Name: Pittsburg, Texas
Address: Pittsburg, TX

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant, settled atop its namesake hill in 1848, feels like a place where time slows down a bit. Interstate 30 might skirt the southern edge, linking us to the hustle of Dallas and the timber country near Texarkana, but here, life unfolds at a more deliberate pace. It's easy to imagine the town's early days just by walking around the square. They say the original brick street is still under the asphalt downtown, a hidden reminder of what came before. Loblolly pines surround the town, and Lake Bob Sandlin, a short drive away on Cypress Creek, is a great place to unwind. Of course, Mount Pleasant has also sent some remarkable people out into the world.

11.2 mi away

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant sits a little higher than you might expect, a gentle rise in the rolling East Texas landscape. You can imagine why the early settlers chose this spot back in 1848 – a pleasant hill, they called it, and the name stuck. For years, the town grew slowly, drawing its life from the land. Even today, driving around, you’re surrounded by loblolly pines, and you know agriculture, especially poultry, keeps a lot of families going. Underneath the asphalt downtown, there's still a brick street, a century-old reminder of how things used to be. Of course, time changes everything. Interstate 30 now runs just south of town, connecting Mount Pleasant to Dallas and Texarkana. Lake Bob Sandlin, not far away, brought recreation and new faces. Though it's a small town, it’s had its moments in the spotlight. Despite the changes, Mount Pleasant has held onto its friendly, small-town feel, a welcoming place in the heart of East Texas.

11.2 mi away

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant, sitting just a bit higher than the rolling hills around it, has always been a crossroads. Established in 1848, it drew folks from across the South looking for fertile land and a fresh start. You can still see echoes of those early settlers in the architecture around the downtown square – simple, sturdy buildings meant to last. Though the accents might have softened over time, that slow, deliberate way of speaking, common across Northeast Texas, hints at those Southern roots. While the brick street they say is hidden under the asphalt downtown might be invisible now, you can still taste the past in the food. Down-home cooking is everywhere, and while you might not find it advertised, there's a distinct influence from the African American community who worked the land for generations. You'll find that same spirit in the music, too, even if it's subtle. And even though Interstate 30 rushes by just south of town, there's a comforting, small-town feel that reminds you this is a place where people still value those old traditions.

11.2 mi away

Shelby, Carroll Hall

1923

Born on January 11, 1923, in Leesburg, Camp County, Texas, Carroll Hall Shelby was a famous automobile driver and designer and, prior to his death, one of the world's longest-living heart transplant recipients. He was the only son of Warren Hall Shelby and Francis Etoise (Lawrence) Shelby and older brother to Lou Ann "Anne" (Shelby) Ellison. His father was a U. S. postal worker and car buff who did his rounds by automobile. As a child Shelby sometimes accompanied him on these post rounds as well as to local auto races. He spent his first seven years in Leesburg and then moved with his family to Dallas. At a very young age Shelby was diagnosed with a heart murmur and was required to take daily bed rest for most of his childhood. Upon graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas in 1940, Shelby enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he entered the aeronautical engineering program, but never completed his degree. He enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps on April 11, 1941. Shelby completed his basic training at Randolph Air Force Base and was posted to Kelly Field (later named Kelly Air Force Base ), Cuero Field , Perrin Army Air Field , Ellington Field , and Childress Army Air Field . He served as a flight instructor and test pilot for the Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan and Curtiss AT-9 Jeep. In 1942 Shelby graduated as a staff sergeant at Ellington Field. Later that year he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He left the service in August 1945. Two years prior, on December 18, 1943, Shelby married his first wife, Vivian Jeanne Fields, who mothered his three children, Sharon Anne (born in 1944), Michael Hall (born in 1946), and Patrick Bert (born in 1947). Shelby and his wife divorced sixteen years later in February 1960. By the time of his death, Shelby had married at least six other women: Janet R. "Jan" Harrison (in 1962), Sue Stafford (in 1963), Sandra Brandstetter, Cynthia Psaros (in 1989), Helena Dahl (1990-97), and Cleo Patra Roberts (1997-2012). In 1949 Shelby went into business raising chickens. His first batch of chickens gave him a $5,000 profit, but a subsequent batch was devastated by disease and bankrupted him. In January 1952 Shelby entered his first race, a quarter-mile drag meet in which he drove a flathead Ford V8-powered hot rod built by Ed Wilkins, a friend from high school. Later that year Wilkins drove up to his home in an MG TC and invited him to drive the car in a drag meet in Norman, Oklahoma, where Shelby won two races. On November 23 Shelby won the Texas Region of the Sports Car Club of America race at Caddo Mills. In August 1953, during a race at Eagle Mountain National Guard Base near Fort Worth, he drove in a pair of striped bib overalls, which became his signature outfit. In January 1954 he drove the Mil Kilometros de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, sponsored by the Automobile Club of Argentina, where he caught the eye of John Wyer, the team manager of Aston Martin. Later that year Shelby drove DBR3s for Aston Martin in several races, including the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. In November 1954 he was badly injured during the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico. He continued to drive in early 1955 with his arm in a cast and his hand taped to the steering wheel. From 1955 to 1957 Shelby won more than half of the eighty-one races he entered, set multiple records, and traveled the world. In 1956 he was sponsored by John Edgar, for whom he drove Ferraris and Maseratis. In both 1956 and 1957 Shelby was featured as Sports Illustrated magazine's Driver of the Year. In early 1957 he partnered with Dick Hall, a former sponsor, to open Carroll Shelby Sports Cars of Dallas. That September, while driving Edgar's 4.5-liter Maserati 450S during practice for the Riverside International Raceway in California, Shelby spun it into a dirt embankment. After the accident he had to have plastic surgery on his face and three vertebrae fused in his neck. In November he memorably won the 100-mile rac

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Pittsburg, TX

1901

Pittsburg, the county seat of Camp County, is at the junctions of U.S. Highway 271 and State Highway 11 and of the Louisiana and Arkansas and the St. Louis Southwestern railways, sixty miles southwest of Texarkana in the central portion of the county. It is the largest and the oldest town in the county. There are six major lakes within eighteen miles of Pittsburg that are reputed to be among the best bass-fishing lakes in Texas. Caddo and Cherokee Indians resided in the area during the early 1800s, but they had for the most part abandoned the area before settlers began arriving from Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama in the late 1830s. A community began to emerge in the 1850s, and when the post office was established in 1855 it was named Pittsburgh, in honor of the family of William Harrison Pitts, said to have arrived from Warren County, Georgia, the year before. The Pittsburg Gazette was founded in 1884 and has been in continuous operation since that time. In 1893 the spelling of the post office name was changed to Pittsburg. As the part of Upshur County near Big Cypress Creek became more heavily populated, Pittsburg grew in size and importance. The roads between there and Gilmer, the county seat and major market center of Upshur County, were of poor quality, and Big Cypress Creek was often difficult to cross during rainy seasons. Thus by 1860 Pittsburg became the major market center for the future Camp County. The town had doctors, lawyers, a watchmaker, a brick mason, two shoemakers, two blacksmiths, and several merchants, carpenters, and wagonmakers, as well as a Methodist church. By 1870 Pittsburg served as the post office for 2,400 people. When Camp County was organized in 1874, Pittsburg was one of three towns proposed for the county seat. As the largest and most centrally located settlement, it defeated Leesburg and Center Point, receiving 500 of the 797 votes cast. The new courthouse, which was constructed on land donated by William H. Pitts, was built with bricks that had been manufactured in Pittsburg. During the late 1870s the East Line and Red River Railroad was constructed across the county from east to west, and the Texas and St. Louis Railway was constructed across the county from north to south. The two railroads came through Pittsburg, increasing both its importance as a trade center and the size of the area it served. By 1890 Pittsburg had a population of 1,203. On August 21, 1891, an election resulted in favor of incorporation, 110 to 74, and E. A. King was elected the first mayor. An 1896 description of Pittsburg concluded that the city was an "exceptionally desirable location for factories" because of its rail connections and the quantity of timber available. From the early years Pittsburg had sawmills, wagonmakers, and builders. By 1896 the town also had a foundry, a tannery, an ice factory, and a bottling works. Still, the town remained primarily a supply and shipping point for farmers well into the twentieth century. As late as 1940 there were only 242 individuals involved in manufacturing all of Camp County. The most remarkable manufacturing enterprise in Pittsburg involved an early flying machine. Around 1901 Burrell B. Cannon, a local mechanic and part-time minister, built an aircraft, basing his design on a description in the book of Ezekiel. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock was offered in the Ezekiel Airship Manufacturing Company. Cannon had a solid reputation as a mechanic, which inspired the townspeople's confidence in his project. There is debate as to whether the craft ever actually got off the ground; some residents later recalled having seen it lift off for a few feet. Eventually Cannon put the aircraft on a railroad flatcar to ship it to St. Louis, possibly in hopes of interesting investors. The machine was destroyed by a storm, however, while it sat on the tracks in Texarkana. Cannon reportedly built a second model of the aircraft in Chicago in 1913, but the machine crashed into a tel

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Ezekiel Airship, The

1902

Baptist minister and inventor Burrell Cannon (1848-1922) led some Pittsburg investors to establish the Ezekiel airship Company and build a craft described in the Biblical book of Ezekiel. The ship had large, fabric-covered wings powered by an engine that turned four sets of paddles. It was built in a nearby machine shop and was briefly airborne at this site late in 1902, a year before the Wright brothers first flew. Enroute to the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, the airship was destroyed by a storm. In 1913 a second model crashed, and the Rev. Cannon gave up the project. (1976)

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Pilgrim, Lonnie Alfred [Bo]

1946

Lonnie Alfred "Bo" Pilgrim, chicken magnate and philanthropist, the son of Alonzo Monroe Pilgrim and Nettie Gertrude (Gunn) Pilgrim, was born on May 8, 1928, in Pine, Texas, a small community in Camp County and just south of the county seat of Pittsburg. He was the fourth of seven children who survived infancy. His father owned one of the two stores in Pine but died suddenly in 1939. His mother took over the store, which was later passed on to Pilgrim's oldest brother, Harold. Young Lonnie Pilgrim, who always went by the nickname Bo, had a religious conversion about this time and became a devout Southern Baptist for the rest of his life. He later described his sense of betrayal when his mother remarried three years after his father's death, and he elected to live with his grandmother, Ada, despite the poverty he experienced working on her farm. There, he had his first experience raising chickens. For a time, beset by financial woes, Pilgrim drove a truck that carried supplies for moonshiners. In 1946 Pilgrim's older brother Aubrey and a partner, Pat Johns, purchased the feed store of Johns's uncle in nearby Pittsburg and began what eventually evolved into Pilgrim's Pride Corporation. The enterprise began as a small, overly leveraged, general service, agricultural supplies shop. Concerned about the debt, Johns sold out his $500-portion of the business within the first year, and Aubrey brought on his brother Bo. Aubrey Pilgrim, hauled gravel for the business, minded the store, and often worked sixteen-hour days. The ideas of younger brother Bo, however, soon began to drive the business. His suggestions and alacrity as a low-cost builder led to the construction of a warehouse, a loading ramp, an unloading pit, and an elevator to carry feed to a bagging machine. A Pittsburg dentist, L. H. Pitts, provided some needed capital to build a new feed mill. The business expanded rapidly in the late 1940s, but the Korean War and military draft pulled Bo Pilgrim into the United States Army from 1951 to 1953. Pilgrim spent this time teaching in an army leadership school in California and observing what he could of agribusiness on the West Coast. When he returned, the grain milling capacity of the business advanced. His first step was to buy three large grain tanks and a bulk feed truck. By the mid-1950s the Pilgrim business could chop corn, crimp oats, crack milo, and add a dash of homemade molasses to the feed. The brothers also made the crucial innovation of giving young chicks to feed buyers for free. In 1958 their attitude towards these handouts changed, and the Pilgrim company began to retain title to the now-loaned chickens. They purchased a hatchery in nearby Mount Pleasant and moved it to their feed store. This opened the way for chicken processing ( see POULTRY PRODUCTION ), and in 1960 they bought a processing plant which operated as Pilgrim Poultry Company by late 1961. Heart issues plagued both brothers. Aubrey died of a heart attack in 1966, and Bo Pilgrim became head of the company. (He later had open-heart surgery in 1975.) The younger brother, however, not only survived his operations, but gained an early awareness that leaner, whiter chicken meat would become attractive to buyers. In 1979 the company produced more than one million chickens per week. Pilgrim pioneered innovations such as the marketing of a "boneless chicken" that garnered widespread attention (but not long-term consumer interest) and the sale of nutritionally-enhanced eggs. In 1986 investors for the first time traded shares of Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on the New York Stock Exchange. By the late 1980s Pilgrim initiated a plan to overtake chief competitor Tyson's Foods of Arkansas as the number one poultry producer in the United States and cited Texas workers' compensation laws as a major obstacle to curtailing company profits. But to handle this feat, he tried to control the Texas legislature in a way he believed Tyson's controlled Arkansas. The result was

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Site of First Carnegie Library in Texas

1898

At 1898 request of firm mining coal in Pittsburg, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave $5,000.00 to match local pledges and build the first Carnegie Library (of 31) in Texas on this site. The masonry building was also the opera house and city hall. Library had 3,000 books. It became a social center, with meeting rooms for clubs and groups such as ladies sewing for World War I hospitals. The opera house staged professional drama and lectures and was used for graduations and recitals until modern school was built in 1926. The library burned in 1939. (1973)

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Sheppard, John L., Home

1884

Home of the Sheppard family from 1884, when the house was built, until 1891. During that time John L. Sheppard (1852-1902) served as district attorney and then judge for Fifth Judicial District. In 1899 he was elected to U. s. Congress and died in office. His son, Morris Sheppard (1875-1941), succeeded him in congress, then served with distinction in U. S. Senate from 1913-1951. House has eight fireplaces and secret passageway between floors. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1974

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Pittsburg, Texas

Music in Pittsburg

Songs About Pittsburg

Artists From Pittsburg

Rivers & Roads in Song near Pittsburg

History of Pittsburg

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Mount Pleasant, TX RoadyGoat

Shelby, Carroll Hall

Pittsburg, TX

Ezekiel Airship, The

Pilgrim, Lonnie Alfred [Bo]

Site of First Carnegie Library in Texas

Sheppard, John L., Home

Everything Near Pittsburg