GEORGE WASHINGTON LITTLEFIELD A Texa n a n d His $ n iver sity T H E $ NI$ E $ S I T$ $ $ TE $ A S W A S I N I T S I N fancy when $ a $or George Washington Lit tl efiel d , joined by other men of vision , breathed into it the vitality essential to its Littl efiel d early development . was a staunch supporter of education who invested himself and his wealth in the future of The University of Texas . His devotion to the University has had an incalculable and ever-increas ing in flu ence upon the state . It would not be possible to tell the story of The Univers ity of Texas without telling the it l fi l o L t e e d . story of Ge rge W . Any account of the institution or of the man ’ must inevitably involve the story of one man s association with the in stitu tion of learning he loved . Littl efiel d . Major was aptly described by his friend , Judge Nelson W Phil “ a t Littl efie l d as m a n f lips , the dedication of Alice Dormitory a unaf ected and unstudied , Spartan in the ruggedness and directness of his character . He cared nothing for eulogy or praise . He never sought distinction or public honors . What he accomplished in every phase of his life , he earned . What he valued most in men was simple sincerity and steadfastness of conviction . L $ $ A i $ na 30x24 n c h es . E$ T $ OO N O E$ L ITTL E $ IE L D by DON L D W EI S $ A N N $ l . Si e of origi l i He tolerated nothing less in himself , and because of that he prized most these ” attributes in other men . Littl efi el d 2 1 1 8 2 George Washington was born June , 4 , in Panola County, Littl fi l d . e e Mississippi , the eldest of four children His father was Flemming , His a native of Tennessee and a cotton planter born to plantation life . l mother , the former Mi dred Terrell Satterwhite , was a native of Georgia - b and a member of a close knit family proud of its ancestry . Two years efore 1 8 1 Littl e fie l d a of her marriage in 4 to , brother her plantation overseer , she had been widowed by John Henry White and left with six children to rear . Because the marriage caused some dissension among their several fam il i s Littl fiel d 1 e e s 8 0 . , the emigrated to Texas in 5 Here the family settled in the rich Guadalupe River valley region near Belmont , where they engaged in farming . George was eight years old at the time of the move ; when he was eleven , his father died of pneumonia . A tutor on the riverside plantation gave young George his fi rs t years of education . His experience with a formal school began when he was twelve 6 . 1 8 years old at Gonzales , where he remained in school for two years In 5 he t entered Baylor University , then located at Independence in Washing on hi . s County After ten months , he returned home to help mother with the management of her business . Although he enjoyed being away from school , he later studied briefly under Professor A . A . Brook in Gonzales ; but as one “ biographer phrased it , he stopped school like a great many young men , thinking he had enough education . Formal education did not always seem important to young men growing up close to a frontier which placed a pre - - mium on self reliant practicality rather than on book learning . The easy tenor of plantation life was interru pted by the outbreak of the l fi Civil War . The young George Litt e e l d enlisted in the summer of 1 86 1 as a ’ private in Company I of the Eighth Texas Cavalry , better known as Terry s $ Texas Range rs . He was barely nineteen when his unit headed for the irginia Littl efi l fr e front . e d made a resp onsible soldier and promotion came to him s was quently , de pite his youth and often over his protests . He on the com r o Ch ica ma u a pany roster at Shiloh , Mu freesb ro and g , a few of the war experiences which moti vated a lifelong dedication to t he South and to South e m history . u Littl efiel d The fighting was interr pted for , now a captain , when in 1 8 6 2 November , , he was one of three from his unit sent back to Texas on a m r m recruiting mission . This visit ho e pe mitted him to resu e an interrupted 1 1 86 romance , and on January 4 , 3 , in Houston , Texas , Alice Payne Tillar Littl e fie l d became Mrs . George W . A short three weeks later the leave was over, and the bridegroom returned to his regiment in Tennessee . 1 86 rn Christmas Day , 3 , passed without the anticipated Northe advance f on Mossy Creek , now Jef erson City , in eastern Tennessee , but on the follow ing morning artillery fire erupted early . Acting Lieutenant Colonel Little fiel d was sitting astride his horse when a shell exploded near him , and a piece of shrapnel struck the cartridge box on his pistol belt , detonating some f - of the shells . He suf ered a severe wound in the left hip . As the twenty one y - fi b ear old of cer lay on the ground leeding , his commander , Brigadier General om Thomas Harrison , rode by and paused long enough to pr ote him to the “ ” rank of major for gallantry on the field of battle . Littl efiel d was With the help of Nathan Stokes , his Negro body servant , o w taken fr m the battlefield to the rear of the lines , where he lay ithout med ical help until late into the night ; the regimental surgeon hesitated even to “ waste morphine on a lad whom he thought surely would die before dawn . In spite of this , General Harrison ordered the ugly wound dressed , and Lit ’ l efi l d t e s . long battle toward recovery began Nathan and Ed T Rhodes , a fellow soldier from Seguin , Texas, cared for their comrade through a suc 1 86 cession of tiring moves around the country . It was not until the fall of 4 , after resigning from the Army of the Confederate States , that the disabled Littl e fie l d r of - retu ned to his Texas home and his wife twenty one months . He 1 86 r e returned on crutches , which were discarded by the end of 7 after a markable and determined recovery . n m be O ce back in Gonzales County , he assu ed control of the plantation longing to himself and a brother and undertook to rebuild the family for . 1 868 1 86 tune Conditions grew increasingly better until the crops of , 9 , and 1 8 0 7 were either eaten by worms , scorched by drought , or washed away by overflows of the Guadalupe and San Marcos Rivers . Three bad years in a row left the hardworking young man with little but s h im his property and mounting debts . Thi situation changed from planter m . S $ f 1 8 1 o to stock an In the pring 7 , with cattle from his farm and the ther to $ . stock he was able to buy on credit , he headed up a drive Abilene , ansas Within ninety days he was home with enough money to pay his debts and t still repor a modest profit . in He was never to be in serious financial diffi culty again . Although he in m s o vested a ercantile bu iness with J C . Dilw rth , a boyhood friend in Littl e fie l d Gonzales , cattle remained his major interest . The name of was thenceforth to be associated irrevocably with the expanding cattle economy . 1 8 of Texas In 7 7 , he stocked a range in Oldham County, near Tascosa , with the LIT brand ; this ranch he sold four years later to the Prairie Cattle 2 - Company, a Scotch syndicate , for $ 5 which seemed to the thirty nine -$ l d year rancher to be a fortune , but he soon learned that his world opened wider with each transaction and the demands on his estate became corre spon din gl y greater . Littl e fie l d By now Major had persuaded John Wilburn , James Phelps , h - ff and Thomas David White , t ree sons of his half brother , Thomas Je erson in Littl e fiel d . White , to join the ranching ventures With their help , he opened the LFD spread on the Pecos River in New Mexico ; next came a model t r s ock fa m and apple orchard near Roswell , New Mexico , which he owned Wil b u m with John Phelps White . In partnership with John White , he ac $ quired properties in Mason , Menard , and imble counties in Texas . 1 0 1 Littl efiel d In 9 , Major contracted with the Capitol Syndicate , the r $ Chicago firm that const ucted the Texas Capitol , for the ellow House Di ’ $ I Littl e fie l d s T . vision of the Ranch , about acres With Major $ encouragement , the Santa Fe Railroad crossed the ellow House Ranch , - and he set aside a acre tract alongside the tracks for colonization . Arthur P .