In Search of ...?

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Tombstone Tuesday --continuing with #9 Mounsey LITTLE - Tombstone

continuing ........

"LITTLE'S" are my Mothers Fathers line
PARENTS
Isaac (1806-1863) & Jane (Mounsey) (1812-1867) LITTLE [2nd Great Grandparents ]

Siblings of Hudson's.........
doneMary LITTLE (1831- ?) - [Great Grand Aunt]
doneJohn LITTLE (1832-1861) [Great Grand Uncle]
doneAnne LITTLE (1835-?) [Great Grand Aunt]
doneWilliam LITTLE (1837-1843) [Great Grand Uncle]
doneIsaac LITTLE (1840-?) [Great Grand Uncle]
doneHUDSON LITTLE 1843-1934) [Great Grand Uncle]
doneJane Eliza LITTLE 1846-1867) [Great Grand Aunt]
doneJames LITTLE 1849-1855) [Great Grand Uncle]
Mounsey LITTLE (1851-1940) ...........[My Great Grandfather]
Joseph LITTLE (1852-1932) [Great Grand Uncle]

Willow Glen Cemetery, Rt 13S, Dryden New York

Monday, February 2, 2015

Mystery Monday --continuing with #9 Mounsey Little - I. O. O. F. & Rebekah Lodge

Joseph LITTLE (1852-1932) [Great Grand Uncle]

District Deputy Grand Master and his Staff --1917
upper row - Avery Hiles, Joseph W Little, Charles I Hart, William Rannings
lower row - Frank Gallagher, Frank E Kimmich, D. D. G. M., and Mounsey Little

This was also from the newspapers -1917- but I do not have a source/date etc.............. and it was just the picture without any article with it. Disappointing.

I have not introduced you to Joseph W Little yet. He is the son of the 10th child of Isaac and Jane Little - Joseph Little. I will talk about him when I introduce you to his father Joseph Little.

........and then there is Mounsey Little on the bottom row far right.

Acronyms- IOOF- I did locate the DDGM position showing below the picture

It looks like they may be wearing robes with the large decorated collars/lapels, wonder what that means if anything? Is there a difference between them or do the designs come from the lodges they first joined or are there choices of designs each for member OR................

Don't know what position Joe or Mounsey held in the Rebekah or IOOF? Are they the same organization or different? I have googled a little and am still not really sure. I read somewhere that the Independent IOOF lodges sometimes were known as Odd Fellows or Rebekah's ....... Gosh, I really need to do a lot more research in this area............ I know nothing!!

I did "google" Clover-Rebekah Lodge in New York and this item came up................

Independent Order Of Odd Fellows, Clover Rebekah Lodge #294 in Dryden, New York (NY)- and as you know Mouncey lived his entire adult life in Dryden. Maybe I can make contact with this organization and find out more.

IOOF - Genealogy/ Family History Research

Lots of research to do here and it is on my to-do list but it is not a priority.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Sunday Obituary --continuing with #9 Mounsey LITTLE -Obituary

There was certainly quite a number of obituary's written on his life......... (and I am very greatful!!) You will notice that all are from unknown source and date ......... this is material my mother had - you know how people cut out articles and events from the newspapers and 'glued' them into their scrapbooks, but without a Newspaper name or date......... I will find them someday soon I hope so I will have the whole package.............. but for now this is what I have.....

#1 OBITUARY/ unk source;date......... (d: 12 Jul 1940) "Mounsey Little Dies at Dryden"
....... native of England expires at age of 89 years...........
Mounsey Little, 89, died early this morning at the home of his daughter, Mrs Jennie Little of South Street, Dryden. Mr Little who was one the oldest and most highly respected citizens of the town of Dryden had been in failing health for several months prior to his death.
He was born at Bassenthwaite, England, the son of Isaac Little and Jane Mounsey Little, and came to this country in 1872. He settled in Tompkins County, where he was engaged in farming and in the raising of cattle for meat.
He married Miss Mary Brownrigg of this vicinity who had also come to America from England. Mrs Little's death occurred about 10 years ago.
Mr Little was a member of the Dryden Presbyterian Church, the Dryden I.O.O.F Lodge, and a charter member of the Rebekah Lodge.
Near surviving relatives include one daughter, Mrs Jennie Little; two sons, JH Little of Dryden and BH Little of Cuba NY; nine grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
The funeral services will be held on Sunday afternoon at 2 from the home of Mrs Little in South Street with the Rev Fenton Crutchley officiating. Burial will be made in Willow Glen Cemetery, Dryden.
=====================================================

#2 OBITUARY ........... (12 Jul 1940) unknown source/date
"Mounsey Little, 89, Passes at Dryden"
Dryden July 18 - Mounsey Little, 89, died Friday morning after failing health for a few years past. Mr Little came to Dryden in 1872 from Cumberland County in the north of England, and has lived here since; first for 17 years in the Southworth house on North Street, and since then on his farm just south of village.
'WELL KNOWN BUSINESS MAN'
He had been engaged in farming, cattle raising and as a meat dealer for 65 years. he conducted his meat market for 40 years and retired shortly before World War.
Mr Little was a member of the Presbyterian Church, a charter member of the Clover Rebekah Lodge, and was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge.
Funeral services were held Sunday at 2pm with the Rev Fenton E Crutchly officiating at the home of Mr Little's daughter, Mrs Jennie Little, where he had lived for some years past. Burial was in Willow Glen Cemetery.
Mr Little is survived b his daughter, Mrs Jennie Little, two sons, Joe H Little of Dryden and Burton H Little of Cuba; 9 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
=========================================================

#3 OBITUARY ............. (d: 12 Jul 1940) .. no source/ date
" 2 more of Dryden's Business Men Succomb"
DRYDEN -- CD Williams .... etc etc etc and MOUNSEY LITTLE (w/pictures) .
Mounsey Little, 89, one of the oldest residents of Dryden, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs Jennie Little, South Street, Dryden, early Friday morning, July 12, after an illness of several months.
Mr Little came to Dryden from England in 1872. He married the late Mrs Mary Little of Tompkins County soon after his arrival. He has been a cattle raiser, a meat dealer, and farmer for the past 65 years. Mr Little was a charter member of Clover Rebekah Lodge, Dryden, a member of the Dryden Presbyterian Church and Dryden Odd Fellows Lodge.
Besides his daughter, Mrs Little, at whose home he died, he is survived by two sons, JH Little of Dryden, BH Little of Cuba; nine grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren.
Funeral services were held at 2pm Sunday at Mrs Little's home the Rev Fenton E Crutchley, pastor of the Dryden Presbyterian Church, officiating. Interment was in Willow Glen Cemetery. EM Perkins had charge of funeral arrangements.
============================================================

#4 OBITUARY ..............(d:12 Jul 1940) no source/date
"MOUNSEY LITTLE, 89, CATTLE RAISER, DEAD"
ITHACA......... Last rites for Mounsey Little, 89, one of Dryden's oldest residents, will be conducted at 2pm Sunday by Rev Fenton E Crutchley at the home of a daughter, Mrs Jennie Little, South St, Dryden, where he died Friday morning. Burial will be in Willow Glen Cemetery.
Mr Little, who came to Dryden from England in 1872, had been a cattle raiser, meat dealer and farmer for 65 years in this area. He was a charter member of Clover Rebekah Lodge and was affiliated with Dryden IOOF and Dryden Presbyterian Church.
Surviving besides Mrs Little, are two sons, JH Little of Dryden and BH Little of Cuba, and nine grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren
=============================================================

Gosh obituary's can be such great resource for information and I would say these are great. So much information ....... I do need to find out which newspaper they were in and the dates/page ........ don't know if SLC Library has the Dryden, Ithaca, Homer, Cortland newspapers. It maybe that they have not been digitized yet. So if that is the case I can travel there someday and search myself or ask someone else to do it for me. It is on my To-do list........... but not a high priority at this point.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Sympathy Saturday --continuing with #9 Mounsey Little - "The Death of the Farm"

Joseph LITTLE (1852-1932) [Great Grand Uncle]

I hoped that I would have more pictures of my Great Grandfathers farm but I find I don't really - I guess I should say I have a couple of distance ones but not too much with details..........

The barn and the farmhouse plus the pond at the bottom with the ice house next to pond (not shown). At some point in time Mounsey and sons also delivered ice. I have some memories of the cattle, the bull and the chickens..... I was very young when I visited and it was Uncle Joe and Aunt Jennie's home. My little brother and I got to feed the chickens and Uncle Joe allowed us to gather eggs too. We would sit on the old wooden fence coming out from the barn and watch the HUGE bull in the pasture. I remember he was huge and scary. The farmhouse seemed to dark and a scary place with dozens of rooms. I remember the wrap around porch that we played on.......... so much space for children.

Then there is this Apr 1964 news article about the old Mounsey Little barn being torn down to make way for property improvements and the old Little farmhouse was converted into 4 separate apartments.

I was just graduating from high school at this point.

AND below you can see the change. The new apartment building is complete. The pond and ice house are also gone.

When my parents took a trip back to New York somewhere in the late 1960's, my Mom, who lived with her Grandparents (Mounsey & Mary Little) in the 1920's at the farmhouse went into shock when she actually saw the change - she has never been back.

Other new homes are off on the left fork of the road. Yes what a big difference. Just sad. I am very slow sometimes to make or accept change ...........

Friday, January 30, 2015

Friday's Faces From the Past --continuing with #9 Mounsey LITTLE - Texas Beef Cattle from Pan Handle

NEWS OF ITHACA [New York]

Starving Cattle from Kansas Tamed by Farmer in Dryden

Little Conquers Beasts With Much Food

Dryden [Tompkins Co, New York] -- Back in '84, when the west was still the west and hordes of young men were heeding Horace Greeley's famous counsel, Mounsey Little left this community on a trip which took him into the cattle country of Texas panhandle.

Tho he saw his share of picturesque cowboys and Indians, the rugged and beautiful scenery of the west and the wild prairie and all the other attractions of 50 years ago, Mr Little's most cherished memory is of thousands of Texas beef cattle, milling on the flat and far-flung tablelands, an awe-inspiring sight into the man who began life in mountainous County Cumberland, England under towering Skiddaw, southern sentinel of Scotland.

There is much satisfaction now for Mr Little, at 85, in the ownership of a small herd of Hereford cattle brought east one year ago from the drought-stricken and famine-ridden Kansas plains to fatten in the lush meadows of his 55-acre "garden spot" on the Harford Road.

Cattle Transported
Last summer, when the great drought created havoc in the mid-western plain states, when feed crops burned up and cattle were dying by the thousand on the stricken ranges fulfil a long-cherished dream. Thru his son he brought a carload of some 80 starving cattle to this richly fertile section.

Mounsey Little chuckles now as he recalls how the stared sad thirsty cattle, weak and weary from their long trek, bolted from the car on a railroad siding in his lower meadow. Taking no notice of the runway provided specially for their unloading, the cattle rushed from their car and plunged into the rich grazing of the pasture.

Looking more like 'sun fish' that beef cattle, their sides flat and their backs bowed up from a lack of bellyweight to hold them down, the cattle fed ravenously and picked up weight from the first.

Adds Other Food
The Littles speeded up recovery in this case by converting surplus farm produce into cattle feed. Mounsey Little produced 500 bushels of potatoes from his cellars to augment the pasture supplies and added about five big wagonloads of beets, dumped about the pasture where it would be handiest for the new boarders.

Working patiently with the herd now split up into three scattered pastures, the Littles have finally tamed a few of the wild cattle sufficiently to come and lick salt from their hands. It has been a slow but highly interesting process for Mounsey Little, who can't recall having seen any Texas cowboys getting away with such tactics out on the panhandle back in '84
.
Of the 80-odd head of starved cattle unloaded in the lower pasture last summer, Mr Little fairly gloats over the 10 fat heifers and a half dozen eastern born calves he has wrangled away from his son to brighten the rich green background of his neat farm with their white-splashed red coats.

Seen by Motorists

A still scary and almost as fleet as a herd of deer, the cattle range over the restricted Little farm from the tree-shaded watering hole in the foothills to the deep clover field near the highway where they attract attention from passing motorists.

Mounsey Little was born in Bassenthwaite, County Cumberland in the rugged foothills of the Scottish mountains. As a boy, he roamed the northern English countryside, fishing for salmon in famous streams and never dreaming he would spend the greater part of his life far away in the rolling hills of Dryden town.

Coming to this country in '72, Mr Little soon found his way to Dryden village where he set up a market in '76 and build a flourishing business thru 40 active years as a merchant. Just before the world war, he retired from business in favor of his son Joe Little, and took over the neat little farm on the village limits on Harford road.
==================================

WOW it gives you a lot of information about his trip west to gather beef cattle but it really gives a lot of personal information about his beginnings and birth. It sure helps to put a little more meat on Mounsey's bones.

I recall when I was a young girl, and visiting the farm , my younger brother and I would go out onto the property with one of my parents and try to feed the HUGE hereford bull in the pasture. We would sit on the fences and watch the bull for long periods of time. The chickens would be roaming in and out of the pasture, into the barn and back out again. These were not normal sites to us. Somewhere I have some snapshots of the bull, the barn and I think my brother and me. I'll look for them. Where or where can they be? After all they are not digital images.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Those Places Thursday --continuing with #9 Mounsey LITTLE- Marriage

..........of all the information I have not found yet is the Marriage Date and Place for Mounsey and Mary (Brownrigg) LITTLE. Here are pictures of both of them labeled wedding pictures but no date........
I will add this to my already lengthy TO-DO list for the Library in February.

I am making a few assumption for the time being so I have a time line to research by ............

Mounsey and Mary met in Tompkins County, New York (possibly Dryden, Virgil, Ithaca or Cortland) according to several newspaper articles. So this is where I will concentrate my efforts. I looked to see where Mary's parents lived and they never came to the US at that time. They were still in England. She came over alone or with someone else around 1868 when she was around 12 years old. Who did she come to live with at that age? I have searched and searched the 1870 US census with no luck. I may have to actually go line by line in these specific areas.

.......and the year/date of marriage: The couple had 4 children that I know about. The first child was born 21 July 1878........... I would normally look 2-5 years on either side of 1878 in the area's above. I see that every US and State Census Mounsey appears in was in Dryden, Tompkins, New York. So I am pretty sure that they were married in the area that they lived for their entire adult lives and they are buried there too.
NOW there is a family story that a Wedding Certificate was seen on the wall in Mounsey and Mary's farmhouse by the daughter. She noticed that it was dated a year after Mounsey & Marys's first son Isaac was born- 1879 ........ the story is believable but no proof yet....... everyone that may know about it have passed away or memories are very vague now. What happened to that Wedding Certificate on the wall? ...... the farm and property were sold between 1930-1940, after Mary's death 1929 and before Mounsey's death in 1940..

TO-DO List ::
Marriage information - date and place for Mounsey and Mary LITTLE- checking 1879 Dryden, Tompkins Co., New York

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Wishful Wednesday -continuing with #9 Mounsey Little - Naturalization

Joseph LITTLE (1852-1932) [Great Grand Uncle]

.........and of course of all things I was able to locate Mounsey LITTLE'S naturalization papers. At 57 years of age he applies and receives his Certificate of Naturalization. Why? Why at this time was it necessary to become an American citizen. He has been in this country and in one place since age 21. Now 36 years later he feels he needs to be an American citizen. It is 1908.

What was going on in 1908? What prompted him at this point in his life to apply & receive his Naturalization Papers. I did a quick look at 1908 as a whole and I didn't see anything going on that would prompt someone to apply for their citizenship papers. World War I was coming in a couple of years but I am not sure that there is an urgency immediately for that.

The Naturalization Paper I have is a copy of the notarized copy my cousin had in her collection of papers.

As you can see (maybe not read) below it tells me about the man Mounsey and his family.. Mounsey is 57 years old, 5'9" tall, skin color is white, complexion is fair, color of eyes are blue, color of hair gray and visible distinguishing marks include a scar on left thumb.

State of New York, City of Ithaca #11170, petition volume 1, page 21, sub volume 1117, page 10

It also gives the name, age, place of residence of

.....wife, Mary Little, 47, Dryden, NY

.... Isaac M Little, 30, Cortland, NY

..... Joseph Hudson Little, 28, Dryden, NY

..... Jennie E Little, 25, Dryden, NY

..... Burton H Little, 16, Dryden, NY [my grandfather]

WOW, an original signature ([ok a copy of the signature] Mounsey Little

dated ...... 30 November 1908 signed by the County Clerk

............and yes that is a snapshot of Mounsey Little in approximately 1910-1920. Sorry it is so hard to see clearly.

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