52 Ancestors In 2022-February Week 6...MAPS

February Week 6...MAPS

My great grandfather traveled from Georgia to Texas in the late 1890's arriving in Ward County, Texas, by way of a more Eastern route not shown on map.  A survivor and Veteran of the Civil War, he lost all family farming land to Georgia's Reconstruction and taxes after the Civil War.  Without the hope of owning land, he settled his family in the Southwestern part of Ward County known as Grandfalls.

Excerpts from the Ward County History 1877-1977.   George Washington Pittman whose Civil War record includes Co. B 7th Infantry, Andersons Brigade, McLaws Division, N. Virginia's Army.  As a widower with 6 of his 10 surviving children settling in Grandfalls, Ward County, Texas, his farming skills were in high demand among the Emigrant land owners.  He and his children lived many years in Ward County, and became land owners of plats shown on the map. 

Only one son, C.C. 'Chapo' Pittman, stayed on in Grandfalls for the remainder of his life.  And it is Chappo, my Grandfather, whose life and the lives of his descendants that have been impacted by the 1902 General Land Office Map.  

Born in 1875, Chappo was 77 years old when he came to live with us.  I was 4.  It was not until I was an adult and became 'The Family Historian' that I learned about his early life in Grandfalls and his occupations on the Pecos River.  It was humbling to be standing on the Brush Dam bridge where my two pioneer grandfathers had helped build and build a second time after a flood.  It was incredible to learn that stories had been written about their part in the history of Ward County.

Brush Dam is pinpointed on the map by the 'Red Arrow'...as far as I can determine.  According to the Ward County History 1887-1977, Chappo contracted with the water district to build Brush Dam and the Canals...Blue Arrow on the map.  In the following years Chappo was the canal 'Ditch Rider'.  On horseback he rode the long winding canals often for days and nights clearing the 'check' points of debris so the water could flow freely through the irrigation canals.

Along with the Ditch Rider work, my grandfather was literally a dirt farmer living along the irrigation canal.  There he raised his youngest two sons, my Dad and uncle...story Two Boys and A Donkey Makin' Tracks Down The Dusty Road.  

Perhaps the most incredible Chappo survival story happened when he was a 'Freighter'.  Once a team of mules ran away with him on the Pyote-Barstow road.  He was thrown from the wagon and suffered a broken neck.  The story goes he walked all the way to Pecos to Dr. Camp's office holding his head between his hands.

My grandfather lived out his life in Grandfalls with his youngest son, W.C. Pittman and family.  He spent many hours fishing on the Pecos River where the water still flowed and the irrigation ditches still had to be cleared of Tumbleweeds.

And so, with that...there's more to a map than rivers, canals, crossings and plats.