Amongst the family names emerging through the mists of time from Holland and Belgium was the ancient posterity of Pittman. The distinguished history of this surname is closely entwined within the colorful tapestry of the ancient chronicles of Britain.
Members of the family name Pittman sailed aboard the armada of small sailing
ships known as the 'White Sails' which plied the stormy Atlantic. From the port of entry many settlers made their way west, joining the wagon
trains to the prairies and to Texas.
Willard and Thelma Pittman purchased 21 acres in Grandfalls, Ward County, Texas in the early 1960's. On the land sat a
shotgun, four room house with an add-on back entry room and a
front bedroom. A red barn stood to the back of the
house and a 'Trap' area was fenced off to the right of the house which ran the
length of the acreage from the road to the back fence.
Hay and grass was grown with water coming down from Red Bluff and was irrigated
from the ditch that ran the length of the back fence. The ditch was cleared by
Willard using a Maintainer Tractor. The irrigation was a slow process of
opening the ditch at intervals with a shovel and flooding the rows.
When the row was flooded the opening was covered and the next row opened. It took all day and all night of opening and closing the ditch from the neighbors fence line to the Pittman fence line to complete the irrigation. The Pittman Place land was Irrigated out of the same ditch that Willard's father, 'The Ditch Rider' had worked Fifty years earlier.
Willard Carroll Pittman ~ Pittman Place ~ Grandfalls, Texas 1982
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I love the grand entrance, rather South Fork-ish. It shows so much pride in working the land. And that irrigation system sounds a lot like HARD HARD work.
ReplyDeleteI love pics from a time gone by. I scrolled down a bit and enjoyed them very much. Thanks for sharing!
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