Ditto Family

Details

  • Marker: Ditto Family
  • Location: Marker is located at Founders Plaza – 102 W. Abram Street – in Arlington.
  • Date Visited: 04-18-21
  • Notes: Founders Plaza pays tribute to Andrew Hayter (the Father of Arlington) and six of Arlington’s founding families.

Ditto Family

Marker text:

Michael Ditto was one of the earliest settlers and the first of the Ditto family to arrive from Madison County, Alabama. He located in the northeast part of present-day Arlington, even before the railroad arrived or the town site was laid out.

At age eighteen, Webster Ditto, Michael’s grandson (1850-1931), soon followed. After his arrival, Webster urged his father, James Ditto, Sr., (1823-1901), to join him. Webster eventually owned and farmed thirty acres, located between present-day Fielder Road and Davis Drive. Later, he would do much of the post office work in the new town of Arlington.

James Ditto followed his father and son to Arlington in 1873 as a widower, bringing children, Sarah “Sallie” and John with him. Married daughter Cordelia “Delia” and husband J.P. Rose joined them. James’s wife Elizabeth died prior to their leaving Alabama. James and Webster opened a general store in what is now the northeast part of present-day Arlington, in Rev. Hayter’s settlement. When the town site of Arlington was platted, James Ditto, or Uncle Jimmy, as he was known, decided to move his business to the new town. He built his new store, the first in Arlington, in the middle of the block on the west side of Center Street, half a block south of Main Street.

James became Arlington’s first Postmaster in 1877, with the post office located in his store. He is one of the persons given credit for naming the town of Arlington. He and his family were members of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1895, James Ditto gave land for the founding of Arlington College, forerunner of the University of Texas at Arlington, to help bring a better source of education to the town’s children. The College served students from grades one through ten.

Inscription by James Ditto, great-grandson of James Ditto, Sr. 2008.