Charles F. Little, M. D., one of the leading members of the medical fraternity of Manhattan, vice-president of the First National Bank, president of the Building, Loan & Savings Association, and president of the Carnegie Free Library Board of Manhattan, is a pioneer who has spent nearly fifty years in the state; and he is a typical Kansan, who has proved himself the worthy scion of fine old New England ancestors. He was born at Milford, N. H., Jan. 27, 1836, son of Caleb J. T. and Eliza Ann (Brooks) Little. His father was born at Goffstown, N. H., July 13, 1811, son of Abner B. and Nancy (Tenney) Little, who lived in the country, on a farm. Caleb Little was reared there, and after attending the country school learned the blacksmith's trade. In 1837 the family moved to Illinois, and there Abner Little died. Caleb J. T. Little never followed his trade in the West, but engaged in the mercantile business for some years and then became an auctioneer, which vocation he followed the last years of his life. He died in 1897, having reached the hale old age of eighty-six years. Eliza Ann Brooks was born at Groton, Mass., in 1813, daughter of Capt. Leonard and Sarah (Hosely) Brooks, both descended from early New England settlers. She met Caleb J. T. Little and was married to him in 1834, a few years before they moved to their western home, in Illinois.

Charles F. Little was brought to Illinois by his mother when only two years of age. The family located in Henry county, where the boy was reared, and he attended the public schools of Wethersfield. While still a youth he determined to make his life work the study and practice medicine, and with this end in view began to read in a local doctor office. After several years spent in this manner he matriculated at Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1860. For a year he practiced without having received his degree, but returned to the college and graduated in 1863. On Feb. 16, of that year, he was made assistant surgeon of the Nineteenth Illinois infantry and served in that capacity until mustered out of the service at Chicago, in July 1864. Soon after leaving the army he located at Princeton, Ill., and remained there until he came to Kansas, in 1866. He located at Manhattan, where he became one of the pioneer practitioners of that locality, and he remembers well many hardships and discouragements which confronted him during the early days of settlement. At that time he was frequently confronted with what seemed to be almost insurmountable difficulties, but viewed through the mellowing glass of time they now form the subject for many a laughing reminiscence by the older physicians. From 1870 to 1875 he was on a farm in Pottawatomie county, but returned to Manhattan and since then has had no interruption to his medical career. As the population has grown and the country has settled up, so in proportion has the Doctor's practice increased. He is loved by the old settlers, to whom he ministered in the hard years of drought, famine, and flood, while the younger generation relies upon him as a man of varied and wide experience. As a result he has a very large and paying practice; but though wedded to his chosen calling, he is public-spirited and has taken an active part in every movement to build up the city of his adoption, and he is an enthusiastic Kansan. He helped organize the First National Bank of Manhattan and has been a director since the foundation of that institution. About fifteen years ago he was elected vice-president of the bank, a position of trust and responsibility, which he has most ably filled. For over twenty-five years he has been a member of the Building, Loan & Savings Association and for fifteen years has served as its president. From his boyhood he has been a scholar, and it was but fitting that he should be chosen president of the Carnegie Library Board of Manhattan, one of the institutions, free to the public, which is of untold benefit to a city. In politics the Doctor is a progressive Republican and was chairman of the Republican committee for over fourteen years. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Kansas legislature, helped elect Haskell speaker, and was one of the members of that body who actively supported and aided in passing the bill, appropriating money for the sufferers from drought and grasshoppers. The government appointed him local pension examiner more than a quarter of a century ago, and he has ever been willing to fill this office and advise any of the brave band of men who so loyally defended the Union.

Just before coming to Kansas, in 1866, Dr. Little married Charlotte, daughter of Capt. Samuel Swift, of Princeton Ill. Five children were born to this union: Eliza Ada is the wife of E. J. MacEwan, of Kalamazoo, Mich; Nellie Perkins is the wife of C. J. Dobbs, an attorney of Seattle, Wash.; Blanche Alpine is deceased; Bessie Bell is a graduate physician of the Woman's Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., and has her office with Dr. Little; and Frederick Swift is deceased. Fraternally, the Doctor is associated with the Masonic fraternity. After rearing her family and seeing some of them mature into bright, energetic womanhood, Mrs. Little passed to her last rest, Aug. 24, 1909, leaving a sad and lonely family to mourn the mother, who had been a comforter for so many years.