The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965 Page: 239
574 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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George Washington Littlefield
and "went to work to make the best, as he thought, of a miser-
able life, having to carry his crutches everywhere."' By the end
of 1867, however, he was able to walk without aid. It was a
remarkable recovery.
Littlefield assumed control of a family plantation in his effort
"to make the best" and to his pleasant surprise, the opera-
tion proved a success. The situation looked bright until 1868,
when worms consumed the cotton and a drought seriously in-
jured the corn. Persistent, Littlefield planted again the next year,
but a disastrous flood washed away his prospects. Still optimistic,
the young man tightened his belt for another try, but a second
flood devastated the crops for the third year of failure.
Undaunted Littlefield cast about for a way to pay off the
heavy debts bearing 24 per cent interest which he had incurred
trying to make a crop on the farm. He noticed that cattle, which
had increased greatly in numbers during the four years of civil
war and were of little value in Texas except as barter and food,
were being driven north where they were in demand and were
sold for a considerable profit. Hoping to extricate himself from
debt, in 1871, Littlefield gathered together a herd of about 1,300
head-6oo of his own and the rest bought on credit-and drove it
to Abilene, Kansas. This first drive, the only one he bossed per-
sonally, proved so profitable that though he kept his farms, Little-
field turned his major attention to cattle.
Based upon the growth he experienced in his first six years
with cattle, Littlefield realized that he could not control single-
handedly his entire expanding operation-the buying, the selling,
the ranch managing, in short, both the office and the field work.
Though he had received assistance in the field from his nephew
Shelton C. Dowell," it was from 1877 when J. Phelps White" and
6L. E. Daniell, Types of Successful Men of Texas (Austin, 1890), 351.
"Shelton C. Dowell, son of Sarah White and Granville Dowell, was born on Jan-
uary 24, 1853, in Gonzales. He married Elizabeth H. Gillespie on September 24,
1879, and died on December 2, 1885. He and "Lizzie" were the parents of five
children, two of whom will be mentioned later: Shelton Junior born in 1880,
and Maurice H. born in 1884. Mrs. Julian C. Lane, Key & Allied Families (States-
boro, Georgia, 1931), 351.
"James Phelps White, son of Thomas J. and Martha Phelps White, was born on
December 21, 1856, in Gonzales, Texas. He married Lou Tomlinson on July 22, 1903,
and died on October 21, 1934. Ibid., 350. He was a cattleman first, a wealthy cattle-
man second, and a cattleman pursuing other interests, such as politics, later.239
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965, periodical, 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101198/m1/279/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.