In the years following the death of his wife in 1903, J.A. Pittman, as he was most often referred to in the newspapers, continued to run his **General Store and raise his three children. He also ran for a county office and was elected or appointed Judge of Ordinary Court. He affirmed this hearsay in our family history in the 1910 US Census where he listed his occupation 'Ordinary' and employed by the County Offices. At home were two of his children...Hattie (22) and Emil (16)...Mamie Lizzie (25) married earlier in the year. Also of interest was his change in residence since the last Census in 1900. He declared his residence a House at 137 Birmingham Street, but also had marks in the Farm Schedule indicating his farm may have been leased.
Between his business and his duties as an Ordinary Court Judge, he was in the news often. However, as the 1920's approached, Judge Pittman was nearing his 70's and by all indications had retired from public life and from the mercantile store and was experiencing health issues. His daughter Hattie married in 1920 and son Emil was a Pharmacist in Atlanta. By the time the 1920 Census was taken, he was listed as living with his sister, Savannah Pittman Brown and her husband in East Point, Georgia...near Atlanta.
At the time of his death James Allison Pittman was living with his daughter Mamie Lizzie and her husband Dr. D.L. Bridges. Her signature is on his death certificate which states the cause of death as cardiovascular and renal disease terminating in pneumonia. He died on October 12, 1928 and was interred in the Douglasville City Cemetery with Masonic Rites performed by the local lodge as indicated in his obituary from the Atlanta Constitution.
His Obituary is a wealth of information in the revealing of those relatives who survive him and are invited to attend his funeral. This wording was the norm of the day in naming a persons survivors. The following is a brief summary of those named in the obituary.
~Dr. and Mrs. D.R. Bridges...daughter Mamie Lizzie and husband of Atlanta. Mamie and Daniel had four children, Alice, Daniel, Elizabeth and James. Daniel died in 1967 and Mamie lived to the age of 89. She died in November 1974.
~Mrs. W. A. Parrish...daughter Hattie. Hattie married William Alderman Parrish. They had three children, William Allison, James, and Julia. William and Hattie spent their lives farming in Brooks County, Georgia and in the 1940's Hattie petitioned the courts for property in Cobb County that had been in the Pittman Family for generations coming to her through her father and his brother Isaac Marion Pittman. She died at age 84 on September 25, 1971, and is buried in McDonough Cemetery in Henry County, Georgia, beside her husband who died in 1979.
~Emil Marion Pittman...son. At age 18 Emil graduated from the Atlanta College of Pharmacy and worked as a pharmacist in Atlanta. In 1918 he registered for the draft and volunteered to serve in the Medical Corp. In April 1921 he was medically discharged with active pulmonary tuberculosis and spent several years in treatment at National Hospital/Homes for Disabled Soldiers. He returned to Atlanta in 1935 and worked as a drug store sales clerk until his death at age 56 on July 9, 1950. He is buried in the Douglasville City Cemetery. He never married.
~Morden Allison Pittman...relationship undetermined. Research to date: His name follows James and Alice Kennedy Pittman's known children of Mrs. D.R. Bridges, Mrs. W.A. Parrish and Emil Pittman which indicates his position in the family as son...according to most obits of the time. Research proved that he was born in 1906 after the death of Alice in 1903 eliminating her as his mother. He is found for the first time in the 1930 Census in Ohio listed with Mary E. Morden Pittman as her son age 22. Again in the 1935 Census for Dade County, Florida with Mary E. Morden Pittman as well as in the city directory. His final documentation is of his death in Dade County, Florida and his burial in Douglasville, Georgia. On Find A Grave he is listed in the Douglasville City Cemetery along with other Pittmans James, Alice, Emil, Little and his mother Mary E. Morden Pittman with whom he shares a headstone. To date, I have found no records of his birth, a marriage of his mother to a Pittman, or any other reference to him before the 1930 Census.
~Mrs. Hiram Brown...Savanna Pittman Brown, sister. She was the youngest of James' siblings and they remained close through out their lives.
~Mrs. Hampton Howell...Mary Eugenia Pittman Howell, sister. Eugenia was three years younger than James and married to James Hampton Howell.
~Mr. George Pittman...brother. George Washington Pittman was James' oldest living sibling having out lived his older brother William who died in 1909 and younger brother Albert who died in 1921. At the time of James' death George resided in the Confederate Soldiers Home in Austin, Texas and was 85 years old.
Quite unexpectedly, James Allison Pittman's story, the research it entailed and the historical, personal and genealogical information it revealed has been of great significance...proving once again...
Every person in your Family Tree is Significant in Time for
‘there is no such thing as a life not meant for the person living It.’
~ Louis Simpson ~
Rest In Peace Great Uncle James Allison for you have earned your
'Safe haven in the hallowed quiets of the past'.
**General Store photo-a representation only...not intended to be JA Pittman or his store. Photo from Douglasville Genealogy Society website.
