Little, Henry G.

LITTLE, VIETS, MACY, LYMAN, ALVORD, HOLYOKE, NOYES, MEYERS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 4/25/2011 at 16:03:46

The Grinnell (IA) Herald

HENRY G. LITTLE

If you lived in Grinnell between 1867 and 1900, you will remember Henry G. Little. His tall, powerful figure, crowned in his later days by a mass of white hair, his vigorous personality, his willingness to work for his town, made him one to be remembered. He was four times mayor of Grinnell. It was under his supervision that the cemetery was laid out and planted in its present form. He was a deacon in the Congregational church. His youth was spent in Hollis, N.H., in Wethersfield and Newington, Conn. In 1835 he came west to take up land where Kewanee, Ill. now stands. In the following year, he brought his young bride to a log cabin around which wolves howled. The community became a town. For a time, the Littles lived in Oberlin, where the eldest daughter Louise married Henry S. Viets, whom she met at college. The second daughter, Maude, graduated from Oberlin, and later, in Grinnell, married Jesse Macy.

Mr. Little loved the frontier, and his pioneering soul turned again to the west. In Grinnell, he found a town that was young, and educational advantages for his children. He built a large brick house where the President's house now sands. Only one dwelling stood then on the block, that of Deacon S.N. Bartlett, the grandfather of Miss Stella Bartlett. For a long time the Little home was the center of a joyous social life.

The third daughter, Elizabeth, attended college, and married J.P. Lyman, long a lawyer practicing in Grinnell. The fourth daughter, Fannie, graduated from Grinnell. She was very musical, and played the organ in the church. She married Dr. A.W. Alvord, of Battle Creek, Mich. The fifth daughter, Henrietta married Dr. Will Holyoke. She had a beautiful soprano voice, and studied in Chicago. A son, Frank, died in youth.

There are six of Mr. Little's grandchildren now living. Harry and Sara Viets are in Long Beach, Henry G. Lyman practices law in Los Angeles, Thomas Holyoke is in business in Topeka, Katherine Macy Noyes lives in Urbana and Louise Alvord Meyers in Grinnell.
--by Mrs. Paul P. Meyers.

This was one of a series of pioneer sketches written during 75th Jubilee celebration. (1929)