliad, Texas where another branch of the Pittman Family has prospered.  Joseph died in February 1898 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Goliad, Texas.  He married Laura Word in Cass County Georgia and they had six children who became citizens of Goliad County, Texas.

 

Hiram Pittman   

1789~1839

Mount Carmel United Methodist Church Cemetery

 

As You this Mausaleum view

Think that a home as small awaiteth you.

Time hurry's on, nor long will death delay

To take the life and leave nothing but clay.

 

Oh Hiram, you left so much more than Elizabeth could possibly have known on that day!