Thanksgiving in Pittsburg, TX (November 2023)
A week before Thanksgiving we drove to Tammie’s mom’s house just outside of Pittsburg, TX. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Tammie’s mom, two cousins, and her aunt.
Thanksgiving 2023: Pittsburg, TX
Pittsburg, TX is an interesting place. The population is 4,515 as of 2023. The former founder and owner of Pilgrim’s Pride chicken, Bo Pilgrim, was born, raised, lived, and died in Pittsburg. Bo Pilgrim donated and built the Witness Park and Prayer Tower in downtown Pittsburg. It is a 75-foot tall structure made of Indiana limestone with a Vermont slate roof. It includes a chapel and four Paccard bells from France that chime every hour. The park also includes a life-size bronze statue of Jesus washing the feet of Peter, and a long narrow pond with a fountain. Tammie’s parents attended the same church as Bo Pilgrim in Pittsburg, First Baptist Church.
Tammie’s grandfather, P. W. Thorsell, was the owner of a foundry in Pittsburg. He built a large house near the middle of the town. He was also involved in the making of the Ezekial Airship. The Ezekial Airship was an attempt at building a flying machine several years before the Wright Brothers first successful flight. Depending on who you ask, it was either a momentary success or an utter failure. A replica of the Ezekial Airship is on display at the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Depot and Museum in Pittsburg, TX.
Pittsburg is also famous for Hot Links. Tammie is related to the Warrick family, owners of the Pittsburg Hot Links Restaurant. For the uninitiated, hot links are a type of sausage. They are served at the restaurant on butcher paper with saltine crackers and you add hot sauce to your liking. It is a law that everyone related to my wife must stop in and eat at this restaurant every trip. I’ve tried to eat hot links but don’t care for them. Eventually, I may be tossed out of the family for admitting that fact. Pittsburg, TX is officially known as the Hot Link Capital of Texas.
While visiting Tammie’s mom we took a tour of the scenic Pittsburg downtown. Downtown includes a train depot, museum, and lots of stores in restored buildings.
One final note about Pittsburg, TX and Tammie’s dad, Paul Thorsell. Tammie’s dad was born in 1935 in the house his father, P. W. Thorsell, built on Rusk Street in 1910. After Tammie’s grandmother, Lucy Warrick Darby Thorsell, passed away the house was sold and later became the Erman Smith Funeral Home. When Tammie’s dad died in 2011, he was lain in state in the same house just a few feet away from where he was born 76 years prior.
P. W. Thorsell House: Pittsburg, TX