Pleasant Williams Kittrell
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(April 13, 1805 - September 29, 1867) Doctor Pleasant Williams Kittrell, a statesman in North Carolina and Alabama, moved with his family to Texas in 1850. While serving two terms in the Texas Legislature, the doctor authored the bill to establish the University of Texas. Though the bill was signed in 1858, the university's opening was delayed until 1883. At home in Huntsville, Kittrell managed his extensive land holdings and practiced medicine. He treated area victims of the 1867 yellow fever epidemic until he himself succumbed to the disease. Kittrell is buried near his good friends Sam Houston (in whose former home Kittrell died) and historian Henderson Yoakum. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. Pleasant Williams Kittrell arrived in Huntsville in 1850 already a seasoned statesman from North Carolina and Alabama, and he made his mark on Texas from the legislature. There he authored the bill establishing the University of Texas — signed in 1858, though the school would not open until 1883. A friend and physician to Sam Houston, Kittrell died tending patients during the 1867 yellow fever epidemic that took him too.
Why it matters
He helped lay the legislative cornerstone of one of the nation's great public universities, and his death embodies the physician's sacrifice in an age before modern medicine.
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Related people
- · Pleasant Williams Kittrell
- · Sam Houston
- · Henderson Yoakum
Related events
- · 1867 yellow fever epidemic
Themes & tags
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