Overcoming Burnt Records to Correct a Death Date: Peter Little of Morgan County
November 23, 2025
By: John Little
The Morgan County courthouse in West Liberty was burnt during the Civil War creating a void of records for a large part of its early settlement records. However, even with this limitation, it is possible to use the documents that were left to piece together a robust story that can be used to correct a longstanding family tradition. Peter Little of Gilmore Creek in present day Wolfe County is an ancestor of many eastern Kentucky citizens and has long been a genealogical brick wall. This article uses those records that survived to piece together a more robust picture of Peter Little and perhaps put cracks in that brick wall.
Until now, the timeline of Peter’s death has relied exclusively on a July 1849 deed, where he is positively listed as deceased and in which his heirs sold his Gilmore Creek lands to Phillip Little.1 The Morgan County Courthouse was burnt in 1862, destroying many early records, such as deeds (prior to 1846), court orders (1830-1865), wills, estate filings, and guardianship books (prior to 1855) that would typically be used to determine a more precise death date during this period.2 His burial location is unknown.3 No newspapers from this time and in this area exist documenting his death.4 Without additional records this 1849 deed transaction likely forms the basis for the commonly cited death estimate of circa 1848. However, multiple records provide negative and indirect evidence to support a narrower timeframe for his death:
- Tax Records: Peter Little last appears on the Morgan County tax rolls in 1838, while his son, Peter Little, Jun. appears for the first time.5 The 1839 roll is missing. A solitary Peter Little appears in 1840 and 1841; this individual is identified as son Peter based on the 1841 "Jr." designation and the consistency of the taxable property.6
- Phillip Minton Heirs Deed: Peter Little and his wife, Hannah (Minton), were a party to a deed in Smyth County, Virginia for the heirs of Phillip Minton. Hannah, as required by law, was stated to have been examined separately from her husband by Morgan County, Kentucky justices (Caleb Kash and John Rose) on 8 February 1839.7
- Census Records: The 1840 U.S. Census for Morgan County contains only one household headed by a "Peter Little." The age of this individual (20–30 years) and family composition identifies him as Peter Little Jr.; the elder Peter Little is not enumerated.8 Twelve-year-old Harrison Little is also named as the head of a household in 1840 located just six doors down from his brother Phillip. Hannah Little is notably absent; no female aged 50–60 appears in this entry or in the households of her other children.9
- Wife’s Records: Beginning in 1842 and again in 1844 and 1846, Peter’s wife, Hannah Little, paid tax on 16 acres on Gilmore Creek.10
- Land Holdings: Peter Little requested three surveys on Gilmore Creek, dated 1821, 1833, and 1835.11 The 1849 heirs’ sale placed these at about 200 acres.12
- In 1840 and 1841, Phillip Little appeared as an administrator (for whom is unspecified) and was taxed for 200 acres on Gilmore Creek, matching the description of Peter’s land on the previously mentioned surveys.13
- In 1842, Charles Little was taxed for 200 acres on Gilmore Creek while Phillip was untaxed.14
- In 1847, John F. Little was taxed for 200 acres on Gilmore Creek.15
- In 1848, Harrison Little, age 20, was taxed for 200 acres (no watercourse listed). He held no land in 1847 and none again until 1854, suggesting this may be the same property.16
- For Phillip, Charles and John F., these 200-acre holdings were taxed separately from their other properties. Harrison had no other property. It is possible that Peter’s other children were taxed between 1843-1846, but those property holdings were not broken out clearly to make a definitive case.
Peter Little’s absence from the 1840 census, together with his young son Harrison’s appearance that same year as head of household, is notable and suggests that Peter may have been deceased by that time. Hannah does not appear in Harrison’s household in 1840, however, which leaves open the possibility that she and Peter were both absent from the enumeration area rather than necessarily deceased.
Regardless, when these facts are considered alongside Peter’s disappearance from the tax rolls after 1838, Phillip Little’s role as administrator and taxpayer for the same land Peter previously held starting in 1840, and Hannah’s independent appearance on the rolls beginning in 1842 the most consistent interpretation is that Peter died after the February 1839 Smyth County deed in which Hannah was “examined apart from her husband” and before the 1840 census was taken. The continued taxation of Peter’s land, paid by his heirs through 1849, supports this death range. Together, these records indicate that Peter died between early 1839 and 1840, and certainly no later than 1842.
Conclusion:
The commonly repeated death date of circa 1848 appears to rest solely on the 1849 heirs’ sale and does not account for earlier negative and indirect evidence available in the tax rolls and census records. The February 1839 Smyth County, Virginia heirs deed for Hannah’s father is the last confirmation that Peter was alive. He was no longer enumerated or taxed by 1840. Hannah began paying taxes on land in her own name in 1842, and Peter’s sons continued paying taxes on his land until its sale by the heirs in 1849. Collectively, the evidence supports a death occurring between 1839 – 1840.
Notes:
1 Peter Little Heirs to Phillip Little, deed, 3 July 1849, Morgan County Deed Book E:450, County Court Clerk’s Office, West Liberty, Kentucky; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:111669 : accessed November 10, 2025).
2 Randy Williams (Morgan County Clerk), email message to John Little, November 18, 2025.
3 Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed November 10, 2025), memorial page for Peter Little (1785–1848), Find a Grave Memorial no. 227395798, citing "Burial Details Unknown." This database entry is consistent with the author's physical search of the most likely cemetery candidate, Dunn-Little Cemetery (Rush Fork Road, Gilmore Creek, Morgan County, Ky.) on 15 February 2015, which located several uninscribed fieldstones near Peter Little's historical land but no inscribed marker for Peter.
4 Searches of the Newspapers.com and Chronicling America databases yielded no digitized newspapers for Morgan County, Kentucky, covering the 1835–1850 period. This absence is confirmed by the "U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690–Present" in Chronicling America (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed November 18, 2025), which indicates that West Liberty’s earliest newspapers postdate the relevant period: The Mountain Banner (vol. 1, no. 3, extant July 24, 1880) and The Gem (vol. 6, no. 22, extant February 3, 1887).
5 Morgan County Tax Book, 1838, p. 18, lines 23–24, entry for Little, [illegible]; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 6, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 280. The 1838 tax book is heavily stained. Line 23 reads "Little, [illegible]" with 50 acres; line 24 reads "Same" with 100 acres. This entry is identified as the elder Peter Little because of the acreage (150 total) and his proximity to sons John, Phillip, and Charles. (Note: Peter Little Sr.'s surveys in 1821, 1833, and 1835 account for 200 acres as does the 1849 Heirs Sale; the discrepancy between the 200 surveyed/sold acres and the 150 taxed acres is unexplained.)
6 Morgan County Tax Book, 1840, p. 18, line 19, entry for Peter Little; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 6, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 316; see also Morgan County Tax Book, 1841, p. 19, line 29, entry for Peter Little (Jr.); digital image, FamilySearch, microfilm 8097671, image 348. The 1840 entry lists only 80 acres, a figure significantly different from the 150 acres taxed to Peter Sr. in 1838 and 200 acres owned. By 1841, this individual is taxed on 100 acres and is explicitly identified as "Peter Little Jr." Due to the loss of early deed records, the specific acquisition of the son's 80–100 acres cannot be traced, but the acreage fluctuation clearly distinguishes him from the elder Peter.
7 Phillip Minton Heirs to Mink, deed, January 17, 1839, Smyth County Deed Book 3:64–66, County Clerk's Office, Marion, Va.; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:367514 : accessed October 20, 2025), microfilm 8562414, image 62. The deed includes a certification by Morgan County, Kentucky, justices John Rose and Caleb Kash, dated February 8, 1839, attesting to the separate examination of Hannah Little.
8 1840 U.S. census, Morgan County, Kentucky, population schedule, p. 324 (stamped), line 14, Peter Little; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/usfedcen/ : accessed October 6, 2025); citing National Archives microfilm publication M704, roll 120. The enumerated head of household is a male aged 20–30, consistent with Peter Little Jr. The elder Peter Little, born circa 1768, would have been aged 70–80; no entry matching his demographic profile appears in the county.
9 1840 U.S. census, Morgan County, Kentucky, population schedule, p. 311 (stamped), line 22, Harrison Little; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/usfedcen/ : accessed October 29, 2025); citing National Archives microfilm publication M704, roll 120. While indexers have historically transcribed this name as "Harmon Little" due to ambiguous handwriting, the entry is identified as Harrison Little based on three factors: (1) the male aged 10–15 matches Harrison’s known birth year of 1828; (2) no individual named Harmon Little appears in Morgan County records before or after this date; and (3) the household is located just six doors away from Harrison's brother, Phillip Little (line 16).
10 Morgan County Tax Book, 1842, p. 26, line 3, entry for Hannah Little; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 6, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 391; see also Morgan County Tax Book, 1844, p. 16, line 19, entry for Hannah Little; digital image, FamilySearch, microfilm 8097671, image 439; and Morgan County Tax Book, 1846, p. 17, line 35, entry for Hannah Little; digital image, FamilySearch, microfilm 8097671, image 500. Regarding the 16-acre tract, no deed of conveyance exists due to the 1862 courthouse fire; tax lists provide the only surviving evidence of this transaction.
11 Floyd County Record of Surveys Book A:304–305, survey for Peter Little (50 acres on Gilmore’s Creek), July 26, 1821; County Clerk’s Office, Prestonsburg, Ky.; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ : accessed October 13, 2025), microfilm 8140368, image 158; see also Morgan County Plat Book A:307, survey for Peter Little, (no acreage listed, on Gilmore’s Creek), January 4, 1833; County Court Clerk's Office, West Liberty, Ky.; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/koha:112841 : accessed October 8, 2025), microfilm 8142220, image 162; and also Morgan County Entry Book A:173, entry for Peter Little (100 acres on Rush Fork, Gilmore’s Creek), October 1, 1835; County Court Clerk’s Office, West Liberty, Ky.; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/koha:112841 : accessed October 14, 2025), microfilm 8142220, image 389.
12 Peter Little Heirs to Phillip Little, deed, July 3, 1849, Morgan County Deed Book E:450. The 1833 survey description, which is recited in this 1849 deed, contains significant errors: the calls fail to close by nearly 700 feet and yield only ~30 acres rather than the intended 50. However, the 1849 deed explicitly conveys the same tract as "about 50 acres." This confirms that the heirs considered the estate to comprise the full 200 acres (50+50+100) originally patented, a figure consistent with the tax assessments found throughout the 1840s.
13 Morgan County Tax Book, 1840, p. 18, lines 16–17, entry for Phillip Little; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 6, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 316; see also Morgan County Tax Book, 1841, p. 18, line 29, entry for Phillip Little; digital image, FamilySearch, microfilm 8097671, image 347. In both years, Phillip Little is designated as an administrator ("Adm"/”Admst”) regarding 200 acres on Gilmore Creek. While the decedent is not named, the location and specific acreage (200) correspond to Peter Little’s surveys and the 1849 heirs sale acreage.
14 Morgan County Tax Book, 1842, p. 15, lines 26–27, entry for Charles Little; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 6, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 380. Line 26 taxes Charles Little on 122½ acres on Lacey's Creek. Line 27 lists an additional 200 acres on Gilmore Creek; on this line, the name "David Lykins" was written but struck through, effectively attributing the tract to Charles Little (the preceding entry). This 200-acre Gilmore Creek tract corresponds to the Peter Little estate previously taxed to Phillip Little.
15 Morgan County Tax Book, 1847, p. 18, lines 44–45, entry for John F. Little; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 10, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 566. Line 45 lists the 200-acre tract on Gilmore Creek, consistent with the Peter Little estate previously taxed to Phillip and Charles Little.
16 Morgan County Tax Book, 1848, p. 21, line 19, entry for Harrison Little; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/156772 : accessed October 10, 2025), microfilm 8097671, image 604. Harrison Little is taxed on 200 acres in this singular year. The absence of land ownership in his 1847 assessment and his subsequent landless status from 1849 through 1853 supports the conclusion that this entry represents a temporary assumption of tax liability for the Peter Little estate rather than a personal acquisition.