John R. Little
For sixty years the Little family have lived and borne worthy parts in the activities of Grant County. The present active generation of the name have been farmers, chiefly, but its members have also done well in business and industry. The part chosen by John R. Little has been education. He was educated in the normal department of Fairmount Academy, and for thirteen years did a most successful work as a teacher in Fairmount Township. In November, 1908, the people of the township recognizing his superior qualifications, elected him Township Trustee, and he has been kept in office ever since. The schools of the Township were never better administered. He is a forceful, public spirited citizen, and one of the most popular men in the county.
John R. Little was born in Fairmount Township, July 31, 1871. His family record is an interesting and honorable one. His great-grandfather, John Little, Sr., was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, of North Carolina parentage. Owing to certain misfortunes he got in debt, and according to the laws then prevailing in that State he was subject to arrest and imprisonment. Refusing to accept the burdensome and unjust conditions, he left the state and was never heard of again. His widow, shoe maiden name was Mary Nicholson, was thus left with four sons, David, Nathan, Zimri, and John Jr. These children were bound out according to the methods then in vogue. David was brought to Indiana in a very early day by Aaron Hill, and lived and died in Wayne County, where he secured land, improved it, and made a comfortable little fortune. He was three times married and reared a large family. He was eighty years of age at the time of his death. The son, Zimri, died in North Carolina, where he reared a family. Nathan and John, the latter the grandfather of Mr. John R. Little, in 1852 brought their families to Indiana, locating in Randolph County, where they started life anew. Nathan was trained at the trade of tanner, and followed that business in Randolph County for a number of years. In 1853 both Nathan and John moved to Fairmount in Grant County, and here Nathan continued tanning for many years. His death occurred when he was an old man in Grant County. He was first married in North Carolina to Nancy, a daughter of Asa Rush. She died in Fairmount, laving a family of children. His second marriage was to Mrs. Rachael Foust, whose maiden name was Modlin. Rachael Modlin had married for her first husband John Little, Jr., a brother of Nathan and grandfather of the present Fairmount Township Trustee. John Little, Jr. died in 1853, and she later married James Foust, who also died. Then she became the wife of Nathan Little and introduced several peculiar relationships in the family records. By her marriage to James Foust there was one child. Nathan Little had no children by her. She died several years before her last husband.
John Little, Jr., who has already been mentioned, was born in North Carolina about 1810. After his father was forced to leave the state on account of debt, the boy was bound out to a farmer named Zachariah Nixon, and when he was twenty-one years of age he was free to pursue his own devices. His mother died about that time, and he established a home of his own by marriage to Rachael Modlin, whose history has already been alluded to. To the marriage of John and Rachael were born five children in North Carolina. These children were: Alexandria, Thomas, Sarah J., Noel, and Mary Emily. All then came north to Randolph County, Indiana, in 1852, and in the following year located in Grant County, their home being near Fairmount City, where the father died November 17, 1853, when in the prime of life. The widow, as already stated, then married James Foust, and had one child, David Foust, who died young. Of the five children of John Little, Jr., the only survivor is Alexander, who was born in 1839, and was about fourteen years old when his people came to Grant County. He enlisted in Company H of the Twelfth Indiana Volunteers in 1861 and after the expiration of eight months of service reenlisted for the period of three years or during the war. His second enlistment was in Company B of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He saw a long and arduous career as a soldier, and was discharged at Austin, Texas, in February, 1866. He was in many campaigns and engagements, but went through all escaping wounds or capture. He now lives retired at Fairmount, one of the honored old veterans of the war, and a kindly and esteemed citizen of the county. He is a Progressive in politics and has membership in the Beeson Post No. 386, G. A. R. Alexander Little was united in marriage with Mary T. Johnson of Fairmount, and of their six children four are living, all of whom are married and have children of their own. The second child of John Little, Jr., was Thomas, father of John R. Little, concerning whom more is said in a following paragraph. Jane, the third in order of birth, married Jesse W. Crisco, both now deceased, and of their three children one is living. Joel M. married Serepta McCormick, both now deceased, and they left a family of six children. Emily married Oliver McCormack, a farmer, and she is now deceased, while her husband married the second time, the second wife also being deceased, and he lives in Grant County.
Thomas Little, father of John R., was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, December 9, 1842, and came with his parents to Randolph County, Indiana in 1852. This journey was made with a one horse team, in company with a large party of people making the migration through the west. In 1853 the family moved to Grant County, where he grew to manhood, and at the age of twenty years, in 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil War as a member of the Eighty-Fourth Indiana Regiment. later, on account of sickness, he received an honorable discharge and was sent home to die, but instead got well and before the war was over enlisted in the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He remained with that command until the war was over. At Guntown, Mississippi, he received a wound from a bullet through the ankle, and suffered from the effects of that injury all his life. He died at his home in Fairmount, July 29, 1905. He always stood high in the community, was a man of industry and excellent business judgment and had friends wherever he had acquaintances. He belonged to Beeson Post No. 386, G. A. R., was affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Jonesboro, was a Republican in politics, and belonged to the Friends Church.
Thomas Little was united in marriage in Fairmount Township to Susanna Foust, who was born in Randolph County, Indiana, October 5, 1848. She came to Grant County when a girl with her parents and grew up and spent the rest of her days in this locality, her death occurring in August, 1909. Her father was James Foust, already mentioned in this family record and having married the widow of John Little, Jr. Mrs. Thomas Little was a member of the Quaker Church. She had the following children:
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Wintford, deceased.
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Florence, deceased.
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Luther, deceased.
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John R.
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Danville, who has a family.
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Marilla, who died young.
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Charles, who is a glass blower, has a family and resides at Montreal, Canada.
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Leonard, a farmer near Jonesboro, Indiana, married and has a family.
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Frank, a glass blower living in Fairmount with his family.
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Annie
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Robert, who is married and lives in Pulaski County, Indiana where he owns a farm and is the father of one child.
Mr. John R. Little who inherited the substantial family characteristic of honest purpose and industrious habits was reared in Fairmount Academy in 1892. With education as his chosen calling, he qualified as a teacher, and did a successful part in instructing the young in his home township. Since his election to the office of trustee, he has given practically all his time to the administration of the township school system. In the township are several good school houses, built of brick, and most of them are constructed of a modern type. He has under him nine teachers, and through his office has the entire responsibility of hiring, placing and paying the teaching staff of the township. The annual fund provided for this purpose by taxation and from other sources in the township amounts to forty-five hundred dollars. In politics Mr. Little is a stanch Republican.
On May 2, 1900 in Fairmount, Mr. Little married Effie Davis, who died in 1906. She was born June 17, 1879. At her death she left a daughter, Mary, who was born August 20, 1901, and is now a student in the public schools. Mr. Little for his second wife was married on March 4, 1913, to Mrs. Ella Moon, whose maiden name was Lamb. She was born in Howard County, Indiana, in 1873, was reared and educated there and was a daughter of William and Artie Lamb. Her father died in 1913, while her mother still lives at Greentown, in Howard County. The Lamb family were Quakers in religion, and Mrs. Little was one of four children. By her marriage to Eslie Moon, now deceased, Mrs. Little had two children, Leo and Emerson, both now nearly grown. Mr. and Mrs. Little belong to the Friends Church are are popular members of the social community at Fairmount.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 882-883.