Warren Little Inducted into SAR

SEELEY LAKE – Having conclusively traced his ancestry back to the Revolutionary War, part-time Missoula, part-time Seeley Lake resident Warren Little became an official member of the Sons of the American Revolution July 4.

Little said he had relatives who were members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and therefore was aware of his probable eligibility in SAR, but he only recently completed the necessary genealogical research. He said he had always been interested in the organization and, since he is almost 88 years old, felt it was time to finalize the research.

"You have to document each generation back to the one who was in the Revolutionary War," Little said, "and then you have to document the fact that he fought in the war. There's a wealth of information out there: old pension records, military records, census records. It's really not that big of a deal, it just takes time. Combing through census records and birth and death records and things like that."

Little's Revolutionary ancestor was Andrew Little, a farmer living in Hunterdon county, N.J. Military and pension records verified that he served in the war along with two of his brothers. Andrew was a "wagon master."

"I think that's just like a teamster today," Little said. "He was a truck driver."

Little has a copy of Andrew's will and also the will of Andrew's father, Thomas. The wills contained instructions for the dispositions of their farmlands and other possessions.

Little said his family were farmers "all the way back." Even the ancestors who later moved to Indiana, Ohio and Minnesota were farmers, as was Little's own father.

Little broke the tradition, however, choosing instead to be an attorney, then an FBI agent and later a security consultant. He said he also spent a couple of years in the Air Force during the Korean War.

One of the pleasant side effects of Little's genealogical search was becoming acquainted with some previously unknown relatives who are still living. Several who had done extensive genealogical searches provided him with interesting insights and helpful information.

According to Little, Montana has a relatively large contingent of SAR members spread across six or seven chapters. The Liberty Tree Chapter covers Missoula and the surrounding area. He said the organization's main goals are to make people more aware of the Constitution, the reasons for the Revolutionary War and why the colonists decided to break away from England.

Dressed in the smock of a colonial farmer, Little was inducted to the SAR contingent at Fort Missoula over the July 4th weekend.

Little said, "We had quite an educational program about the Declaration of Independence – who signed it, even an analysis of their handwriting and how John Hancock's signature was about six inches high and some other guy's was just a sixth of an inch."

As for Little's future participation, he said Seeley Lake resident Bob Green, head of the education section of the Liberty Tree Chapter will be organizing school visits. Little noted the schools encourage visits from veterans of WWII, Vietnam, Iraq and other wars.

He said, "The kids like to hear their history first-hand that way. So we're going to visit schools and talk about the Constitution and about the Revolutionary War."

Little has a daughter and two sons, one of whom died, but no grandchildren. Though his son Douglas intends to become inducted into SAR also, Little said he and Douglas will be the end of their branch of the Little ancestry line.