Custer County, OK Biographies

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Custer County, OK Biographies

SAMUEL H. LITTLE.

One of the old names in America today is that of Little, the family having been established in the South in early colonial times, and being identified with American history in a worthy manner from that time down to the present date. The house of Little supplied many of the pioneers that have figured so prominently in the development of the new places within our borders and much history has been written around certain picturesque and immortal souls connected with this family, as a result of their lives of aggressive and progressive activities. Samuel H. Little has carried the pioneer spirit that dominated his ancestors into one of the most recent developed sections of our country. He came to Custer County, Oklahoma, a pioneer in the best sense of the word, and from then to now he has been identified in a creditable manner with the development of this district. He is mayor of Custer City, and president of the Peoples State National Bank, and altogether, is one of the foremost men in the county today. He was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, on November 5, 1858, and is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Jones) Little.

Samuel Little is a native south of North Carolina, born there in 1810, and he died in Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1888. From North Carolina he moved to Smith County, Tennessee, and then to Lincoln County, where he was married, and where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a successful farming man and stockgrower, and was a leader in his community all his days. He was a relative of Daniel Boone, that historic old character, and was himself an interesting raconteur of pioneer tales. He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was for forty years a steward in its service. He was married to Sarah Jones in 1840. She was born in Tennessee in 1820 and died in that state in 1898. The son of these worthy people, Samuel H. Little of this review, attended the common schools of Lincoln County, Tennessee, in seeking the elements of an education. Beyond that his educational advantages were negligible. He remained on the home farm with his parents until he was twenty-two years old, and from 1880 to 1900 he farmed on his own responsibility in Lincoln County.

The year 1900 saw Mr. Little 's advent into Custer City, Oklahoma, where he was drawn by the irresistible call of a new country to a man of pioneer ancestry and instincts. He filed on a government claim of 160, six miles southeast of Custer City, lived on it until 1904 and sold it advantageously. He then moved to Elk City, where he hold an interest in the telephone exchange there until 1906, and in that year he went to Deaf Smith County, Texas, and operated a ranch for two years,. In 1908, however, he returned to Custer City, and here he engaged in cattle buying and selling. He is still active in that line, though his numerous other interests make heavy demands upon his time and attention. In the same year of his return to Custer City, Mr. Little entered the Peoples State National Bank in an official capacity, and since 1909 he has held the office of president of that institution. The hank was organized in 1901 as the Peoples State Bank, under the direction and management of C. O. Leeka and the Messrs. Peckham. In 1911 it was nationalized under the name of the Peoples State National Bank. Its present officers are as follows: Mr. Little, president ; vice-presidents, Dr. K. D. Gossom and G. G. Hostutler; cashier, Tom Chatburn, and assistant- cashier, Herman Klinger. The bank has a capital stock of $25,000, and a surplus of $5,000.

Mr. Little was married in 1877 in his native state, to Miss Maggie George, who died in 1899, the mother of five children. They are: Samuel Jesse, a practicing physician in Mineo, Oklahoma; John Lee, a farmer in Custer City; J. B., similarly occupied here; W. P., a hardware merchant in this city; Thomas Boone, a Custer County farming man. Mr. Little is a democrat, and he has served the city two years as a member of its council. In the spring of 1915 he was elected to the office of mayor on the democratic ticket, and is now filling that office in a highly creditable manner. He is a member of the Primitive Baptist Church, and he is a Mason and a Woodman of the World. His Masonic affiliations are with Custer Lodge No. 258, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is past master of that lodge. In 1902 Mr. Little was married in Custer County, to Miss Anna Chalfant, daughter of W. F. Chalfant, a prominent farmer of the county, now deceased. Two children were born to them : Helen and Aaron, both attending school in Custer City. The Littles have a pleasant home in Custer City, and enjoy the friendship of a wide circle of the best people in the county. They are prominently identified with the leading social activities of their community, and are reckoned to be representative people in the city and county. [Submitted by Janice Rice]

JOHN DAVIS GARNER.

While his name is now most familiar to the people of Custer County as president of the Farmers' State Guaranty Bank at Thomas, Mr. Garner was one of the real pioneers of this section of the state and has been variously identified with farming, merchandising, banking and public affairs for fully fifteen years. The family which he represents is of old colonial American stock, the Garners having come from Ire- laud to South Carolina, and the great-grandfather of the Thomas banker lived at Pendleton, South Carolina, and from that locality offered his services as a soldier during the Revolutionary war. John Davis Garner is a Georgia man by birth, born at Gainesville in Hall County, October 22, 1868. His father, Joseph A. Garner, who spent his active career as a farmer and stock man, was born at Gainesville in 1846 and died there in 1891. For eighteen months he was a soldier in the Confederate army. His church was the Baptist. Joseph A. Garner married Louisa Whelchel, who was born in Gainesville in 1847 and died in 1886. Their children were: John D.; India, the wife of W. S. Huff, an attorney at Dahlonega, Georgia; Eula is the wife of Herbert S. Blackwell, of Lula, Georgia, and Mr. Blackwell for twenty-one years has been an engineer in the service of the Southern Railway and the company ranks him No. 1 for efficiency; Cynthia married George W. Shackleford, an attorney living in Florida; Henry A. is a railroad man at Lula, Georgia; Robert C. is a farmer at Price, Georgia; and Joseph E. died in infancy. The educational training with which Mr. Garner started life was acquired in the public schools at Gainesville, and he was graduated from the high school with the class of 1886. The next fourteen years he spent as a Georgia farmer. In January, 1900, he came to Oklahoma, for about three weeks was located at El Reno, and then went out to Dewey County, where he spent twelve months in preparing the first and only map of its kind showing in red ink the allotments of every Indian of the Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo reservation. Obviously this was a work of great value to the early settlers there. Having perfected this map, Mr. Garner bought a farm of 320 acres three miles northwest of Fay. He still owns that property, though it has been operated under a renter since 1906. In 1905 Mr. Garner moved to Thomas, and was actively engaged in the mercantile business there until 1910. The greater part of that year he spent on the old home farm of 350 acres near Gainesville, Georgia, and this estate is now included in his property holdings. Returning to Thomas in October, 1910, he resumed his merchandising activities, and gave them his active supervision until August 12, 1913. At that date he became identified with the Farmers State Guaranty Bank as cashier. A few weeks later, October 15, 1913, he reorganized the bank, and has since been its executive head. Mr. Garner is an excellent financier, and under his management the bank has prospered as never before in its history, and the State Banking Department has had occasion to comment most favorably several times upon its management. [Submitted by Janice Rice]