James Cain “Jimmy” LITTLE was born on 7 Feb 1846 in Louisville, Jefferson, GA. The Little family had been in the area around Louisville and Queensborough since the early 1700’s. They were Ulster-Scots originally from the Borders of Scotland and came to Georgia to raise cattle and farm.
As a boy, he lived on his father’s farm in Louisville and enlisted on 4 Aug 1863 in the Confederate cavalry. He served as a private in Company F of the 8th Regiment Georgia Cavalry, Deering’s Brigade. On returning home he joined a mercantile company in Louisville and swore an oath of allegiance to the United Sates following the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and qualified to register to vote on 18 Jul 1867.
In Feb 1904 James founded Little & Clark Company, a mercantile concern, in Louisville with his long-time friend Samuel Clark. This grew to be the largest mercantile house in Jefferson County.
He also maintained a large farm and was the founder and first President of the Louisville & Wadley Railroad.
He was a member of the Ebenezer Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Wrens, Georgia, and was known to be very pious. He would not even allow a paper to be delivered to his home on Sunday. He died on 5 Nov 1917 and is buried at Ebenezer ARP Church.
James was married twice. First to Mary Virginia “Jennie” Fleming from Columbus, Ga on 9 May 1872. Together they had eight children but Jennie died young in 1886.
Jimmy then married Eleanor “Nellie” Little Patterson (yep, her full name was Eleanor Little Patterson Little … they were actually second cousins … and why my father always said “we didn’t have a family tree as much as a family grapevine”). Together they had six more children. Nellie passed away in 1948, thirty-one years after Jimmy.