GRANBERRY HARRISON LITTLE 1837 - 1911

November 24 2022

Today John’s paternal 2nd great-grandfather, Granberry Harrison Little, would have been 185.

Taken from book "History of Houston County"

THOMAS LITTLE pg. 476

Thomas Little came from Butler County, Alabama, to settle in Houston County, on Nevil’s Prairie, in the Prairie View Community, in about 1857. He was born (c. 1806) in Georgia - a first generation American. His father, John Little, was born (c. 1766) in North Ireland, and Catherine, his mother, was born (c. 1775) in Scotland.

Thomas’s father, John Little was ageless in his approach to life. Some of his children were grown and married and he and his large family were apparently settled in Pulaski County, Georgia, when the lands in the Territory of Florida, newly acquired from Spain, were opened for American settlement. By late 1826, he and his family, including his married children and some of their in-laws, had moved to Gadsden County, in the Territory of Florida. In 1828, the Territorial Governor appointed John Little Justice of the Peace for that area, and continued to reappoint him for several terms. Whether he received a quarterly stipend for his services, or nothing at all, the family has no record, but, considering the type of man he was, it is possible the appointment of the acceptance thereof were, as when such office was held by the old Squires of England, based only on the respect and dignity the office carried with it.

Thomas Little had two children born in Florida - Jonathan (c. 1831) and Elizabeth (c. 1833). About the beginning of the Second Seminole War, he took his young family back to Georgia, and three of his children were born there - Granberry (c. 1836), Sarah (c. 1838), and William Henry Harrison (c. 1841 or 1842). Shortly thereafter, he moved into Alabama, where his youngest son, Thomas Amos, was born (c. 1844).

For men who loved the land and depended on it for a living, Texas was the new and beckoning frontier. It was on every lip - a land of romance and glory, a wide open empire, with millions of empty acres. Thomas Little gravitated toward it as to a lodestone. 

Four of his children had been married in Alabama - Jonathan to Celia A.L. Jones, Elizabeth to Seaborn G.K. Jones, Granbury to Nancy P. Lord, and Sarah to Elihu F. Jones, Seaborn’s older brother. In addition, he had two sons, half grown. He felt an obligation to supply his four sons with lands sufficient to support their families, so he sold his land in Alabama, and with his wife Jane, and his two youngest, William Henry Harrison and Thomas Amos, he set out for Texas.  By 1859 or earlier, all of his married children and their families were with him in Houston County, including his niece, Nancy (daughter of his brother George) from Florida and her husband George Smith, and their children. The six families settled on adjoining properties - a community all their own.

In the Civil War, all of Thomas Little’s sons and sons-in-law enlisted - Jonathan, Granbury, and Harrison Little and Elihu F. Jones, in Company E Gould’s Battalion, Texas Cavalry, and Seaborn G.K. Jones in Company 1, 13 Regiment, Texas Cavalry, and, according to family tradition, Thomas Amos Little served in the same company as Seaborn Jones. Both of these outfits were a part of Walker’s Texas Division, Trans-Mississippi Department, Army of the Confederacy. And any one of us may trace, in J.P. Blessington’s "Walker’s Texas Campaigns" some of the hardships these soldiers endured, and suffered heartbreak with them on that sad July 4, 1863, when they were close enough to hear the ceasing of the guns at Vicksburg. The war demanded sacrifices of the Littles that cut to the heart - Jonathan, the first-born lost his life, leaving six children (George (c. 1855), Martha (c. 1856), James (c. 1857) - all born in Alabama, and Sam (c1859), Charles (c. 1861), and Jonathan (c. 1862)-- all born in Texas). Both Seaborn and Elihu Jones were wounded, and each of them died around the end of the war.

In addition, the close family combine of Nevil’s Prairie was broken up. The sons who had survived the war came home in rags, heartbroken, and uncertain of the future under the carpet-baggers. Harrison Little went over into Winn Parish, Louisiana, in the late 1860s. He probably was married there to his wife, Mary Eleanor Hooper (1841 to 1889), and two of his children were born there - Ida Jane (1870) and Mary Ellen (1871), but shortly thereafter, he and his family returned to the family farms in Houston County, where were born to them Oscar and Laura (1874) and James Walter (1876). By the late 1870s, both Harrison and Granbury felt compelled to go in search of larger tracts of land for their growing families, so they with their families and certain other younger Littles, moved out of Houston County to the northwest, making a cursory land search along the eastern rim of Central Texas, in the Counties of Leon, Freestone, Navarro, Limestone, and McLennan. Most of them finally settled in Limestone County, including Harrison and Granbury. Two other children were born to Harrison and Mary Eleanor - Martha Della (1879) and Thomas A. (1883), both, probably, in Limestone County. To Granbury and Nancy Little were born Thomas (c.1859), Francis Marion (c.1860), Granbury M. (c.1862), Daniel B. (c. 1866), Geneora (c. 1857, Elizabeth (c. 1869), Rebecca (c. 1871), Sarah L. (c. 1875), Amanda M. (c. 1876), George W. (c. 1878), and Nancy L. (c. 1880), and others. 

Scattering members of the family followed those who went toward the northwest, died, or went elsewhere, until only Thomas Amos Little and his children (who had found their larger living space in the old Volga Community) remained to call Houston County their home, and some of their descendants live there and prosper to this day.

By: Vera Jones

24 NOV 1837 - Born in Early County, GA to Thomas J. Little, age 31 and Jane Womack Little, age 36.

He was the third of six children. His older siblings were Jonathan and Elizabeth. There might possibly be another brother named Charles but cannot find anything to confirm that.

Abt. 1838 - Birth of sister, Sarah Jane [GA].

17 AUG 1841 - Birth of brother, William Henry Harrison [GA].

28 JUN 1844 - Birth of brother, Thomas Amos [GA].

⚠️ Abt. 1846 - Birth of brother, Charles [GA].

⚠️ Abt. 1848 - Death of brother, Charles [?].

1850 - Residence - Beat 2, Butler, AL.

14 OCT 1856 - Married Nancy Prudence Lord in Butler, AL when they were both 18.

ABT 1858 - Birth of son, Thomas [TX].

1860 - Residence - Post Office: Prairie Beat 4, Houston, TX.

16 SEP 1860 - Birth of son, Francis Marion [Houston County, TX].

1862 - Enlisted Sixth Battalion, Cavalry (Gould's Battalion, Third Battalion, Cavalry) for the Confederacy, Company E as a private.

4 MAY 1863 - Birth of son, Granberry Harrison [Limestone, TX].

1864 - Death of brother, Jonathan, in the Civil War.

ABT 1865 - Birth of son, Daniel B. [TX].

ABT 1867 - Birth of daughter, Genevia [TX].

22 MAR 1868 - Birth of daughter, Elzada Elizabeth [TX].

1870 - Residence - [TX]. 

Can’t find them on this census.

FEB 1870 - Birth of daughter, Rebecca T. [TX]. I have found two different birth years. She was nine on the 1880 census so I'm thinking 1870 is correct but her son placed a tombstone on her grave that states that she was born in 1880.

JUN 1874 - Birth of daughter, Sarah L. [TX].

1875 - Death of sister, Elizabeth [Houston County, TX].

27 FEB 1875 - Birth of daughter, Amanda Millie [TX].

Abt 1878 - Birth of son, George W. [TX].

14 OCT 1879 - Birth of daughter, Nancy Rhuhama [TX].

1880 -  Residence - Limestone, TX.

1880 - Death of mother, Jane, at the age of 79 [Houston County, TX].

29 JAN 1893 - Death of father, Thomas J. at the age of 77 [Houston, Harris, TX].

12 FEB 1893 - Death of son, Daniel B. [Limestone County, TX].

1900 - Residence - Justice Precinct 3, Limestone, TX.

1904 - Death of daughter, Sarah L. [King County, TX].

28 AUG 1904 - Death of sister, Sarah Jane [?].

6 JUL 1907 - Death of brother, Thomas Amos [Houston County, TX].

1910 - Residence - Justice Precinct 3, Limestone, TX.

27 MAY 1911 - Passed away at the age of 73 [Limestone, TX].

Burial - New Hope Cemetery, Limestone County, TX.