Lewis Publishing Company, 1904

Transcribed from the original book by Kristin J. Vaughn © 2008

Dan L. Littrell Page 565 Dan L. Littrell, a prominent and highly esteemed citizen of Endicott, is one of the oldest settlers of Jefferson county, having settled here thirty-five years ago. He is one of the few remaining veterans of the Civil war, having shown the utmost degree of loyalty to his country before he had reached his majority, and nearly all the years of his life since then have been spent in honorable activity in Nebraska. He is a man of enterprise and business ability, popular among friends and associates, and public-spirited in his relations to the general welfare of town and country. Mr. Littrell was born in Clermont county, Ohio, March 9, 1845, a grandson of George Littrell, who was a native of Switzerland. His father, William Littrell, was born in Virginia, and married Miss Marie Jackson, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. These parents are both deceased, having passed away in Jefferson county, Indiana, the mother at the age of thirty-eight and the father at seventy-two. The latter was a farmer, a Democrat in politics, and was a much respected man in his community. They had nine children, eight sons and one daughter, and the following sons were soldiers in the Union army: George, in the Sixth Indiana Infantry; Liness, in the Thirteenth Indiana; Sam, also in the Thirteenth; Dan L., in the Second Indiana Cavalry; and Luther, in the Second Indiana Cavalry. The parents were both members of the Baptist church. Dan L. Littrell was reared in Ohio, and after full attendance at the public schools taught for awhile. In September, 1862, when seventeen years old, he enlisted at Indianapolis, Indiana, on Lincoln's call for sixty thousand troops, in Company D, Second Indiana Cavalry, Captain Barnett and Colonel Robert Stewart. He was in General Mitchell's command at the battle of Murfreesboro; he was with General Wilson's splendid cavalrymen in his most famous raid of the Civil war through the south, when that general captured Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, besides other fortified towns. He was also at the battles of Resace, Rome, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Franklin, and the battle at Nashville, which is considered the hottest of the war considering the number engaged. He received a flesh wound in the right ankle, and was also confined for a time in Louisville with the typhoid fever. He received his honorable discharge at the close of service, and went home conscious of having rendered gallant service to his country. In 1868 he came to Nebraska and homesteaded a place eight miles north of Fairbury, Jefferson county, where he farmed successfully for some years, and came to Endicott twenty-one years ago. Mr. Littrell was married in Jefferson county, Indiana, in 1867, to Miss Nancy J. Gardner, who has been his noble and devoted helpmate for thirty-seven years. She was born and reared in Indiana, a daughter of William and Asenath (Shorte) Gardner; the former was born in Meigs county, Ohio, February 14, 1817, and died in the same state at the age of seventy-eight, and the latter was born in Ohio and died aged seventy-five. Two of their sons were soldiers, Ben H. Gardner in the Fifty-sixth Indiana, now deceased, and William Gardner in the Eighty-second Indiana, now lives in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Littrell have had nine children, and all are living: Hattie, Carrie, Denmer, Maud, Mattie, Liness, Pearl, Addie and Nellie. Mr. Littrell is a stanch advocate of Republican principles, and is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.