Stringtown
San Marcos, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
John Drayton Pitts (1798-1861) was born, according to family lore, on a ship as his parents sailed to America. A civil engineer by profession, Pitts became interested in politics and in 1841 became a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. The next year, Pitts and his brother-in-law, James Vickers, took a trip to Texas and encouraged family and friends to follow. Eleven families, including those of John’s brothers, William and Edward, settled in Grimes County. John D. Pitts became an influential politician, living in Austin while serving as adjutant general. In 1847, Pitts and his friend, General Edward Burleson, visited the land Burleson acquired after the Battle of San Jacinto, located six miles southwest of San Marcos Springs. Impressed by the idyllic setting, Pitts purchased the 640 acres from Burleson. This early organized colony in Hays County consisted of family and friends of John D. Pitts. Their farmhouses, strung out at half-mile intervals along the Austin-San Antonio Road, led to the name Stringtown. The farms, often referred to as model farms, survived early hardships and the 1857 drought. Although not a town, Stringtown soon rivaled San Marcos in population. Pitts donated land near his home for a church and school. Following the Civil War and emancipation, crops were divided evenly with former slaves, and many were given land. The labor void was filled by Mexican farmers who brought their vibrant culture to the area. Pitts Cemetery, located nearby, was established in 1851. It serves as a reminder of the determined pioneers who settled the area and braved the hardships of early Texas. (2017)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Drayton Pitts, a civil engineer and Georgia legislator, visited Texas in 1842 and later bought 640 acres near San Marcos from General Edward Burleson, land the general had gained after the Battle of San Jacinto. The colony Pitts founded in 1847 drew family and friends who built farmhouses strung at half-mile intervals along the Austin–San Antonio Road, earning the settlement the name Stringtown. Its "model farms" survived early drought, and after emancipation crops were shared with former slaves given land, while Mexican farmers arrived to work the fields and enrich the area's culture.
Why it matters
Stringtown captures the organized kin-and-friend colonization of early Texas and the layered labor history—enslaved, freed, and Mexican—that reshaped the land after the Civil War.
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Related people
- · John Drayton Pitts
- · Edward Burleson
Themes & tags
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