Pitts Home - McKinney
Located at 3701 James Pitts Road. This cabin has a Collin County Historical Marker.
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According to the late Collin County Historian, Capt. Roy F. Hall, the two-room log cabin that once belonged to Republic of Texas colonist Thomas Jefferson McDonald is contained (in whole or in part) in the cottage behind this marker underneath two layers of siding, McDonald immigrated with his wife, H. Y, from Missouri in early 1844 to become a part of the Peters’ Colony. Thus this cabin predates the creation of Collin County, McKinney, and the state of Texas.
In latter 1844, Indians (either Kiowas or Commanches) raided the log cabin while the McDonalds were visiting friends about six miles away on Honey Creek. Entering the cabin and wrecking the contents, the pillagers ripped open several feather mattresses and pillows, scattering feathers far and wide. They killed McDonald's pigs and chickens but left the cabin’s structure intact. This incident was one of the last Indian raids in what would be later named Collin County. In 1916, James M. Pitts purchased a tract of the T.J. McDonald survey. In 1933, James Pitts’ son, Ben Pitts, and his wife, Orene Craft Pitts, moved into the old log cabin which had been remodeled by that time. Ben later purchased this site, which adjoined his other land holdings. Over their marriage, Ben and Olene added modern conveniences and extra rooms to form a comfortable six-room cottage in which to raise their only child, Carolyn. Ben and Orene Pitts lived here all their married life until their respective deaths-Ben in 1967 and Orene in 1996. (2004) |
