Brown County IN Archives Biographies.....Pittman, William H. 1859 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 24, 2007, 1:19 am

Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

WILLIAM H. PITTMAN.

   The man who boldly faces life's duties and responsibilities and by determined
and untiring energy carves out for himself an honorable success exerts a
powerful influence upon the lives of those who follow after him. Such men
constitute the foundation of our republican institutions and are the pride of
our civilization. To them, life is so earnest and real that they find no time
either for frivolity, or vice. Their lives are closely bound up in their duties,
they feel the weight and dignity of their citizenship and take pleasure in
sowing the seed of uprightness. To such a class the gentleman whose name
introduces this review belongs. And as such he has exerted a wholesome and
beneficial influence in the community, besides rising to important public
station, holding at this time the responsible and exacting position of clerk of
the Brown circuit court.

   William H. Pittman is a native of Monroe county, Ohio, and the oldest of a
family of four children, whose parents, Absalom and Sarah J. (Wayt) Pittman,
were also born and reared in that part of the Buckeye state. Absalom Pittman was
married in his native county and there lived until the year 1868, when he came
to Brown county, Indiana, and bought a tract of land, which has since been his
home and on which the subject of this review also lived until a comparatively
recent date. Being a man of great industry and a good manager, Mr. Pittman, with
the aid of his son, soon cleared and otherwise developed a fine farm and in due
time accumulated the comfortable competence he now enjoys. Of the original
homestead three hundred and fifty acres are in cultivation, which, with the
improvements added from time to time, have made it one of the most valuable and
desirable places of its area in the county of Brown. Absalom Pittman is now
spending the evening of a long and useful life in honorable retirement, being,
as already indicated, in independent circumstances, with a sufficiency of this
world's goods at his command to render his declining years comfortable and free
from care. In his younger days he was a prominent local politician and a leader
of the Democratic party in his township, but of recent years his activity in
public and political affairs has greatly subsided, though he still votes his
principles and maintains the soundness of his opinions. Many years ago he united
with the Christian church and entered upon the religious career which he still
maintains, his good and faithful wife being also a member of the same body of
worshipers with which he is identified.

   William H. Pittman, to a brief review of whose life and achievements the
residue of this article is devoted, was born October 13, 1859, and at the age of
about nine years accompanied his parents upon their removal from Ohio to Brown
county, Indiana. Being the oldest son, he was early put to work, clearing land
and fitting it for cultivation, and during the years of his youth and young
manhood he learned to appreciate the true dignity of honest toil and never knew
by practical experience what it meant to eat the bread of idleness. By reason of
his services being required at home his educational training was considerably
interfered with, the sum total of his intellectual discipline consisting of from
one and a half to three months' attendance at the district schools during the
winter seasons until about the age of nineteen. Possessing a naturally studious
and inquiring mind, however, and from early boyhood being fond of books and
reading all that he could obtain, he made up in a large measure for his early
deficiency and in due time acquired a fund of valuable information, which, with
the practical knowledge obtained by coming in contact with the world in various
capacities, has made him one of the best posted men on general subjects in the
community.

   Mr. Pittman remained on the family homestead as his father's able and valued
assistant until attaining his majority, at which time he began life upon his own
responsibility, choosing for a vocation the ancient and honorable calling of
husbandry, to which he has since devoted his attention with a large degree of
success and financial profit. He has owned at different times several tracts of
land, but by disposing of his realty to advantage and judiciously investing the
proceeds in other farm property, he has added greatly to his possessions, being
at this time one of the successful agriculturists and well-to-do men of Brown
county, also one of its most enterprising, public spirited and praiseworthy
citizens. Possessing excellent judgment, sound discretion and wise forethought,
Mr. Pittman has managed his business affairs ably and creditably and, starting
in the world with little capital save his determination and ability to "push,"
he has succeeded in amassing an ample fortune, consisting of well improved real
estate in the country and several houses and lots in Nashville, besides valuable
personal property and private capital.

   Since old enough to exercise the right of the ballot Mr. Pittman has
manifested a deep and abiding interest in political and public questions and for
a number of years he has been one of the leading and influential Democratic
politicians of Brown county. In the year 1899 he was nominated and triumphantly
elected to the position of clerk of the Brown circuit court, which office he has
held by successive re-elections ever since, the term upon which he has recently
entered expiring in the month of June, 1909. Thus far his official career has
been eminently satisfactory to Republicans as well as to Democrats, his record
being commended and indorsed by the people irrespective of political
affiliation. He discharges the duties of his position in a straightforward,
business-like manner, is courteous in his relations with the public and, being
familiar with every detail of the office, experiences no difficulties whatever
in meeting and successfully disposing of the large amount of business devolving
upon him.

   The domestic chapter in the life of Mr. Pittman dates from 1878, on May 9th
of which year he was happily married to Miss Amanda E. Kirts, daughter of Wesley
and Elsie J. (Henderson) Kirts, both parents natives of Brown county and
descendants of old pioneer families of this part of the state.

   Mrs. Pittman's maternal grandfather, Robert Henderson, Sr., a Kentuckian by,
birth and a true type of the strong armed, clear brained, courageous pioneer of
the olden time, came to this county when its few scattered settlements were but
niches in the surrounding forests and to him as much, perhaps, as to any one
individual, is due the credit of introducing civilization into this section of
Indiana. The Kirts family were also early settlers and, like the Hendersons,
bore an active and prominent part in opening the country and developing its
resources. Mrs. Pittman was born and reared in Brown county and has practically
spent her life within the geographical limits of the same. She is a lady of
intelligence and high character, a true wife and helpmeet, and to her judicious
counsel and earnest co-operation is due not a little of the success that has
characterized the career of the man whose family name she so worthily bears. The
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Pittman has been blessed with five children, namely:
Hattie, wife of J. E. Walker, of Nashville; Everett, who died at the age of
three years; Pearl, a member of the home circle; Orval, also under the parental
roof, and Gaynelle, who departed this life in childhood. Mr. Pittman manifests a
father's pardonable pride in his offspring and has spared no pains nor expense
in providing for their education and fitting them for lives of honor and
usefulness. The daughters are young ladies of culture, being especially
proficient in music, and Orval, the eldest son living, is prosecuting his
literary studies preparatory to entering the medical profession. Appreciating
their parents' interest in their behalf, the children made the most of their
opportunities, all of them being well educated and highly esteemed in the social
circles in which they move. Mr. Pittman and his entire family are identified
with the Christian or Disciple church and live the lives of both parents and
children, guided by strict religious principles, demonstrate the beauty and
value of practically applied Christianity. While loyal to his own church and a
liberal contributor to its various lines of missionary and benevolent effort,
Mr. Pittman possesses the broad, catholic spirit which enables him to see good
in all religious bodies and to perceive in every human being, however humble,
the spark of divinity speaking a noble origin and an immortal destiny. Thus
endowed, he is generous in his donations to all worthy objects whereby his
fellow men may be benefited and his love for his kind never permits him to
withhold a helping hand from a friend in need. He has long been a member of
several secret fraternal organizations and an active worker and honored official
in the same, being identified with the Masonic order, the Odd Fellows and the
Pythian brotherhood, in all of which his zeal has been commendable and his
influence strong and salutary. The moral character of Mr. Pittman is without
spot or blemish, in consequence of which he enjoys the unqualified confidence
and esteem of all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. Being one of the
most widely known citizens of Brown county, his popularity is by no means
circumscribed within narrow bounds, but extends wherever his name and reputation
have preceded him. In his life, character and achievements are exemplified the
best type of symmetrically developed American manhood and citizenship, his
influence having always been on the right side of every moral question and to
the young man with ambition to rise in the world and -become an important factor
in the body politic his career is inspiring and eminently worthy of imitation.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER


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