George Little I. Biographic Sketch from History of Davies
Co., Ky.-1883- pages 129-130-121-132.
Short and simple are the annal's of the pioneer. To the
unsteady hand of tradition we owe most of that
which yet remains of all that was said and done, achieved and suffered byu
those who came to Kentucky
as the red man departed. Their very names are being blotted out from the
memories and records
of men. Deserving a better fate than this the name of George Little is
here se down. He was born in
Scotland about the year 1733. The particuler locality of his birth is now
a matter of conjecture. The patronymic has long been known in different parts
of that country. The station in life of this particular stock in the old country as well as its history,
are both unknown. As tradition eagerly transmits the faintest suspicion of exalted rank, as it has
done so in this case, the presumption is against
it's existence. All hopes of ancestral conectuion with those twin roots of
britist nobility--- the Danish
buccaneers and Normen plunderers-- are thus forever blighted. For this
deprivation Scotia's own bard
has furnished the consoling couplet--
Rank is but the guinea's
stamp:
A man's a man for
a'that.
This unpedigreed lot is indeed to be preferred, even if it
were possible to trace a lineage to that ancient
and noble house. Enterdating all modern nobility-- founded by the worthy
baron alluded to in Charles
Dicken's History of Martin Chuzzlewit, as the Lord Nozoo. In early manhood
he emigrated from the
old to the new world. His first known residence in America was at Newbery,
in the colony of South
Carolina. His pursuit were agricultural and he was so engaged at the
rapture between the colonies
and the mother country. What his previous sentiments, politically, had
been is unkown but he was
opposed to war that ensued.
Without fortune or political influence,. he asked no mor of
Goverment then liberty to pursue, unmolested, his private affairs. Possibly his attachment to
the mother country, or kindred left behind, influenced his opinions. A did senter from the established
church, he early joined the Wesleyan movement, which before the Revolution had a considerable
membership this side of the Atlantic. His religious faith--embracing the doctrins ofsubmission to the
powers that be--may havae colored his political views. However this may be, when war came and the
colonial Goverment required his services, he enlisted in the American Army, no record of the
nature and duration of his sevice survived. Nothing more is certianly known than that in an
engagement between the American Forces and a
detachment of the enemy under Tarleton's command he received a bulle wound
in the hip. As the
result of this he went to his grave a cripple. The ball was never
extracted.
Independence and peace finally came and
great rejoicing at the result. But the sturdy Scot still persisted that rebillion was a mistake and died nearly forty
years after with his opinion unchanged. He
remained in South Carolina until the end of the century. He had married
before the Revolution and his
children were born before or during that war.
Sometime after the war how long can not be stated--his wife
died. His children, five daughters and five sons, reached womanhood and manhod, married and sought
homes of their own. His own home was thus broken up.
Age and infirmity approached, avant courier of the beginning
of the end. On the terminationof the Revolutionary war, the exploits of Daniel Boone in the
forest beyond the mountains were borne by rumor
from his old home on the Yadkin to the four winds. Alluring account were
afloat of the new country
beautiful and fertile! Watered by a river that rivaled the charms of its
shores by its own grace and
majesty. To the young and adventerous this propect was irresistable! to
all it was inviting. Jonas and John
Little, two of his sons, decided to try their fortune in this new utopia,
with their families they turned
their backs on civilization and their old home in S.C. and started on
their journey.
Their father accompanied them. Their first halting place was
in Barron Co., KY. Here they settled in 1800 or
1802. John Little, becoming dissatisfied, removed Tenn., where he resided
until old age. He went
thence to Texax and shortly after, died. George Little and his son Jonas,
remained in Barren Co for two years. They then removed to and settled a few
miles north of the Long Falls of Green River in what was
then Ohio Co. The town of Vienna (now Calhoun) at tha point on the river
had maintained its fortune from it establishment in 1784. It succeeded a
fort of block house erected there some years before.
George Little engaged in farming such as
supplied the wants of that primitive day. He had never acquired
any considerable means, and was dependent on his own exertions when the
time for toll had
about passed for him. The Ohio County Court exempted him from poll tax. On
account of bodily infirmily! But not probably intended in part a patriotic
recongition of his sufferings for his chosen country.
These last years were comparatively unaventful in local affairs in this
region. Society was primitive, business limited, and mostly in the farming
way.
The muster day and the religious meetings
were about the only occasions when people assembled together. The pioneer necessarily lived
along------exempt from public haunts:
Finding tongues in trees, books in running brooks, Sermons
in stones, and good in everything.
The warwhoop of the Indian had scarcely
ceased to echo around the settlers' cabin. Indeed, the Ohio
River bounded the Indian country on the south, which reached the Great
Lakes on the North and stretched from the Muskegan to the boundless west.
Bear hunting was still good, deer abundant, and the
wolf and panther still lingered.
Many years after the death of his first
wife Mary? he intermarried with Mary (Handley) Douglas, widow of
Alexander Douglas. She was a native of Scotland
(she heired an estate there) whence she came in childhood.
In early life she married Douglas of Pa. They had
several daughters, one of them (Betty) married Jonas Little.
In 1784 or '5 Douglas came to KY., with
his brother-in-law, Capt. John Handley, a surveyor, to examine
the country, survey and locate lands with a view of ultimate settlement.
They separated to go to
their respective homes.
Douglas never returned and was presumably murdered by
Indians. His death is still a mystery. George
Little died in 1815. In 1824, his widow married Edward Atterbury of
Daviess Co., She survived her third husband several years. Outliving most of her
generation. From youth to old age she was noted
for her beauty, the grace of her manners, and rare charm of her colloquial
powers. Mary Handley
Douglas Little Atterbury was buried beside her secon husband in Anthony
Thompson's graveyard. He was her sister, Rachel's husband and the first
Justice of the Peace in all this region.
On this 1st. of Feb. 1815, (Daviess
County was established that year.) George Little made his
will. He left the bulk of his small estate to his wife.
Shortly after-- having reached fourscore--he departed this
life. Or in the quaint words of his will, he gave his soul into the hands
of Almighty God that first gave it
and resighned his body to earth "believing that at the general
resurrection" he would receive it again.
His mortal remains were interred in the Anthony Thompson graveyard where
his dust awaits the
final summons.
In personal appearance he was stoutly
built, rather under than over middle height, with dark hair and eyes
and marked features. He expressed himself freely in conversation, his
broad Scotch dialect was readily understood. He was a pious man, being
established in his religious opioions beyond all shadow
of turning. He had a clear mind and an acute observation. Perhaps he was
obstinate, equally in the
right or wrong.
To express a kindley feeling for Great Britain after the
Revolution and during the collisions that culminated in the War of 1812, was not only unpopular, but
was defying a General and heated public sentiment. But to the last the old gentleman soldier
maintained that under the fastering care of the British
Government the American people would have best secured their prosperity
and happiness. In the
light of all that had followed, who knows ???
This is our George Little's will and the date it was
re recorded is 1867 after they found it in another book
that was damaged.
Book A-B Page7 Attest Geo Handly Clerck D. C. C. State of
Kentucky } Daviess County Court} June Term
1867
The book in which the within will now recorded having been
destroyed. It is now ordered that the same
berecorded.
Witness my hand this 10 June 1867 Thos _ J__
In the name of God Amen
I George Little of the County of Ohio and commonwealth of
Kentucky being at thistime under sore? affliction of body by the hand of Almighty God but of
perfect mind and memory and callingunto mind the
mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men ouse? to
die I do makeconstitute and ordain this to be my last will and testament
Ratifying and confirming the same and revoking allother
wills Legacy's or Bequerl by me made in bequeathed in manner and form
following viz 1st I give my
soulinto the hand of the Almighty God that first gave it to me & my
body I resign to the earth to be
buried in asdecent a manner as my Executor may see proper believing at the
given at resurrection I shall receive the sameagain and as touching
such worldly goods or estate as it hath pleased
God to bless me with in this life I willdivided and bequeath of in the
following manner.
Item first, It is my will that my dearly beloved wife Mary
shallbe my sole Executor of this my last will and
testament and heir all my estate that I may die possessed of to herown
proper use and benefit with the
following proviso that she pay to each of my heirs whom is hereafternamed
out of my estate One
dollar in one year after my decease if they shall call for the said x
(viz) to AbnerSray? who is intermarried with my daughter Mary, to Richard Harris who is
married to my daughter Sarah, toJohn Phillips
who is married to my daughter Susanna, to John Hunt?? in his legal
representatives in heirs whomarried my daughter Jane deceased, to Henry Cockburn who
married my daughter Nancy, to Joseph
Littlemy son, to John Little my son, to Jonas Little my son and testimony
of the same I have hereunto
set my handand seal this 1st day of February 1815.
George x
Little
Signed and acknowledged in presence of us Nathan
Thorman? Daviess County Court September Term
1815
The within instrument of writing perperling the last will
and testament of Geo Little deceased was established inCourt and Anthony Thompson & I said we
each subscribing witnesses to said will came
into court and madeoath that the said George Little Deceased signed sealed
and pronounced the said
writing as and for his last willand testament and that the said Geo Little
was in his senses? and
memory and that they subscribed their namesas witnesses thereto in his
presence and there upon the
said is ordered to be recorded Attest William R. Griffith C D. C.
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