Little, Dr. Samuel 1801-1878
LITTLE, WHITE
Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 8/9/2011 at 00:23:22
Just as we go to press we learn that Dr. Little of Farmersburg, fell from his chair a corpse, on yesterday. Our informants, Ed White and the doctor's son, John Little, report that he had not fully recovered from his recent injuries while en route home from this city.
~McGregor Times, March ?, 1878
~Note: he is buried in the Farmersburg-Wagner cemetery_______________________
Added by Reid R. Johnson on 4/9/2018:
Elkader Register, Thur., 28 Mar. 1878.
It is my painful duty to announce through your paper, the sudden death of Dr. Samuel Little, at his residence in Farmersburg, in this county on the 21st inst.
Only a short time before his death, he was returning from McGregor in a carriage in company with his son-in-law, when a worthless drunken fellow who was running his horses for bravado, came up with full speed behind the doctor's carriage striking it with such violence as to entirely demolish it, throwing the Doctor several feet away on the hard ground, and the villain kept on with full speed, without even caring to look round at the destruction he had made.
The doctor was taken to a house by the road side where he lay insensible for several days, but under the care and management of Dr. Andros and Dr. Clark, he recovered sufficiently to be removed to his home.
For the last two or three weeks his family had great hopes that he would recover and survive his injuries, for he had been enabled to walk about, and made one trip to Elkader, but he knew his injuries better than any one else, and only a few days before his death he said to a friend, that he was inwardly hurt, and that, that terrible fall had given him his death blow.
Thus by the act of a trifling and worthless fellow, one of our best and most worthy of citizens has passed to his long account.
Dr. Little was born in Enfeld, Grafton county, New Hampshire, on the 22d of May, 1801, and although he was in his seventy-seventh year, he was still vigorous in mind and body, and but for his injuries would no doubt have survived many years more.
He was a student of Dartmouth College, where he studied medicine, and after his return from college he commenced the practice of that profession in his native state, which he followed until the year 1855 at which time he quit the practice and removed to his present home in Clayton county. At the time he made his settlement, that portion of the county was in its wild and natural state, and the rich rolling prairies covered with gay wild flowers charmed his cultivated imagination, and he selected for his home a most charming spot, overlooking one of the most beautiful and delightful Valleys in the wide west, now dotted with beautiful and enterprising villages, and neat and well cultivated farms, through which the Iowa Eastern Rail way now enlivens the scene with its daily trains. All this enterprise and improvement has grown up into greatness and prosperity from a wilderness under his eyes. He had taken the pains to beautify and embellish his own home with trees, vines and shrubbery, all planted and cultivated by his own hands, every tree and shrub of which, seemed to him things of life, and companions of his declining years.
Under the shade of these trees, the author of this, has often seen him reclining, while his eyes would wander for miles up and down that beautiful valley, which to a cultivated mind like his must have been to him the greatest of all earthly satisfaction.
Nothing could ever induce him to quit this delightful abode for the drudgery and hardships of his profession, and he clung to it to the last moment, only to leave it after a completed life. For nearly a quarter of a century, this kind, noble, generous and honorable man lived in this retreat, a model of integrity and virtue, beloved and honored by his neighbors, and loved and cherished by a fond and interesting family.
He always took a deep interest in every discovery, in art and science, and his conversations on the subject were deeply interesting.
His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Downs, of National, and no fitter man could have been selected for the occasion.
For several years they had been friends and associates and highly esteemed by each other, and the sermon was a fit tribute to the memory of a dead friend.
After describing the order, the beauty, the sublimity and grandure of the great system around us, he exclaimed in the language of the Psalmist; "What is man, that thou art mindful of him."
He spoke without notes, and for an hour and a half he uttered one of the most pleasing and instructive sermons ever delivered in the county, every sentence of which glistened and sparkled with shining truths.
A long concourse of friends followed his remains to the beautiful cemetery, and deposited them on the highest point overlooking that delightful valley over which his eyes so often wandered with delight, and where as the speaker said, he would quietly sleep until the grand resurrection.
Thus has passed away from earth a man whose abilities and attainments were of high order, and whose whole life was without a stain or reproach, and with those who knew him and loved him best, his memory will be ever green. - S.M.
Submitter Notes:
The 1850 Federal Census of Rumney, Grafton, New Hampshire, shows:
Samuel Little, 49, born 1801 in New Hampshire, Physician.
Catherine Little, implied wife, 44.
John Little, implied son, 12.
Arabel Little, implied daughter, age transcribed as 10, but may be between 10 and 20.
Clayton Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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