Henry Little horticultural scrapbook

Henry Little (1788-1878) was a horticulturalist and the proprietor of Henry Littlle and Co., a Bangor nursery specializing in fruit trees, which flourished in the 1840s and 1850s.

Little was born August 16, 1788 in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of the Little family of Newbury. As a youth, he moved to Maine. Little was a veteran of the War of 1812, and was present at Castine when it was captured by the British. In 1829, then residing in Bucksport, he joined the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He moved to Bangor in 1836, where he established his nursery and became a leading figure in Maine horticulture. As a horticulturalist, Little focused on developing fruit varieties that would thrive in New England, and he wrote numerous articles on the subject which were published in local and national publications. He was a founder and long-time president of the Bangor Horticultural Society, president of the Maine Board of Agriculture, and a regular Maine delegate to national pomological conventions. He was also a master Mason in the Rising Virtue Lodge of Bangor. In 1873, Col. Little moved to Boston to be near his children. He died May 26, 1878, and is buried in Moun Auburn Cemetery. Upon his death he was vice-president of the Massachusetts Association of the Survivng Soliders of teh War of 1812. His wife, Sophia Little, preceded him in death by five days. She was a daughter of Hon. Ephraim Goodale of Orrington, Maine.