Pleasant Williams Kittrell

As chairman of the Education Committee, Kittrell introduced the bill to create the University of Texas and fought for its passage, the Handbook of Texas records. Governor E. M. Pease signed it on February 11, 1858. It set aside every tenth acre of state land and $200,000 in cash, drawn from the $10 million Texas received for giving up claims to parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Wyoming. In 1866 Governor James W. Throckmorton named Kittrell chairman of the university's board of administrators, years before the university opened.

What the plaque says

Pleasant Williams Kittrell (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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 31 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Ball, The Rev. Thomas H. — steps away
• Besser, General John Slater — steps away
• The Huntsville Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867 — steps away
• Joshua Houston — steps away