Aaron Pitman was born April 22, 1817 on a farm near Princeton, NJ, the third of eleven children of Jeremiah and Mary Rodman Pitman. Initially trained as a cabinet maker, he subsequently took up dentistry. Dr. Pitman married Anna Maria Wilson (1818-1912) in Newark, NJ on December 23, 1839 and the couple moved to Middletown Point in 1840.
Dr. Pitman may have been the first professional dentist in Matawan – I can find no evidence of an earlier one. Dentists in Freehold advertised in local papers prior to 1840. The earliest ad for a Middletown Point dentist that I could locate was for Pitman, which appeared in the Monmouth Democrat on February 16, 1843. He offered false teeth, dental surgery and treatment of gum disease, and was recommended by local physicians Edward Taylor, Alfred Dayton and John Conover. Pitman practiced in Middletown Point and Freehold.
His obituary indicated his first residence was a home occupied by Edward I. Brown, which was built on a site where the “Round House” once stood (Brown lived on Main Street per the 1900 census – the “Round House” has yet to be identified.) He subsequently moved to the W.E. Arrowsmith home which adjoined the residence of Dr. Knecht (208 Main) and in 1854 purchased what is now the Burrowes Mansion and resided there until his death in 1894. Dr. Pitman is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery. Wife Anna subsequently moved to Elizabeth, NJ, and died in Staten Island in 1912. She is buried with her husband at Rose Hill.
The Pitmans had five children:
1) William Wilson Pitman (1844-1878) – a dental surgeon like his father, he took over his father’s Freehold practice and subsequently moved to that town around 1868. He died of pneumonia at the age of 34, leaving a wife and three daughters. In 1920, his unmarried daughters Bertha (52) and Grace (50) also succumbed of pneumonia. Wife Emma died in 1922, and his unmarried oldest daughter Etta passed away in 1938.
2) Charles B. Pitman (1847-1912) – also practiced as a dentist with his brother William. He died in 1912 of Bright’s Disease (kidney failure), leaving a wife and daughter.
3) Harriet Stricker Pitman (1853-1942) married Garret Smock Jones (1851-1932) late in life in 1911. Jones was a cashier at the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Matawan. They had no children.
4) Emma Janet Pitman (1857-1930) married Claude Towne Benjamin (1865-1935), a teacher, in 1890. They resided in Staten Island and had two children.
5) Rodman Kramer Pitman (1859-1924) married Carrie Irene Hyatt (1866-1944) in New York City. Rodman was a stockbroker by trade, and the couple had two sons.
Descendant Chart can be viewed here: Descendants of Aaron Pitman
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