Mittie Bell Ross Houston

 Mittie Bell Ross Houston was born on Sept. 24, 1887, to Bob and Alice Ross and sent to live with Maggie, Sallie, and Dennis Ross, who had brought up bob in their home beginning in 1875. She attended Livingstone College for a while, then married Thomas Houston. They lived in a large house built in 1908 near the present Marvin A.M.E. Zion Church. 

 Tom and Mittie had six children – Florence Tucker Houston, Robert “Uncle Hop” Houston, D.C. Houston, Charlie Houston, Collins Houston, and Erwin Houston. Bob and Mittie inherited the homeplace of the Ross sisters’ grandfather, Jonathan Burleyson, under the will of Maggie Ross, upheld by two all-white juries in the 1920s. 

Mittie divided her land among her children in 1952 and continued to live in the house. When she died on Sept. 4, 1976, she had six children, 37 grandchildren, 98 great-grandchildren, and 32 great-great-grandchildren. Mittie and Tom are buried in the old Marvin AME Zion Church on Newton Road.