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ALEXANDER H. LITTLE. — Among Benton county citizens who look back to the "Buckeye State" as the place of their nativity is Alexander H. Little, a farmer on section 25, Iowa township, who was born near Mansfield, Richland county, Ohio, March 31, 1845, son of Alexander H. and Catherine (Bickle) Little.
Alexander H. Little, Sr., was born in Canada in 1821, and died in Indiana in 1845, not long after the birth of his only child. His widow, born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, June 3, 1824, married for her second husband William Stuckenbruck, who was born in Germany November 14, 1814, and who died August 10, 1875. By her second marriage she had six children, namely: William; Mary J., wife of I. Berkheimer; Emma, wife of Charles Schuchert; Herman C., Joseph C. and David—all of Iowa, and all of Iowa township, Benton county, except William, who lives in Kosta, and Joseph C., in Sioux City. The mother is also a resident of Iowa township and is now eighty-six years old.
In May, 1853, William Stuckenbruck and his family, including the subject of this sketch, who was then eight years old, left Richland county, Ohio, with a wagon and team of horses en route to Iowa City, Iowa, where they arrived in the following September, having made the journey across a roadless and bridgeless country, many times where the streams were high swimming the horses and floating the wagon. For a short time Mr. Stuckenbruck worked in Iowa City for thirty-three and a third cents a day and received his pay in "wild-cat" money. Soon they settled in Iowa City where they made their home for seven years, and from whence, In the fall of 1860, they moved to Benton county, purchased forty acres of land on section 32, and there erected a log house. In this home the father died.
Alexander H. Little passed his boyhood in Iowa City and on the farm in Benton county, and at an early age was enthused with patriotism and eager to go out and fight for his country. Accordingly, in 1863, he enlisted in the Union army, but at that time was not allowed by his parents to go to the front. On January 4, 1864, he again enlisted, and this time entered the ranks as a member of Company G, Twenty-eighth Iowa Regiment, the fortunes of which he shared until his honorable discharge, July 31, 1865, at Savannah, Georgia. During his service he was in thirteen skirmishes and a number of battles, including Fisher Hill, Sabine Cross Roads, Cane River, Middle Bayou, Cedar Creek, Yellow Bayou and Winchester; and while he had holes shot in his clothes and a lock of hair cut from his head by a bullet he never received a wound.
After receiving his discharge Mr. Little returned to Benton county, and that same year purchased eighty acres of his present farm in section 25, Iowa township, which was then covered with bushes and timber. These he grubbed out and hued down and in time erected buildings and placed his land under cultivation. He had learned the carpenter's trade of his father-in-law and worked at it at intervals, and the buildings on his farm are all his own handiwork. He now owns one hundred and fifteen acres of fine land, well improved, and farmed by Mr. Little's son.
On December 4, 1871, Mr. Little married Miss Mary A. Schuchert, who was born in New York state November 10, 1853, daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Standt) Schuchert. Her father, born in Saxony, Germany, in 1820, died July 3, 1903; her mother, born in Baden, Germany, in 1828, died March 27, 1875. They were the parents of ten children, of whom seven are now living, namely: Charles, Mary A. and George, all of Iowa township, Benton county; Rosa, wife of W. K. Dodd, of Iowa county, Iowa; Sophia, wife of John Brown, also of Iowa county; Loueza, wife of S. T. Carter, of Minnesota; and Jacob, of Iowa. Jacob Schuchert on coming to this country first stopped in Rochester, New York, where he worked at the trade of cabinet maker. In 1850 he moved to Iowa, making the journey by team from New York, Iowa City his objective point. There he worked at his trade until 1862, when he moved to Tama county, where he lived until 1865, that year moving to Iowa township, Benton county, and later to LeRoy township. Finally he returned to Luzerne, where he died. While a resident of Tama county, he made many of the coffins used in that locality. Mr. and Mrs. Little have four children: Cecelia, wife of Sylvester Layman, of LeRoy township; Amie, wife of Carlos Tippie, of Iowa township; Iona, wife of James Miner, also of Iowa township; and Alexander C., on the home farm.
Politically Mr. Little has been a life long Republican. But he has never desired office and he is a self-made man.
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