The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg.61


JOHN R. LITTLE, the superintendent of Fall River Mines, Fall River
Pocahontas Collieries Company at Roderfield, McDowell County, is
one of the efficient and popular executives in the coal mining
industry in this section of his native state, his birth having
occurred near Wyoming, Mercer County, West Virginia, September
24, 1880. He is a son of Hiram and Martha Ann (Hearn) Little,
the former of whom was born near Charleston, this state, and the
latter near Oakvale, Mercer County. The father died in 1906, at
the age of fifty-two years, and the mother now resides at Coaldale,
Mercer County, she being sixty-seven years of age at the time of
this writing, in the winter of 1921-2. As a young man Hiram Little
was a successful teacher in the schools of Mercer and Wyoming
counties, and thereafter he was a merchant at Basin and Crumple,
which latter place was then known as Burks Garden. In his
progressive business career he became agent for the Flat Top Land
Company, in which connection he obtained options and purchased many
tracts of timber and coal land in Wyoming, McDowell and Raleigh
counties, beside doing a large amount of surveying of lands now
owned by representative coal companies. As a boy of twelve years
Hiram Little became a member of the Methodist Church, in which
he became a local preacher and in the work of which he continued
active and zealous until the time of his death, his widow likewise
being a devoted member of this church. He was also a vital and
enthusiastic advocate of the principles of the republican party,
and was an effective campaign speaker. Of the seven children of
the family two died in infancy; Thomas Levi is superintendent of
a coal company at Herndon, Wyoming County; John R., of this sketch,
was the next in order of birth; Robert S. is a mine foreman at
Coaldale; Edgar B. is a farmer and dairyman at Roanoke, Virginia;
and Margaret is the wife of John Clendennin, of Roanoke, McDowell
County, West Virginia.

John R. Little attended school at Crumpler, McDowell County, and
the Billups School in Tazewell County, Virginia, where the family
home was maintained two years. When still a boy he began working
in the Shamokin mines at Maybeury, where he remained two years.
He was next employed in the Elkhorn mine, at the same place, and
later for two years he had charge of a general store at Maybeury.
He then became a foreman at the Elkhorn Mine, of which he was later
made superintendent, and in 1918 he assumed his present executive
post, that of superintendent of the Fall River Mine. Like his father,
Mr. Little has taken deep interest in educational work, and he served
as a member of the School Board of Brown Creek District: He has had
no desire for political activity, but is a loyal supporter of the
cause of the republican party.

In March, 1906, Mr. Little wedded Miss Cora Tabor, daughter of
A. J. Tabor, of Coaldale, and the children of this union are
five sons and five daughters.