Tackitt was born in Henry County, Kentucky to Virginia-born Lewis Tackitt and Mary Elizabeth Bashum and was one of seven children. The Missouri Methodist Conference assigned Pleasant as missionary to the Western Cherokees in Arkansas in 1829. He was a circuit rider for two years and then assigned to mission schools. He married August 20, 1830 in Pope County, Arkansas, Kezia Frances Bruton. He served one term in the Arkansas General Assembly before joining a Texas-bound caravan in the autumn of 1853.