Pitts, Philip Henry, 1814-1884.

Philip Henry Pitts was a cotton planter of Union Town (now Uniontown), Perry County, Ala.

Philip Henry Pitts, an Alabama cotton planter, was born 3 June 1814, probably in Essex County, Va. He was the son of Thomas Daniel Pitts (d. 26 August 1851) and Polly Pitts (d. 4 March 1839). Thomas D. Pitts and his family moved from Lloyds, Essex County, Va., in 1833 to Oak Lawn, near Union Town (now Uniontown), Perry County, Ala. Some of the Pitts family remained in Virginia, while others moved to Mecklenburg County, N.C. Philip H. Pitts married Margaret Pitts (b. 25 May 1924), probably before 1841 when their first child was born. They had ten children, most of whom survived into adulthood--sons Philip Henry ( Henry or Harry ) Pitts, Jr., Arthur D. Pitts, Thomas Daniel Pitts, Ellic Pitts, John Pitts (26 June 1843 - 27 June 1862), and David W. Pitts, and daughters Mary Grey (Pitts) Walker (b. 27 February 1841), Adelene Pitts (b. 1 January 1862), Sarah E. ( Kitty ) (Pitts) Hudson, and Pattie Pitts (b. 2 March 1858).

The Pitts family was related to several other prominent Uniontown families frequently mentioned in Philip Henry Pitts's diaries-- including the Davidson family (also with members in North Carolina), most notably Alexander Caldwell Davidson, Democratic representative from Alabama to the 49th and 50th U.S. Congress. Other frequently mentioned families were the Caldwell family of North Carolina and the Rennolds or Reynolds family of Virginia. There was a great amount of travel by Pitts relations between North Carolina and Alabama during the years covered by the diaries.

Thomas Daniel Pitts was a captain in the 4th Regiment, Virginia Militia, in Westmoreland Co., during the War of 1812. One of the letters in the collection relates to his service in that war. Thomas and his sons, Arthur B. L. Pitts (d. 25 July 1853), David William ( William ) Pitts (d. 22 July 1861), and Philip Henry Pitts, were landowners and cotton planters in the Cane Brake or Black Belt Region of west central Alabama. At the time of the 1860 census, Philip owned 2200 acres and 89 slaves, as well as stock in the Alabama-Mississippi Railroad, for a total worth of $175,300. His estates were called Rurill Hill (probably named after John Davidson's Rural Hill plantation in Mecklenberg Co., N.C.) and Kings. He may have owned land in other areas of Alabama, perhaps including Choctaw County, as well. Following the end of the Civil War, Philip Pitts retained at least part of his holdings at Rurill Hill, but Kings seems to have disappeared. In 1870, he bought a section of the Lodebo plantation adjoining Rurill Hill. He remained a cotton planter until his death on 22 April 1884.