DeSoto Parish, Louisiana; Biography: Capt. John W. Pitts - p320 --------------------------------- Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson Typed by Trudy Marlow ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Capt. John W. Pitts is a planter and surveyor of De Soto Parish, La., and is one of the most in- fluential men in this section of the country, not only because he has become one of the largest and wealthiest landholders, but because he has taken an active interest in every enterprise for the public weal. He was born in Muscogee County, Ga., July 2, 1839, his father, George R. Pitts, having been born in South Carolina, and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Leary, in Georgia. The former was of Welsh, and the latter of Irish descent. They came to Louisiana in 1859, and settled on a plantation in De Soto Parish, on which he died in December, 1888, his wife passing to her long home in July of the same year. They left two children: Capt. J. W. and Louisa (wife of W. W. Hunt.) Capt. John W. Pitts was reared in Georgia, and educated in the university of that State, after which he did clerking and a general mercantile business with his father, but after com- ing to this State with them, he turned his attention to planting, which he continued to follow until the bursting of the war cloud which had so long hovered over the country, when he enlisted in Company F, Nineteenth Louisiana Regiment and was subsequently made orderly sergeant, then first lieutenant, being finally commissioned captain, which position he held at the time of Lee's sur- render. He went out with the third company that left this section of the country. He was wounded in the battle of Shiloh by a gun-shot in his right arm, and was twice wounded at Atlanta, a gun-shot striking him in his right hip joint. He was a gal- lant and dashing officer, and made an enviable record for himself while in the service. He has devoted his attention to his plantation ever since the war, and is now the owner of about 4,000 acres of good land, consideralde of which is under culti- vation. He rents the most of his land and turns his attention to raising grass and stock, his farm being especially well adapted for this purpose. He deals extensively in mules and cattle, and is a wide- awake and enterprising citizen generally. He was appointed Government surveyor in 1874, and has held the office continuously ever since, with satisfaction to all concerned. He is well known throughout the parish, and no man is better posted on the topography and geology of De Soto Parish than Capt. Pitts, for he has traversed this section over, time and, again, in his surveying tours. He has the reputation, and deservedly so, of being a fine surveyor, and most thoroughly understands every detail of the work. His marriage, which took place in 1870, was to Miss Sallie Thorn, by whom he has three daughters: Anna, Lizzie and Janie B.