Leroy Nelson DeWitt, Pioneer Citizen

Mount Joy took its name from a Virginia woman's relief at arriving safely. The DeWitts came in 1854, and by 1884 the settlement had three steam gins, a gristmill, a shingle factory and daily stage service to Cooper. The Handbook names a Leroy DeWitt as an active leader in the Grange and the Farmers' Alliance. Fence-cutting disputes between farmers and cattlemen cut the population to fifty by 1888, but farmers later formed a cooperative that ran a general store. The post office closed in 1907.

What the plaque says

Leroy Nelson DeWitt, Pioneer Citizen (b. Mar. 20, 1840 - d. May 23. 1918) Prosperous merchant and farmer. Native of Virginia; moved here with parents, 1854. Married Miss Mary Collier, 1861; they had 9 children. In 1862, joined Confederacy to serve on frontier until end of war. Became recognized leader in civic and church affairs, area development. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cooper Lake State Park — 9.1 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 12 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Eiffel Tower — 13 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.
• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 13 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.

More markers nearby

• Thomas Wilson Stegall — 2.7 mi
• Enloe United Methodist Church — 3.6 mi
• Wilson, John William — 4.2 mi
• Site of Shelton's Fort — 4.6 mi