Butte County
Biographies
DAVID W. LITTLE
DAVID W. LITTLE.—A sturdy pioneer of California who, having had everything swept away by fire, has once again, nothing daunted, set about retrieving his fortune, and who, enthusiastically and ably assisted by his excellent wife, has favored the cause of higher education, is David W. Little, who was born at Oxford, N. C. on February 4, 1848, the son of Daniel J. and Katherine (Bowman) Little, also both natives of North Carolina. At the age of twenty-one he came west as far as Cass County, Illinois, where he engaged in farming; and four years later he continued his migration westward until he reached the Pacific.
Without seeking any more favored spot, such was his unerring judgment, he bought first one hundred sixty acres, and then another one hundred sixty, northwest of Biggs, at a time when the country was so unsettled that wild geese and ducks swarmed about and everywhere destroyed the crops. Mr. Little, however, was always a good hunter, having once enjoyed a hunting and shooting trip with companions through half-primeval Kansas, and he lost no time in doing his share of exterminating. When he could advantageously do so, he disposed of his first holding and removed to his present site. He bought four hundred acres of superior land, sold all but eighty, bought back fifty-three acres, and with his usual energy made haste to improve it.
It was then, however, that one of those events in life occurred which shatter the nerves and often ruin less heroic souls than those of Mr. and Mrs. Little. On December 23, 1916, fire swept away his home and its furnishings, and even the outbuildings, and the family was compelled to improvise a shack and get along as best they were able.
In 1881 Mr. Little was married to Miss Mohera C. Brown, a native of Arkansas, and the daughter of Lorenzo K. and Sarah (Underwood) Brown, natives of Tennessee and Missouri, respectively. Her parents first came west to California in 1869, stopping for a while at Nord, and finally they settled at Gridley. The father died in 1915 at the age of eighty-three, and the mother still owns the Brown ranch and at the age of eighty-two is hale and hearty. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Little: George, single, who lives with his father; Ernest, who is in El Dorado County, and is in the sheep business; Winnie, wife of John Albers, who is a partner with Ernest; Verona, who married Harry Le Point, who clerks in John Alderson’s store at Biggs; Fay, a graduate of Stockton Normal, and a successful teacher; James B., a soldier in the United States Army; May, a graduate of the Chico Normal; and Percy, who attends the high school and works on his father’s ranch. It will thus be seen that in the matter of educational advantages, the children of Mr. and Mrs. Little have profited beyond the ordinary.
Mr. Little owns one hundred thirty-three acres of farm land and rents three hundred eighty-seven more; and in all his operations is successful, having begun to familiarize himself with California conditions in 1873, the first year he was here, when he worked in a sawmill in Humboldt County and on the old-time headers in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties. On arriving in West Biggs Precinct, he worked for A. W. Hunsacker for a while, driving wild geese and ducks off from the wheat-fields. Now he has one hundred acres planted to wheat and seventy-five to barley.
Mr. Little has always been a public-spirited man, and has a record of sixteen years on the school board.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1041-1042, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies