In the late eighteenth century, John Titus moved to Dutchess County from Long Island, New York. By 1780, he established his family’s first woolen mill in Washington Hollow in the Town of Pleasant Valley. Titus also bought 1,600 acres of land in Southeast Ohio, where several of his sons, Stephen and Nicholas, would later move to operate farms. Sheep were raised for their wool in Ohio which was then sent back to Dutchess County and the Titus Woolen Mill. In 1828, Elias Titus (another son of John Titus) partnered with his brother-in-law Silas Sweet to purchase a grist mill and open land that would turn into the grounds for this new woolen mill. This mill was established along the Wappinger Creek, and the hamlet of “Titusville” as we know it was then named in Elias Titus’ honor.

At the peak of Titus Woolen Mill’s production, there were over one hundred employees. Broadcloth was the primary material in production. In the Civil War Era, the Titusville mill would manufacture material for blankets and other products for the Union Army. By the 1880s, the Titus Woolen Mill became associated with the Gifford, Sherman, and Innis Company of Poughkeepsie. However, the Titus Woolen Mill was forced to cease operations in the 1890s after a lightning strike destroyed the mill.

Stephen Titus (1796-1871), son of John Titus, was born in Washington, Dutchess County, New York, but moved to Meigs County, Ohio in 1833, where his father held property. In 1836, Titus wed Margaretta Lois Nye, a native of Meigs County, Ohio. Titus would go on to represent the Ohio county he called home in the 1840-1841 legislature and was also president of the Meigs County Agricultural Society for a time. Stephen Titus passed at the age of seventy-five at his home in Rutland, Ohio on September 13th, 1871, while Margaretta died on October 31st, 1907, at the age of ninety-two. Together, Stephen and Margaretta Titus had four children, Samuel, Phebe, Margaret, and George. George Titus became a prominent farmer, while Samuel fought in the Civil War and lost an arm. Phebe Titus went on to marry New York politician Stephen Taber.

Elizabeth Titus Sweet was the daughter of John Titus and sister of Ohio farmer Stephen Titus, making her sister-in-law Margaretta Nye Titus. Elizabeth Titus Sweet lived in a home with husband Silas Sweet on Titus Woolen Mill property near brother Elias Titus. In 1864, Elizabeth Titus Sweet wrote to her brother Stephen and sister-in-law Margaretta regarding Elizabeth’s assumed daughter Maggie’s case of smallpox.