Lieutenant Joseph K. Pittman, born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1840, served in the Third Maryland Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. After the war, he moved to Illinois in 1865, then to Kansas in 1878, and finally settled in Gage County, Nebraska, in 1888. Married to Mary F. Bower in 1868, the couple had twelve children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. A dedicated farmer and respected community member, Pittman was active in the G.A.R. and the Masonic order, and he and his wife were members of the Baptist church.
Lieutenant Joseph K. Pittman, of Nemaha Township, Gage County, Nebraska, is a resident here of fifteen years’ standing. His life of over sixty years has been passed in various localities, all of which have been honored by his substantial citizenship, and worthy performance of every duty devolving upon him. When in the flush of young manhood he gave his services to the nation to preserve union and personal liberty, and the meritorious and gallant part which he took on the field of battle is attested by the title which he won. Since that time he has gained success equally great in civil life, has devoted himself without reserve to individual work and the discharge of those responsibilities which come up between man and man, and for all this deserves the honor and esteem which are shown him and his excellent family.
Lieutenant Pittman was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1840, and comes of a family well known in that state, some of whose members took part in the early wars of the colonies and republic. His great-grandfather Benjamin, his grandfather Joseph, and his father, Ezra, were all born in Pennsylvania. Ezra Pittman was a native of Bedford County, followed farming there all his life, was a Democrat of the Jacksonian type, and a church member and honored citizen. His wife was Elizabeth Knable, a native of Bedford County and a daughter of John Knable, of an old Pennsylvania Dutch family. She is also deceased.
Joseph K. Pittman was reared on the home farm in Pennsylvania, and during limited seasons attended school, but the greater part of the practical training which has helped him through life was acquired by experience which began when he was a boy. He was twenty-one years old when the Civil War came on, and on November 19, 1861, he enlisted, at Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania, in Company B, and was taken into the Third Maryland Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Cardiff and Colonel Downey, and gave three years and three months of faithful service. He participated in the battle at Harper’s Ferry and in many of the engagements in Virginia, and assisted in repelling General Mosby’s raiders from the northern states. He was in West Virginia for some time, and his regiment was ordered to Gettysburg, but arrived there too late to take part in the crucial conflict of the war. Mr. Pittman entered the service as a private, was made corporal, orderly sergeant, and then promoted to first lieutenant, with which rank he was honorably discharged, with the commendation of his superiors and the personal regard of the men of his company. In 1865, after he had returned from the war, he came west to Knox County, Illinois, and was engaged in farming near Galesburg for thirteen years. In 1878 he moved to Lincoln County, Kansas, and in that new country took up a homestead, on which he lived until 1888, when he came to Gage County, and since then has been successfully engaged in farming and stock-raising.
In 1868 Mr. Pittman was married in Knox County, Illinois, to Miss Mary F. Bower, and they have enjoyed a most happy union of over thirty-five years, gladdened with life’s pleasures and made sweeter and closer by its sorrows. She is a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Jacob and Susan (Bryan) Bower, both of whom are deceased, the latter at the age of seventy-eight. Twelve children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Pittman. One son died in childhood, and the others are: Jasper D., Joseph, Ulysses G., Ezra, William, Edwin, Roy, Robert, Susan, Jessie, and Mary. Mr. Pittman is a staunch Republican, and enjoys old army comradeship with the Sergeant Cox Post No. 100, G. A. R., at Adams. He is also a Mason, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. He is a well-informed man, genial and frank with his associates, and his home is a place of hospitality and good cheer for all who enter its doors.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.