My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Daniel Asbury Little
Daniel Asbury Little (b. March 06, 1902, d. June 26, 1976)
Notes for Daniel Asbury Little:
Daniel Asbury Little was a graduate of South Dakota State College in Brookings, SD, class of 1926, where he majored in electrical engineering.He was a Phi Beta Kappa & member of the National Honor Society at the college.Daniel played football and was head of the glee club while there.Raised Hampshire swine in his youth for either a 4-H project (or a FFA project, not sure]Went to work for Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburg, PA, after graduating.[He was to work for them again as draftsman in Cleveland, OH, while his family lived in New Springfield, OH, during WWII.]
Daniel was a consummate student in his free time.Became interested in economics, religions, mathematics, teaching, and travel.Always was singing [tenor] in one group or other.Did calculus problems just for fun.[-wal, ed. 1995 ]
He busied himself constructing articles of wood and metal for use around the house.He purchased a Shop-Smith sometime in the 1950's and used it often.Collected books & phonograph records.Loved to dabble in the Stock Market, and although he never owned very many stocks, would spend many hours with his Barron's paper and Dunn & Bradstreet books.
Dan owned property:Lot #1 All [North] Bank Street, Cortland, Trumbull Co., Oh; RD#4, Sharpe Road, Wynatskill, Rensselaer Co., NY;18 Walker Place, Hamburg, Erie Co., NY; 27 Edwards Road, Rensselaer Co., NY. [Only one at a time, however.]
After serving as manager of the A&P grocery store in Poland, Mahoning Co., OH [1931], he married Helen Mary Johnston, secured a loan of $3,000 from Helen's mother, Etta Stewart Johnston, and started Little's Market, Home of Better Foods.Self-serve Super Markets and open credit accounts at the Market caused his business to fail in 1941.He worked at steel mills, commercial Shearing and Sharon Steel after that before hiring on with Republic Steel in Youngstown as a 1st class electriciian.He was promoted to foreman there and promoted again as electrical supervisor at the Troy, Rensselaer Co., NY Coke Plant of Republic Steel.After the coke plant was dismantled, he remained employed at Republic Steel, Troy, NY, until his retirement [1965?].After that, he and his wife, Helen, traveled around the country some getting in touch with relatives.He pulled a 25-foot trailer around with his International Travelall, and later settled for a 3/4 ton Dodge pickup and a 25-foot fifth-wheel trailer.It was his insistance about pushing the truck out of the mud, after getting it stuck, that brought on the heart problems that finally killed him.Just a few years before his death, he taught Electrical Construction at Hudson Valley community college to help supplement his pension from Republic Steel and the Social Security benefits.An avid family history photographer, he took mainly Kodachrome transparencies) Dan was working on the family history with Orrin William Main in those pre-PC Computer days prior to Dan's death in June 1976.
While residing in Cortland, OH, he took many courcses to get a teaching certificate at Youngstown College and furthered his public speaking skills by taking all the Dale Carnegie courses offered at that time.He also repaied and reconditioned refrigerators and air conditioners, working out of the small barn/garage on the N. Bank St., Cortland, OH, property and became a Crosley Shelvadoor Refrigerator Dealer just prior to the expiriation of the copywright that Crosley had on the refrigerator door shelving.
Both Dan and Helen were garage sale and auction addicts and derived much enjoyment from those pursuits.
Sometime prior to his working in the steel mills, Dan was employed as an instructor at the Air Conditioning Training Corporation on Wick Avenue, Youngstown, OH, owned by a family named GLUCK.It was basically a correspondence school except for the on-premises final exams, and both air conditioning and refrigeration were the subjects taught.
Dan missed having to perform military service in WWI because he was too young; and in WWII, because he was too old.
He played piano and guitar for recreation.He liked playing "Edelweiss Glide" on the piano, sang tenor on the many folk and traditional songs and the songs he had learned over the years at the glee club in college and by singing with various community groups and at church.He took to Hawaiian music at the last; even modified his guitar, at one point, so he could play Hawaiian music on it.
He would spend his vacations by taking his family to visit other family menbers, usually in South Dakota and Iowa, from where his homes were in Ohio, and later, in upstate New York.His eldest son, William Abbott Little, has his complete collection of 35mm Kodachrome slides, with indexes, that he had taken of family members and family groups since the mid 1930's until his death in 1976, as well as all his notes on the Family History (that he had done in collaboration with Orrin William Main].
William Abbott Little has all Dan's family history notes and papers as well as the notes that were supplied him [WAL] from Georgia Clark, a long-time family friend, about the Johnston Family History.
Dan Little died a week before he could attend the 50th reunion of his graduating class at South Dakota State College in Brookings, SD, and before the marriage of his first grandson, Bruce Lynn Little and Carolyn Lorraine Countaway, scheduled for the same day [July 3, 1976].[per-wal,ed.June 30, 1997]
More About Daniel Asbury Little:
Burial: June 29, 1976, Memories Garden, Colonie, Albany Co., NY.
More About Daniel Asbury Little and Helen Mary Johnston:
Marriage: August 22, 1931, Poland, Mahoning Co., OH.
Children of Daniel Asbury Little and Helen Mary Johnston are:
- +William Abbott Little, b. May 30, 1932, N. Side Hosp., Youngstown, Mahoning Co., OH.
- +Lawrence Johnston Little, b. October 31, 1935, Youngstown, Mahoning Co., OH, d. May 19, 1999, Balston Lake, Saratoga Co., NY( Cremated ).
- +Charles Edwin Little, b. March 18, 1937, Youngstown, Mahoning Co., OH.