The earliest papers in the collection pertain to Pratt Wilton Jessup (1772-1858), a Quaker from Guilford County, North Carolina, who married Hope White and came to Marion County, Indiana, in 1823. Their son Reuben Jessup (1804-1880) married Elizabeth George (d. 1864); they lived near new London in Howard County, Indiana. their youngest child, Phebe M. Jessup (1851-1932) married Cyrus Littler (1844-1922), a prominent New London Friend. They were the parents of Charles Earnest Littler (1877-1950). Charles Ernest Littler moved in 1990 from Howard County back to Marion County, Indiana. He married Dora A. Carson (1877-1964) of Valley Mills, daughter of Jesse G. and Elizabeth (Milhous) Carson, prominent Valley Mills Friends. The Littlers ran a farm and nursery in the Valley Mills community, where they were active in the Valley Mills Friends Meeting. Their only child was Lois Esther Littler (1905-1985), a 1952 Earlham College graduate. Esther Littler was a public school teacher and local historian.

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