Pittsburg

The post office opened in 1855 as Pittsburgh, and the Handbook of Texas says the final h was dropped in 1893. The Pittsburg Gazette began in 1884 and has run continuously since. On August 21, 1891, voters approved incorporation 110 to 74 and E. A. King became the first mayor. By 1896 the town had a foundry, a tannery, an ice factory and a bottling works. In 1946 Aubrey Pilgrim and a partner bought a feed store here, the start of Pilgrim's Pride, which Bo Pilgrim later grew into the world's largest poultry producer.

What the plaque says

Pittsburg Anglo settlement of this area began in the 1850s. The W. H. Pitts (1815-1898) family arrived from Georgia in 1854, and soon were joined by more settlers from the southern United States. Pitts donated land for a townsite, which was named in his honor. In 1874, when Camp County was created from Upshur County, Pittsburg became county seat. Two railroad lines were built through the area by 1880, and in 1891 the citizens voted to incorporate their town. Pittsburg continues to serve as a transportation, business, marketing, and cultural center for the county. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 8.6 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Daingerfield State Park — 16 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.

More markers nearby

• Site of First Carnegie Library in Texas — steps away
• Pitts Family Cemetery — steps away
• The Ezekiel Airship — 0.2 mi
• New Mine Baptist Church — 3.0 mi