Born at Terordan, Cahans, Monaghan, Ireland

Son of William Little and Letitia Smith

Married Susannah Susan Young, 1814/1815, Cayuga County, New York

Children - Eliza Little, Edwin Sobieski Little, Feramorz Little, James Amasa Little

History - James Little, born about 1790 in Terordan, County Monaghan, Ireland, came to America with his parents when a boy about 10-12 years old. It has been said by family friends who knew him that he was a short well-knit man with great powers of endurance. He was never known to complain of being weary; he slept about four hours out of 24, and read or worked the remainder of the time. It is also said he was a well read and intelligent man, possessed of quite a collection of books.

Land records at Auburn, New York, show that on March 4, 1816, he bought from Mathius Huffman, 50 acres of Land on lot 50 in Aurelius, Cayuga County, New York. Here he carried on farming and gardening. His sons have in their possession a printed hand-bill, dated 1819 advertising his businesss. It has been related that he was the first man in New York to sell seeds in packages; also to introduce tomatoes for table use. In order to do this it was necessary to get a permit from Governor Clinton. "Love apples," as tomatoes were then called, were thought to be poisonous and grown in gardens for decoration only.

James Little frequently visited Auburn, the county seat, four miles distant to dispose of his produce and bring home supplies. Near the road was a deep hole from which sand had been taken out for building purposes. It is supposed that the bank had caved in after he had gone over the road, and returning home in the darkness of night, the wheels on one side of his wagon slipped into the pit and turned the conveyance over with him under the loaded wagon. It was thus he was found dead the next morning. The horse had got loose and was feeding nearby. The time of this incident is set in a letter from John Wildridge Little to Feramorz in which he says, "My father (Moses Little) and family arrived at the Little home in Junius, Seneca County, New York, November 5, 1822, and I should say the accident occurred not more than three weeks after our arrival, making the time the last week of November."

In 1814 or 1815 James married Susannah Young, daughter of John Young and Abigail (Nabby) Howe Young, and is a sister to Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and farmed Colonizer of the West. With her parents she moved from Massachusetts to Cayuga County, New York, in 1813, where she met her husband.

At his death she had the three small boys, the youngest, James, was about two and a half months old. A daughter, Eliza, had died earlier; her tombstone with the inscription partly finished was found in the home by the family succeeding the Littles. A few years later Susannah bound out her youngest son James, and then moved to Mendon, New York, where her father and other family members were living. About 1829, she married William B. Stilson.

While here she learned of the new church organized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. In June she was baptized, and suffered many of the persecutions of the Church. She moved with the Saints to Kirtland, Ohio, and then to Nauvoo in 1840. Here her son James found her in poor circumstances. The year following she went to St. Louis, Missouri, where Mr. Stilson was located in the Jefferson Barracks, Camp A-3rd Regiment of Infantry, of the U.S. Army. He had left home earlier and had not been heard from for some years. He reenlisted in Company A-3rd Regiment of Infantry and was given family quarters in the Barracks. Sometime in the spring of 1844 Stilson died from "lung fever."

Her son Feramorz who had also come west now took his mother and half sister Cornelia to do for them what he could. James had enlisted in the Army and marched away to Fort Jessup. Susannah married a third time, Alonzo Pettingill, and when the Saints were expelled from Nauvoo and began their move westward she and her husband, a shoemaker, left the camp of the Saints and went to St. Louis to find a means of subsistence. In February, 1849, Pettingill died of "lung fever." He was buried in a St. Louis graveyard without anything to mark the spot "where lies the remains of a faithful, good man, my father in the Gospel," says James A. Little.

The same year James fitted up an outfit to take his mother and sister Cornelia to the mountains. The date is not remembered, but James A. says, "We left St. Louis quite as soon as the grass began to grow, and arrived at Kanesville about the 1st of June. There they found Susannah's brothers, Phineas H. and Joseph Young with their families. After a pause of ab out three weeks the journey was continued. On this tedious trek, the greatest fear was from stampedes of their cattle, which over balanced the ever fear of Indians.

She arrived in Salt Lake City 17 October 1849. James A. Little said, the place comprised houses enough for a respectable village, had they been closer together, but they were scattered over a large area of ground. For a time, Susannah lived in a one-room adobe house. On the 16 December 1849 she got up a little dinner party to which her brother Brigham was invited. The occasion was the marriage of her son James. Soon after he found a house with two rooms, the one for his mother and sister, the other for himself and wife. The food brought with them was soon exhausted. Food was scarce that winter and consisted mainly of shorts bread and a little tea. Susannah died 5 May 1852 in Salt Lake City, Utah.