Compiled by Deborah L. Cawley Seamons
William Henry
Little was born on October 4, 1840 in Richmond County, Georgia as the first son
of William McLaws Little and Dicey Rhodes Little. His family members called him by his middle
name, "Henry". He had two
older sisters, four younger sisters, two younger brothers, and a brother who
died at 3 months of age. In addition, he had 3 half siblings from his father’s
first marriage to Arvilla Haney. Arvilla
had died and William had remarried to Dicey Rhodes, eloping without her parents
knowledge, with Dicey climbing through a window. When William McLaws Little and Dicey first
married, they lived in a small home constructed of wood. One night a fire started from a candle set on
a windowsill. Their original home unfortunately burned down.
Henry’s father,
William McLaws Little, owned two dappled grey horses. The circus wanted to buy them but he refused
to sell, so they reached a compromise.
William would be paid to train his horses to perform in their
circus. Henry and his siblings
accompanied William and Dicey while they were on the road traveling with the
circus. In addition for caring for the
children, Dicey also sewed jackets for the performing monkeys to wear. The family made a lot of money doing this and
finally returned to Richmond County, Georgia where they had saved enough to buy
1500 acres of timbered ground near Augusta.
A big creek ran though the middle of the land, and they dammed it up to
furnish waterpower to operate a gristmill for grinding corn. Henry and his brothers learned to work
through clearing their timbered ground, and learning the trade of
carpentry. The Little daughters were
taught to be dressmakers. The family as
devout members of the Baptist Church, and the children were taught from the
Bible. Sons Henry, Adam, and John were
very musical and played together on their fiddles while their sisters would
dance to their music.
When Henry was
in his 20th year, he married Mary Elizabeth Inglett who was born February 6,
1842 in Richmond county, Georgia to Matthew Wilkes Inglett and Annis Baggett
Inglett. Mary was the seventh child of their ten known children. Henry and Mary had lived near one another and
knew each other as they grew up. Both
Henry and Mary were raised on land that is now part of the Fort Gordon Army
Base near Augusta, Georgia. Mary had
become pregnant at 17 years of age, by a man (who was possibly known only to
her) that she never married. Two months
after her daughter Monemia was born, Mary married William Henry Little. Their wedding took place on July 20, 1860. Henry raised Monemia as his own daughter,
never treating her any different from the other children. He and Mary made their first home on land
given to them by his father. In
addition to helping to farm his father's land, Henry practiced the trade of
carpentry that he had learned from his father, William.
Mary and Henry
had only a short, happy time together before war broke out between the North
and the South. On September 10, 1861,
Henry enlisted in the Confederate Army as a Private in Company C, 28th Infantry
Regiment. Also enlisting on the same day
in the same company were Mary's brother, Thomas Wilkes Glasscock Inglett, and
her cousin Andrew Edward Inglett. Two
more of Mary's cousins served in the same Company, enlisting the next
summer. Henry's position in the Army was
that of an ambulance driver. The
ambulances were usually attached to the rear guard, and could accommodate men
lying down or several men sitting. One can only imagine the devastating sight
of the wounded that Henry must have encountered during the War.
After the
surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, Henry returned home. During the War, his father had passed away
after catching a bad cold. This put a
physical and financial burden on the returning Henry to help care for his younger
brothers and sisters in addition to caring for a daughter, and a wife who was
now pregnant with a second child.
Because Henry and his brothers had been well trained in carpentry by
their father, the three of them were able to put their skill to work building
homes and businesses in the Augusta, Georgia area thus aiding in the reconstruction
of the South and enabling them to earn a living during those hard times after
the war.
Henry and Mary
had twelve more children born to them over the next few years. All of their children lived to adulthood with
the exception of John Bolar Little who died at about 18 months of age. It was unusual in their day for such a large
family to have so many children survive to adulthood. Henry and Mary had many happy years as they
raised their children, farming their land, with Henry also sometimes teaching
at the local schoolhouse.
In 1887, two
Mormon missionaries came to the little community of Pinetucky in Richmond
County, Georgia. The missionaries were
Albert Ricks Smith and David Bennion.
A Southern States Mission of the Church had previously been organized in
1875, but missionaries had been driven out through mob violence. In 1879, a Georgia mob had shot and killed
missionary Joseph Standing who was serving in Western Georgia. Unable to protect the missionaries, the
Church pulled all missionaries out of Georgia for the next nine years. When it was determined to be somewhat safe
again, missionaries crossed through Georgia.
Elder Bennion and Elder Smith came upon the small community of Bath – a
summer resort built by rich antebellum planters. The missionaries decided to go from there to
Hephzibah, but instead, decided to turn around and take the opposite
direction. While nearing the community
of Hood’s Chapel, they came across three men in the woods who were cutting
cross-ties for the railroad, one of whom was John Benjamin Cawley. (Son-in-law
of Henry Little) They were very
impressed with him. They told John that
he was of a special lineage of the House of Israel and that someday he would be
baptized and go to Utah. (This prophecy
was later fulfilled.) Upon making
inquiries in the area, Elder Smith and Elder Bennion were given the suggestion
that they visit William Henry Little, as one who would allow them a night’s
stay in his home.
By the time they arrived at Henry Little’s house late in the
evening on December 13, 1887, their second day in the area, the weather had
become stormy. After knocking at the
Little family door, and then meeting Henry, Elder Bennion described him as a “rather
well-to-do and influential citizen”.
Elder Bennion recorded that, “Though Mr. Little was a Hardshell Baptist
and caring nothing about the religion of other sects, he said, ‘On a night like
this, I would not turn a dog from my door.
I will not guarantee though, that you will get any supper, for my folks
are tired as we have been killing frog all day.’ “Elder Bennion told Henry they
would be alright without supper. But
within half an hour, the women of the family called them out to the cook-house
and gave them a very nice meal. They spent
the evening in conversation – touching a little on religion, but mostly events
in the country. After dinner, the
missionaries were offered a good bed to sleep in, and since they had been
walking all day, they very much appreciated the offer. The next morning they awoke to a very heavy
rainstorm, so they stayed inside tarrying at the Little home. Of the events of that morning, Elder
Bennion records, “One circumstance I must relate will show the character of the
man and the discipline in this home…..The following morning after our arrival,
when we came to the breakfast table, there were twelve cups of coffee sitting
around on the table, besides one for each of us. When it was observed that we did not drink ours,
we were asked the reason, which gave us a chance to read to them the 89th
Section of the Doctrine and Covenants and to explain the belief of our people
regarding the Word of Wisdom. Nothing
further was said about the matter, but when we came to the table the next
morning, we observed, though no one called attention to it, that there stood a
cup of clear water at each plate, and as far as we knew, the coffee was not
taken up afterwards. A jug of liquor
always found in the home was discarded and tobacco was banished.”
Later that day, Elders Bennion and Smith paid a visit to
Henry’s uncle, William “Billy” Rhodes.
Billy was an old gentleman who was of the Campbellite religion. He was very struck by the Articles of Faith
presented to him by the missionaries.
(Willliam Francis Rhodes would later be baptized along with his wife,
and their two youngest sons and would immigrate to Utah.)
That evening, Henry arranged for a meeting in the
schoolhouse where he taught school, during which time Elder Bennion and Elder
Smith distributed tracts throughout the area notifying the community of the
meeting. However, that night it was dark
and rainy and there were very few people who came to the meeting, so they made
a short presentation. At the conclusion
of their words, all who were there voted to hold another meeting on the next
evening. Arminta Little, daughter of
Henry, sent a young man after the missionaries when the crowd had gone home, to
ask the missionaries to stay another night at the Henry Little home.
During the next day, the missionaries called on several of
Henry Little’s neighbors, leaving their tracts and their Articles of
Faith. They called on John Benjamin
Cawley and his wife, Sarah Felt Little Cawley (daughter of Henry) who they had met previously, and had a good
conversation with him. Later that
afternoon, they arrived at the schoolhouse to prepare for their arranged
meeting to be held that night. They
arrived just as school was being dismissed.
The schoolteacher had left the door unlocked for them, and they went and
got washed up and read their bible in preparation for their message.
As people began to arrive,
Elder Bennion recorded, “We soon found considerable prejudice and
hostility. Quite a large crowd gathered,
some of them heavily armed, and many in favor of whipping us, and running us
out of the neighborhood.” Elder Smith
said that several men “began throwing insinuating insults, which we took no
notice of, and they used the most unbecoming language I ever heard. We bore it all patiently. I spoke a few moments requesting that we
should come to some understanding before we proceeded.” Elder Bennion said,
“This action brought quite a number whom we had talked to, among them was Henry
Little and his uncle, William “Billy” Rhodes (brother of Henry’s mother, Dicey)
an old gentleman with a freshly broken arm, who insisted on being led a mile
and a half in the dark, that he might take part in the affair.”
Elder Smith recorded that William Rhodes asked to be heard
and read some scriptures from the New Testament to all who were there, and told
the mob that he was “ashamed of their disgraceful doings, and that they did not
know but what they (the missionaries) were the servants of God sent to declare
unto us the way of salvation and warn us of the judgment to come.” William Rhodes then begged the offenders to
leave the missionaries alone. Henry
Little also came to their defense, pointing out their “meanness” and telling
the crowd that he had taken the missionaries in, and as long as he had anything
to eat, it would be shared with them.
Elder Bennion wrote, “After considerable jangling among
themselves, the crowd was so evenly divided that they decided to submit the
matter to a vote. We agreed to this and
the result showed a majority of them in favor of the opposition. Before leaving the grounds, our friends
insisted on an appointment for the next night at the home of a Mr. Anderson,
all women to be excluded and every man to be armed with a good gun. This meeting was held according to the
appointment in the presence of about thirty men with guns across their
knees. Elder Albert Smith was blessed
with great freedom and most of these rough hard farmers and woodsmen were in
tears before he finished his sermon.
This meeting quieted the opposition for a time, and gave us an opportunity
to hold quite a number of meetings in private homes. From here, through relatives and friends,
particularly of Henry Little, the work spread to Grovetown, an incorporated
city, distant about six miles on the Georgia railroad and from there down into
Augusta, Georgia. This made the field so
extensive that two elders were sent to help us.” (Those elders would be Ransom C. Van Leuwen
and James Duncan.) There were other
missionaries who followed to assist in teaching in that area within the next 14
months. They were John Browning (the gun
inventor), Jed Ballantyne, Moroni Dunford (who later married Henry’s neice),
and William Spry (who became mission president of the Southern States Mission
and who later became Governor of Utah).
On Christmas day of 1887, Elders Smith and Bennion spent
time with Henry Little and his family with Elder Smith saying that the family
was “More like saints than any strangers I have ever met.” He said, “We spent the day here and had a
very agreeable Christmas.”
According to Henry’s daughter, Sarah Felt Little Cawley,
meetings continued to be held in Henry's home and in the school-house. Both of Henry Little’s brothers Adam Mack
Little and John Zachary Little and their families also listened to the gospel
message brought by the missionaries.
Henry's brothers were so enthusiastic to listen that they made Henry
promise not to let the missionaries start to teach until they arrived in the
evening after working on their farms.
Elder Smith recorded that most meetings went until midnight. The missionaries spent most of the first
month after meeting Henry Little, holding meetings, being introduced to members
of the community by Henry and his related family members, and as Elder Smith
recorded, “wandering around seeking for people who would listen to the
everlasting gospel.”
Elder Bennion wrote of the opposition to the work of the
Lord in that area when he said, “The holding of so many meetings and baptizing
so many people naturally aroused bitter opposition. Mobs were organized and these men,
particularly on Sunday, laid in waiting for us on the road, in an endeavor to
catch us as we passed to and from through the woods, filling appointments. We would learn of their movements afterwards,
but each time, and with no knowledge on our part, we were delayed or took some
other road, and thus escaped those lawless men.” One particular time, they were
voted out of a school-house by a Methodist preacher and his “howling crew.”
Elder Albert Smith’s journal records that with the beginning
of the New Year of 1888, meetings among the people in the area continued with
the teaching of various subjects such as
the nature of the Holy Ghost and the Unpardonable sin, Baptism, Priesthood
Authority, Free Agency, the Pre-existence and other points of doctrine. Many people listened with interest, some were
tolerant, and others were very hostile.
Said Elder Smith, “On one occasion, a Mr. Gus Crother came in drunk, and
he and Henry Little had an argument about the missionaries. Mr. Crother said that he would not allow such
trash as (the missionaries) about his place, and hurled many insults and
insinuations. “
The first mention in either Elder Bennion or Elder Smith’s
journals of a petition for baptism appears to have come from Henry Little’s sister-in-law,
Margaret Elizabeth Prather Little – the wife of Adam Mack Little, sometime
toward the end of January of 1888.
Elder Smith asked her to wait for a few days, to which she consented. A second person requesting baptism was
mentioned by Elder Albert R. Smith in his journal. It was Mary Ann Little Rearden, the married
sister of Henry Little. She was given
the same advice with the additional instruction that she must have her
husband’s consent, which she said she could obtain. These two women, along with John Zachary
Little’s wife, Mary Elizabeth Hill Little, and Henry’s 15 year-old neice,
Alwilda (daughter of his sister, Awry Little Moncreif), would later become the
first four women to be baptized.
On Sunday, February 26, 1888, 5 wagons filled with Elders,
investigators, soon-to-be new members, and friends left Grovetown, heading
toward Pinetucky. Their destination was
William “Billy” Rhodes millpond where the baptisms would take place. Arriving there, they found a large number of
people had assembled to witness the ordinances. Elder Smith recorded that 60 people were
present, 14 of whom were to be baptized – 8 women and 6 men. Of those 14, at least 9 were from the related
Little families. All of the candidates
for baptism were dressed in white.
As the crowd gathered at the water's edge, a gunshot was
fired from across the pond. The bullet
came so near to Henry's thirteen year-old nephew Orin Cotreah Little, that the
boy's ear hurt for hours afterward. It
was then that Elder Albert R. Smith gathered the new converts near him and
raised his arm and prophesied in the name of Jesus Christ that anyone who
raised a hand against these baptisms would fall. Elder Smith then proceeded to baptize the new
members.
The hymn, “Lo On the Water’s Brink We Stand” was sung, and
the baptisms commenced. Elder Smith said
that those who were being baptized entered the water in the order of which,
“The gospel had come to them.” Henry
Little was baptized by Elder Albert Ricks Smith and confirmed by Elder Ransom
C. Van Leuven. His mother, Dicey Rhodes
Little and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Inglett Little who watched from the water’s
edge, would be later baptized during the month that followed.
Of the gunshot fired that day, it was later learned that the
man who attempted to harm the saints was an itinerant preacher who had sworn an
oath earlier in the week that was heard by others. It was spoken while he was in the woods with
other men cutting trees for the railroad company. The angry man had sworn an oath saying,
"If God lets me live until next Sunday, we will surely get those Mormon
preachers!" It happened that on
the day when the baptisms were being performed, he was again in the woods with
other men, cutting trees to be used by the railroad. Suddenly, a falling tree struck him, and his
body was crushed. Elder Bennion said
that he was so crushed that, “There was hardly a whole bone in his body.” Thus, the man’s own prophecy had been
fulfilled, and the Elders and the Saints were left alone for a while.
Over the next year
many more extended family members of Henry Little and their friends would be
baptized in that area of Georgia. Later that year during the summer, the newly
baptized Saints and their families, friends, and investigators joined with the
Elders to celebrate their first “Pioneer Day”.
On July 24, 1888, they gathered at Adam Mac Little’s home near
Grovetown. There were 11 Elders, 51
baptized members, and others comprising near 150 people gathered together for
the celebration. The crowd sang songs,
played music and listed to speeches.
Elders Jedediah Ballantyne, William A. Redd, and Albert Ricks Smith
spoke about the pioneers and their sacrifice. Elder Bennion said that even
though not all who had assembled that day had received or accepted the gospel,
“no liquor, oaths, disrespectful words, or unbecoming acts took place.”
As word reached the community of the conversion and baptism
of the families to the Mormon religion, the new members found that their former
friends and associates now turned their backs to them. Henry’s and his
brother's families became ostracized in their own community. It was a bitter pill for Henry, who had been
so respected by his neighbors. After
some discussion, it was decided that the newly baptized members would relocate
to Utah to gather with the Saints there.
They sold everything they had to raise the money, practically giving
their farms away. In the years to come,
their former homes would be bought out along with hundreds of others for next
to nothing, as the United States Government bought the land to make a large
military base, now known as the Fort Gordon Army Base.
As the new Saints readied to leave, Elder John Browning
telegraphed ahead to his brother and told him that over 50 new converts would
be arriving on the train at the Ogden Depot and that beds would be needed for
all of them. Fifty-seven newly baptized
related family members and friends, accompanied by John Browning, Jed
Ballantyne, and David Bennion, came to Ogden on the train arriving in the
spring of 1889. They were welcomed at
the home of the Browning and Ballantyne familes until they each located a place
to live and to work. Some settled in Salt Lake, some in Ogden - wherever they
could obtain employment. Henry's
brother, John Zachary Little, a skilled carpenter like Henry, set to working on
the Salt Lake Temple, hanging all the doors and doing much of the panel
work.
Henry and Mary's family settled in Ogden where he resumed
work as a carpenter. Within a year of
arriving in Ogden, Henry built a house located at 3296 Adams Avenue in
Ogden. Its size was less than 1000
square feet. As of this year (2015) the
home is still there. Daughter Meribah
Denning Little Wright later lived in the home with her husband; and years later
her son, Percy Blaine Wright lived there with his family.
Upon arriving in Utah and deciding how he was going to
permanently support his family, Henry who was approaching 50, decided that a
laundry was needed in the area and would be a good family business. In those days, men’s shirts were frequently
sent out to be laundered and starched.
Henry named his new business, "The Little Laundry". Henry's oldest son, William, who was in his
early twenties, left a construction job and worked in the laundry on the
washing machines doing the cranking. Henry's younger sons, and son-in-law John
Benjamin Cawley, were also enlisted to work in the family business laboring on
the machines. Daughters Letitia, Lena,
Lizzie, and Meribah did the ironing of the shirts. It was very hard work for young men and
teenage girls. The laundry didn't last
very long however, as something Henry did was to tear the family apart.
On April 7, 1899, Henry was married to another wife in
Ogden, Utah. Her name was Dorothea Elizabeth Anderson, and she was a 39
year-old convert to the Church from Denmark.
She spoke only broken English and had emigrated 4 years earlier after
her family had accepted the gospel in Denmark.
How Henry met Dorothea is not known. Perhaps she resided in his ward, or
maybe she was a visitor to the laundry, or maybe Henry knew one of her family members. Within 4 days of the wedding, on April 11,
1899, their marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple. It is not known why Henry did this, as the
first manifesto had been announced 9 years earlier. He didn’t do it with the blessing of President
Wilford Woodruff, as the prophet had refused to sanction any marriages after
the 1890 Manifesto. He may have done it
with the blessing of local leaders, as many local Bishops and Stake Presidents
were still performing plural marriages.
It is also not known if Henry asked for his first wife Mary's blessing
or not, for his second marriage, but it caused Mary, who was then 48 years old,
much anger and bitterness. Henry, upon
arriving home one day from the laundry, found that Mary had thrown all of his
clothing and possessions outside the front of the house. Henry's children were also very upset at
their father's 2nd marriage. All of his
children who had worked alongside him at the laundry, refused to come to
work. As a result, the laundry closed
down. Henry's children started referring
to Henry's new wife, Dorothea, as "Old Dora" behind her back. Even until she died, the children referred
to her by that name.
Mary moved out
of the home she had shared with Henry and went to live with one of her married
daughters. Though she still loved Henry,
she refused to live under the same roof as "Old Dora.” Oldest Son, William returned to working as a
carpenter. Daughter, Lizzie had already
left the laundry to work as a chambermaid in a hotel and her younger sisters
followed. Later the daughters left
working at the hotel and went to work at the old "Troy Laundry" on
461 South 600 East in Salt Lake City.
After the closing of the laundry, Henry needed to find another way to
support himself and his new wife. He
began to run a rooming house in Ogden.
Henry and Dorothea never had any children together, and she never
married again after Henry died.
However frosty
the relationship may have been between Henry and Mary Elizabeth after his
marriage to Dorothea, Mary did accompany Henry on a mission for the
Church. Henry was set apart on May 9,
1905 by Seymore B. Young. He and Mary
returned to Georgia to serve in the Southern States mission at same time as
Henry's nephew, Eugene (who had also been called to the same mission) with
hopes of converting the remaining family on Mary's side - the Ingletts. Two of Mary's sisters did join the church
previously, but with the rest of the Inglett family, their proselytizing was to
be unsuccessful. During their mission to
Georgia, they served in both the cities of Atlanta and Augusta. Henry and Mary Elizabeth were released on 15
September 1906, serving for 16 months.
After returning
home from his Georgia mission, William Henry Little became the proprietor of
the Lincoln Hotel in Ogden. Shortly
after that, he became the owner of the Central Hotel on 25th Street in
Ogden. At the time, 25th street was a
bustling street filled with hotels and eating establishments serving those
arriving or leaving from the Union Pacific Railway Line at the Ogden Depot,
located at the west end of the street.
On August 27, 1907, Henry had a late lunch in the Central
Hotel with his 2nd wife Dorothea, and her sister. They had all been eating in the private
apartments of the hotel, and as Dorothea cleared the table, Henry left to go
into his office. A patron came running to tell Dorothea that Henry had
"fainted" in the office.
Dorothea came to his side and brought him back to consciousness. He asked to have a drink of water, and within
a few moments of drinking it, passed away at 4:30 in the afternoon.
Henry’s first wife, Mary Elizabeth Inglett Little, lived
another nine years and passed away on October 6, 1916 in Ogden. Henry and Mary were both buried in the Ogden
Cemetery in Ogden, Utah next to each other.
His second wife Dorothea, lived almost another 40 years and died on
March 20, 1947 in Logan and was buried in the Aultorest Cemetery in Ogden.
Note: This history
was compiled by Deborah Cawley Seamons, 2nd Great Granddaughter of William
Henry Little and Mary Elizabeth Inglett, descending through their daughter,
Sarah Felt Little Cawley. It was pieced
together from the stories of descendants of William Henry Little; and the
descendants of his brothers, John Zachary Little and Adam Mac Little. Information also came from the stories and
journals of Moroni Dunford, David Bennion and Albert Ricks Smith – three of the
missionaries who taught the related Little families. In addition, information came from records of
the Southern States Mission, descendants of the sister of Dorothea Elizabeth
Anderson, and from old editions of The Desert News and the Ogden Standard
Examiner.
It is hoped that the descendants of William Henry Little and
Mary Elizabeth Inglett Little who read this will appreciate the sacrifice of
these pioneers of the Church from Georgia.
Though they did not cross the plains, they left their home in Georgia,
giving all they had for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for which this 2nd great
granddaughter will forever be grateful.
Deborah Cawley Seamons
Anthem, Arizona
