- WALTER LITTLE, one of the prominent, representative farmers
of Janesville township, Rock
- County, residing in section 19, was born in Roxburghshire,
Scotland, Aug. 12, 1839, a son of John and Elizabeth H. (BLYTHE)
LITTLE, also natives of Scotland. His paternal grandfather died
in Scotland. The father of our subject was an only son. The maternal
grandfather, Thomas BLYTHE, who also died in Scotland, when about
eighty-six, was by occupation a farmer. He had two children,
one son and one daughter.
- John LITTLE, father of Walter LITTLE, was a contractor, and
also operated a limekiln in
- Scotland. Coming to America in 1853, and locating in Janesville,
Wis., he died there in 1865, aged seventy-six. John LITTLE was
married twice, and his first wife, mother of our subject, died
in Scotland in 1841; both were stanch Presbyterians. Nine children
were born to them, eight sons and one daughter, five now living:
Thomas, John, James and Walter, all of Janesville township; and
Andrew, of Blue Earth, Minnesota.
- Coming to America with his father when fourteen years of
age, Walter LITTLE worked upon the
- home farm until old enough to start out in life for himself.
In order to gain necessary funds to carry out his plans, he hired
himself to his father for two years; then bought a yoke of oxen
and broke ground. In time he came to have six yoke of oxen, and
also ran a threshing machine for a number of years. "All
things come to him who waits," as the saying goes, and,
after some years of patient, persistent endeavor, Walter LITTLE
had sufficient money to purchase, in 1864, a find farm of 260
acres in Janesville township, in section 19, where he has since
resided, and which he has greatly improved.
- On Dec. 31, 1864, Walter LITTLE was married to Miss Lizzie
SPENCE, daughter of
- Bartholomew Walker and Elizabeth (DIXON) SPENCE, and five
children have been born of this union: Joseph W., George Dixon,
Harvey Henry, Ellen Elizabeth and Walter Blythe, all of whom
are still unmarried and residing at home.
- Mr. LITTLE's life is a good example of what can be accomplished
by hard work and careful
- management, and his success is something to be justly proud
of, as it has been won by his own efforts, and in the face of
business adversities which would have overwhelmed many a man.
In the early part of his business career he had a partner in
the buying, selling and shipping of stock, to the Eastern markets,
and when they ceased to do business together, unfortunately for
Mr. LITTLE, no settlement was made. Taking advantage of this,
the former partner took the matter to the courts, and, after
many years of litigation, Mr. LITTLE was left, as he says, "With
$25,000 less than nothing." However, his credit was good,
and he was trusted for a few Short Horn cattle and Clydesdale
horses, which enabled him to begin again, with what success his
present position amply testifies. He makes a specialty of breeding
blooded stock, of the best strains only, among which are Short
Horn cattle, Clydesdale horses, and blooded hogs of several varieties.
Although he had but little time to devote to educational purposes
after coming to this country, he had been thoroughly grounded
in the common branches in Scotland, and his own native intelligence
supplied the rest. Politically Mr. LITTLE is independent in his
ideas, with a leaning toward the Democratic party, and has served
most acceptably as town supervisor, township assessor, and chairman
of the school board. Mr. and Mrs. LITTLE have a very pleasant
home, on their highly cultivated farm, and are highly esteemed
by a wide circle of friends.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 556-557.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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