Santford Little
Mr. and Mrs. Santford Little and Daughter
Not only through his enterprise as a successful farmer has Mr. Little contributed to the permanent prosperity of Grant County, but has exercised his inventive ability in the perfection of devices for the lightening of human labors on farms throughout many states, and as he is still young his activities in this direction may be considered only to have fairly begun, and his career will have many successful accomplishments to record during the subsequent years. Mr. Little on his mother's side is descended from the McCormick family, so prominent since pioneer days in this section of Indiana, and related to the McCormick family which produced the inventors and manufacturers of the early reapers and first successful harvesting machines. Perhaps from this side of the house Mr. Little has inherited his inventive turn of mind. His adjustable device for a spring seat is one of his improvements, and the upright stay for hay racks has been patented and has been sold over a wide territory, and is one of the best things on the market for hay wagons. Mr. Little has also perfected a unique machine for picking up hogs and turning them over in order to operate on them for vaccination and altering, and this invention finds much favor among veterinary surgeons. Another farm implement bearing the name of Mr. Little as patentee is his hog ringing machine, which operates with great rapidity and causes less pain than the old and slower process.
In his farm operations Mr. Little pursues the modern and scientific method of rotation of crops, and is what might be called a mixed farmer, using his land to raise crops and feeding all the products to the stock on the place, thus preserving and increasing the fertility of the soil. His place in Section Five of Jefferson Township comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land, and practically all of it is well improved and very little land goes to waste under the management of Mr. Little. The fruit orchards are one of the attractive features of the Little farm and his stock are of the very best grades.
Santford Little was born in Fairmount Township, in Grant County, July 18, 1877, a son of Joel and Sarepta (McCormick) Little. Both parents were born in Indiana, the father born in Randolph County and the mother in Grant County, and they are of the old pioneer stock in Grant County. More will be found concerning the ancestry and earlier generation of the family in this county on other pages of this history. Joel Little after his marriage lived on a farm in Fairmount Township, where his wife died in 1887 at the age of thirty-four, and he passed away in August, 1897, being then fifty years of age. The Little family are Quakers in religion. Santford Little grew up in his native township, was educated only in the common schools, and since youth has applied himself top farming. Practically all his inventions have grown out of his close observation of the needs of practical devices about a farm, and he is deserving of great credit for his ability in perfecting machines and improvements which supply a want perhaps long appreciated by other farmers, none of whom have had the practical ability to fill the vacancy.
Mr. Little was united in marriage in Madison County, Indiana, to Mary G. Thurston, who was born and educated in that county, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Welsh) Thurston. Her parents were prominent and successful farmers and owned five hundred acres of well improved land in Madison County. Both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Little are the parents of two children; Lawrence W., born September 22, 1901, died February 15, 1904; Hazel M., born March 23, 1903, is a student at the Matthews Public Schools. Mr. Little and wife attend the Baptist Church and in politics, he cast his vote for the Republican party.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 888-89.