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Pleasant Williams Kittrell

By Texas Historical Marker
Pleasant Williams Kittrell 1805-1867 Source: Dr. Jeffrey Littlejohn

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.

Images

Pleasant Williams Kittrell 1805-1867 Source: Dr. Jeffrey Littlejohn
Steamboat House Steamboat House at its original location, in Adickes Addition of the Oakwood Cemetery off of Martin Luther King Boulevard. Photographed here by Eugenia Angier in December 1926 and viewed from southeast. Source: http://www.walkercountytreasures.com
Sam Houston Photograph of Sam Houston from 1859. Sam Houston became good friends with Pleasant Williams Kittrell upon his arrival in Huntsville, Texas.
Henderson King Yoakum Yoakum was good friends with Dr. Kittrell. It is likely that during the yellow fever epidemic in 1867, Dr. Kittrell would have helped to assist Mrs. Evaline Cannon Yoakum until his eventual passing. Sadly, only days after his death, she too passed away on October 1, 1867.
Historical Marker This marker for Pleasant Williams Kittrell is at Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas.
1858 Letter to Dr. Kittrell Letter from P.H. Hayes to Dr. Kittrell inviting him and others to a party, dated December 15, 1858. Source: Newton Gresham Library Digital Collections, Sam Houston State University
Burial Site Kittrell's gravestone and marker at Oakwood Cemetery is in close proximity to the burial sites for Sam Houston and Henderson Yoakum.

Location

Metadata

Citation Info

Texas Historical Marker, “Pleasant Williams Kittrell,” East Texas History, accessed March 30, 2023, https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/214.