BIOGRAPHIES:  James LITTLE, Pepin, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

James Little (deceased) was born near Gretna Green, Scotland, June 30,
1826, and was a son of Peter and Jane (Harkness) Little.  When
seventeen years of age he went to England and there clerked in a dry
goods store.  In 1845 he came to Galena, Ill., and worked in the lead
mines.  At the breaking out of the Mexican war he enlisted, and served
eighteen months.  In 1848 he came to Pepin and bought a farm now owned
by Cyrus Allen.  July 4, 1850, he married Miss Mary L. Newcomb, who
bore him seven children, as follows:  Samuel N., born September 4,
1851; Peter L., April 26, 1853; Jane E., April 13, 1855, died September
27, 1874; Mary M., born May 1, 1857, died April 20, 1864; Hannah E.,
Mrs. M. C. Milliren, Verdi, Minn., born November 18, 1859; Sarah A.,
Mrs. G. D. Smith, Gettysburg, S. Dak., born March 3, 1862; Jamesetta,
Mrs. R. G. Shepperd, La Crosse, Wis., born October 4, 1864.  In 1852 he
received a warrant to 160 acres of land on section eighteen, township
twenty-three, range fourteen (where his widow now resides) as a veteran
of the Mexican war.  Mr. Little spent much of his time on the river, as
lumberman and pilot, until April 30, 1864, when he enlisted in Company
F, Thirty-seventh Wisconsin volunteer infantry, and his regiment was
one of the first to go in battle after the explosion.  He was killed at
the mine explosion in front of Petersburg, July 30, 1864.  Mr. Little
is described by those who knew him, as a tall, muscular, energetic man,
having the nerve and the determination for almost any undertaking; one
of those men especially fitted by nature for pioneer life.

The settlement was often visited by roving bands of Sioux Indians, who
annoyed the settlers by begging and stealing, and playing various
tricks, although not openly hostile to the whites.  ON several
occasions Little inflicted severe chastisement on individual Indians
who stood much in awe of him ever after.  On one occasion an Indian
shot and slightly wounded his brother, Peter Little.  On learning this,
Mr. Little with two companions, crossed over to the Indian camp near
Wabasha, Minn., found the culprit and brought him to Pepin, where,
after a consultation among the settlers, he was condemned to receive
fifty lashes.  Mr. Little himself executed the sentence, after which
the Indian was released and ordered never again to appear east of the
Mississippi river.  A number of the band were present, but did not
offer to interfere.  They never forgot the lesson.  In politics Mr.
Little was a republican.  In 1857 he united with the Methodist church,
of which he was a member at the time of his death.  He also belonged to
the Mississippi river Pilots' association.

-Transcribed from the "Historical & Biographical Album of the Chippewa
Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," pages 667-668.


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