banker philanthropist cattleman
George Washington Littlefield was born on June 21, 1842 in Panola County, Mississippi, United States, the child of Fleming and Mildred M. (Satterwhite) Littlefield. His father, a cotton planter, emigrated to Texas to settle in Gonzales County in 1850. Three years later he died and left the problems of an extensive plantation and two hundred slaves to the management of his capable wife.
In August 1861 George W. Littlefield enlisted in Company I of the 8th Texas Cavalry, known to fame as Terry's Texas Rangers, and served until the Civil War was almost over. As a lieutenant he fought at Shiloh, where his company lost one-third of its men; as a captain he experienced heavy fighting under Bragg. He fought at Chickamauga and at the battle of Lookout Mountain.
Late in December 1863, while he held the brevet rank of major, he suffered a severe wound; and several months afterward was mustered from service and returned to Texas apparently a hopeless invalid. His health improved, however, while he was managing a family plantation and operating a small country store, and when the floods of the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers destroyed the local crops in 1871, he retrieved the family fortune by driving a herd of Texas cattle over the trail to Abilene, Kansas. Seeing the possibilities of driving cattle from the over-crowded ranges of Texas to the markets of the Middle West, he formed a mercantile and trail-driving partnership which lasted seven years and proved very profitable.
In 1877 he established a cattle ranch on the free, open ranges of the Panhandle near Tascosa which in 1881 he sold to a Scotch company for $253, 000. Another ranch which he located on the Pecos River in New Mexico in 1882 soon ranged 40, 000 head of cattle and spread the fame of Littlefield's LFD brand the length of the West. In 1883 he moved from Gonzales to Austin, where in 1890 he organized the American National Bank. Its growth was rapid, and he served as its president until his death. The great bronze doors of its present building, embossed with herds of LFD cattle, still suggest the basis of its origin. In time murals were painted upon the walls depiciting the work of handling approximately 70, 000 cattle upon 450, 000 acres in the Littlefield name.
In 1912 Littlefield's attention was attracted to the need of a great depository of Southern historical source material, and two years later he established the Littlefield Fund for Southern History at the University of Texas, an endowment which he later enlarged to $125, 000, the income from which was to be used "for the full and impartial study of the South and its part in American History. " The interest thus encouraged led him to make further gifts and bequests: $225, 000 for the purchase of the Wrenn Library, $350, 000 for the Alice Littlefield Dormitory, $250, 000 for an entrance to the University commemorating great Southern statesmen, $500, 000 to apply on the construction of a main building, besides other generous donations. He died at the age of seventy-nine in Austin, Texas.
Littlefield established himself as a prosperous planter; he acquired ranches and plantations all over Texas. By the early 1880s, he owned rights to over four million acres in eastern New Mexico and hundreds of thousands of acres in various parts of Texas. He was the founder the American National Bank. One of his most lasting contribution to the history and culture of Texas was his patronage of the University of Texas. The town of Littlefield, Texas was named for him.
He was an adherent of the Southern Presbyterian Church.
He was a strong supporter of the Democratic Party.
Littlefield had the traditional characteristics of the Western man in that he was easily approached and generous hearted. He was of heavy, medium stature, while his ruddy complexion suggested the man of the open rather than the office.
On January 14, 1863, Littlefield married Alice P. Tiller of Houston, Texas. They had two children, both of whom died in infancy
