The 6 Littleton Brothers: A Civil War Story of Bravery and Loss and He Found Out in His Teens that His Grandfather Was One of the 3 Stooges

This is really heavy than this is our American stories and we tell stories about everything here on the show including your seven hour American stories.com are some of our favorites Story from the Civil War. It was nearly forgotten to history. John Busby of the culture buzz on KF MG 90.9 FM NRO, Monty Montgomery, with the story a lot of history although it deserves to be remembered and can easily be forgotten if people while forget about it. It then becomes almost like buried treasure waiting for someone to uncover delving into history is it's almost like beachcombing you never quite sure what you can find, but sometimes you find some incredible things and that's what happened over 10 years ago someone who's a friend of mine now, Tom Woodruff, Eliza County, Iowa.

He had a call from the widow of a boyhood friend of his who said that this friend's grandmother had put together a scrapbook roughly went from the late 1800s to the first years of the 1900s and she knew it might be of interest to Tom because Tom is an amateur historian and so she is getting that scrapbook to Tom's of course. What is a duly sits down and he has to go through the entire scrapbook and they are on this 57 page scrapbook on page 23 was a little news clipping. It was from a 1907 Columbus Gazette newspaper and they were talking about the devastating toll. The Civil War had and it talks specifically about the Littleton family were less fortunate when it came to losing people of the six brothers only one live to return and he shortly died of disease contracted in the service, and right there.

That was the flashpoint for Tom Woodruff to try and find out more about the six Littleton brothers Tom had started working on this for a few years and a mutual friend of ours connecting me to Tom. She knew that I loved history that I did stories about history and she said I got a fairly need to meet well. I met Tom Woodruff and the chase was on this that say what can we do to bring the story back to light because it was one of those profound stories that inspirational in service to country tragic in the total loss of the male lineage of a family. There were four sisters left from that family and fact, many of the relatives, the descendents of those four sisters knew very little if anything about the six great great great uncles that they had at one time so that was kind of the genesis of getting involved with the Littleton brothers story. We have a lot of missing puzzle pieces, some of the pieces we have are based in census record so number the Littleton family members were notated as the lotto the migration of the Littleton family. They originated from Maryland and it looks like James and Martha.

They were the mother and father.

They started toward moving west because they wanted more opportunity and their first four children Sarah, George, John and Thomas were born in Maryland. They probably left Maryland in late 1836 or so they ended up stopping in Ohio for a while to keep expanding their family. So Ohio became home for the birth of William and then Mary then after Mary was born sometime after that between 1839 in 1841 they completed their migration to Iowa so when they got to Eliza County. Around 1840 1841. That is when the family completed its expansion. Rebecca was born in 1841 Camilla in 1843 and her twin brother Kendall same year.

No one in 1845 and that completed the family trying to figure out why the Littleton brothers served. That is where the best historical forensic researcher would really have a challenge. You could go to the newspapers, but there didn't seem to be a lot of information about the Littleton's and their so we really don't know but Iowa has kind of a a Janice personality when it comes to the Civil War there were virtually no important battles fought in Iowa during the Civil War. But there was a sense of dedication and duty that the people who targeted Iowa as the place they were to sink their roots that they wanted to support that fierce patriotism that they seem to have and that's what Drawing so many people to enlist in the service from Iowa. I think that's part of what drove them into enlisting as they did.

Thomas was the first one to enlist.

He enlisted in July 16 of 1861 he was in Company C, fifth Ohio infantry. Next was William Littleton, he enlisted in September 21 of 1861. Company K, eighth Iowa infantry, the third Littleton brother to enlist was George Littleton. He was the oldest brother, he enlisted in 1862, and because he was working at the time in Illinois, he enlisted in Illinois three final brothers were Kendall Littleton John and Noah and those three brothers all enlisted on August 21, 1862 and served in Company F of the 19th Iowa infantry and their service was to be relatively short-lived and you been listening to John Busby tell the story of the little things and little things lost all six of the boys in their family. The bloodline four sisters remain in so many of these stories are untold until they're told you're hearing it here on our American stories John Busby telling the story of the Littleton family and so many other families ravaged by the Civil War, the highest death count and all of the wars America has ever fought 600,000+ story continues Littleton brothers here on our American story.

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Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today and we returned to our American stories and the story of the six Littleton brothers who all enlisted to fight in our nations Civil War our bloodiest war here again is John Busby of the culture buzz on KF MG 98.9. And here's monthly. At the outbreak of the Civil War. All six Littleton brothers would enlist the fight for the union and some of them would see action at Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Unfortunately it was that battle that took its greatest and quickest toll on the Littleton family in battle. Kendall died and was buried in a mass grave. There John was severely wounded in the thigh and he was transferred to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to hopefully recover. However, he died eight days later and is buried in an unmarked grave. There in the national Cemetery. Chances are that he didn't die so much from his wounds as from the infection. Noah did survive the Prairie Grove battle, but it was interesting on what happened to him. He shows that even accidents can happen in war and that's exactly what happened to Noah.

Noah was part of a foraging group that's one thing that in the Civil War.

The troops had to forage what was available in the land that they were crisscrossing what was on it foraging trip that included ferrying goods that they acquired across the White River, which is down between Missouri and Arkansas during the time that they were ferrying things though brains had kind of made the river turbulent. There is a great passage here. This was a first-hand account by Timothy deluxe, a member of company a of the Iowa 19. Several days ago, nearly 100 men were sent out his guards to a forage train.

They were touring the day the new boat was built under the supervision Lieut. Faust the first light duty. The boat was considered ample to carry 26 mule teams across loaded in a number of horsemen and footmen. The boat was unmanageable in passing to the center of the stream and sunk water pouring over the boat washing one team in several men from the boat, which after became submerged broke loose. The water was very cold and water setting from shore made require superhuman strength, reach it while we as geezers could not render assistance, and the only witnesses of their death struggles one of those who perished was no Thomas the first to enlist.

Ironically, fought more battles and served an actual, I guess you call combat situations than any of the other brothers. He fought in the battles of eye hookah in Champion Hill. The siege of Vicksburg and Mission Ridge. And that's where he was captured when he was captured, he was sent to Andersonville Andersonville was located in Georgia and it was situated in a wide open field area just bare dirt ground. There is very sluggish stream of terrible water that did come through it a little bit not pure food rations were inconsistent at best. The prisoners were packed in. If the disease was brought in by a prisoner it could run rampant through the ranks of the prisoners there.

It was a good logotype situation when word about what Andersonville was about got around to the Union army. They knew that if any of their compatriots were sent Andersonville.

It was almost assuredly death stamp and after 2 1/2 almost 3 years of captivity.

That is when he died of chronic diarrhea in Andersonville and he ended up being buried at the Andersonville National Cemetery. William was in company K850 infantry was the second of the Littleton brothers to enlist a fought in the battles of Shiloh and he was wounded there. Jackson and the siege of Vicksburg and that's where he contracted a disease, a disease he would later die of like so many others in a St. Louis hospital. But what happened to George. George was in Company B of the 65th Illinois infantry.

He did have a battle and it was it a name. It's well-known as a battle at Harpers Ferry. He was captured and imprisoned briefly but in these early days there were prisoner exchanges the honor system what's in place where my side has this many prisoners we want to exchange for that many prisoners on your side and they will not go into combat for X number of months or something like that. George was reassigned after the prince in exchange and he was reassigned to Chicago where they had what was kind of the unions version of Andersonville. The winters were brutal and that is where he probably had pneumonia. He did get back home and he lived for a while longer. But he finally succumbed to the brutal toll that the military life. The diseases that he encountered took on his body and that's what made George become the sixth victim of the six Littleton brothers. The Littleton brothers story resonates with me because it encompasses a national level of kind of cross sectioning of what happened during the Civil War in a single-family you had all these brothers enlist in the war. All the sisters were married.

Back home, some of the bed multiple marriages because they outlive husbands things like that but with the brothers.

You have the diversity of ways that those who served perished. You had in battle you had wounded from battle and perished afterwords probably a combination of the wound and disease you had disease you had accident you had imprisonment you had all these different ways. In this microcosmic perspective of six brothers and that's where the tragedy is because these days, we don't think of having to endure this kind of tragedy in the Littleton brothers is is a special unequaled sacrifice tragedy that needs to come to light again in a good way to bring it to light would be a monument, a monument that only recently came about, even though the idea had been floating around for a long time that the why is a newspaper 100 years ago actually commented about this when they talk about the six brothers there needs to be memorial built to honor the lives of the six brothers from tools Berlin Liza County who all died as a result of volunteering to fight in the Civil War when it was dedicated on Flag Day June 14, 2016.

The keynote was delivered by Tom Lorraine who is an exceptionally well-known historian and scholar. He read something that has always stuck with me in his words. He quoted the Bible the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and sent me in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor. The Valley bones were very dry. He asked me, Son of Man can these bones live in with that question begins. The Bible account of how Ezekiel watched dry bones take on a new life and in this story, the people of Israel are the dry bones would lost touch with her heritage, but who could live again if they recovered that historical memory in a similar way, the Littleton brothers would not mean much to us today.

If we know them only through the bare-bones of the census record George John Thomas Kendall William and no one at a great job as always by Monty Montgomery on the production of the piece, and a special thanks to John Busby of the culture buzz on KF MG 99 sharing with us this remarkable story of the low Liza County, Iowa family Littleton's in the Littleton brothers again. All six perished in the Civil War or just there. After the Littleton family story here on our American story. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance. I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days piping hot equal and competent business owners to help the vast State Farm is in your corner and on like a neighbor. There call your local State Farm agent for quote today and we continue with our American stories and up next story from Brad serve red grew up watching the Three Stooges on TV, not knowing he was related.

One of the greatest comic performers of all time every day after school, grabbed his brother and their friends pile in front of the TV to watch their idol Jerome Howard, best known is currently then one day the secret about their unknown grandfather was unveiled here spread server a.k.a. Pearly G. Start this journey we must first go back to Lithuania this where my great-grandparents Solomon and Ginny Horwitz met and married. They later left for America arrived in Castlebar, New York in 1890. Here they would start their family. Five boys, Irving, Benjamin, Samuel, Moses, Jerome later, the world would know the three boys as Shep momentarily.

My name is Brett server and I'm the youngest grandson of Curly Howard Three Stooges. This is my American story, when Shep and Mo were in their teens. They would sneak up to Coney Island lacks the Fond du Lac's. They would later join these performers and were then discovered by Ted Healy, a well-known Bible act in time they met Lawrence Feinberg, better known as Larry and they became Ted Healy and his students in time. Shep believed the act and baby brother filled in the rest is comedy history for the ages, all all I and I a 37 Curly met and married my grandmother, Elaine Ackerman year later they would have a baby girl name Marilyn, my mom 1941. My grandparents divorce when my mom was three. My grandmother would remarry a year later the man named Moses diamond my mother lit within the live visit curly on the weekends when he was in town as my grandfather's health started to decline her visits were less frequent, and she remembers visiting him in the hospital often in 1952 when my mom was 14. Curly Howard passed away at the age of 40. After my grandfather's passing. She was legally adopted by her stepfather really and become her everyday dad in early 1960.

My mom met my father passed a late server in Los Angeles, California in December. My brother Darren was born. Then in 1962 my sister Andrea and then in 1965 I joined my parents would later divorce in 1971. So after my parents divorced in 1971 was your typical arrangement where my brother, sister and I live with my mother.

My dad would then move to Pacific Palisades because he was doing well in the insurance agency that he was working for, and then later my brother would wind up moving in with my dad. A year later, I would move in with my dad but we really started showing signs that we had something very special in our blood because we were performing. My brother was a self-taught piano player. I think at the age of five.

We all love to sing. We would gather around the piano. My sister, my brother and I and we could all carry a tune, so it was great so we would sing songs later. It would develop into performing makeshift musicals were my grandparents at the time or my mom. She was dead drop as I would say mom committed see this and we would you know we would do the famous shows at that time in 1971, 7230 Cabaret West side story sounding music and into this time.

We came home, like every other kid after school we came home and we wanted to see the stages so we rushed home watching LA was channel 52 UHF and you had all the great shows are you know you can you add Three Stooges little rascals yet speed racer and all these great shows that the stooges is what we came home to watch most and Curly was our hero. My brother and I both love currently the most. But the problem with allies at this age I was six my sister was eight, my brother was 11. We had no idea that we were the grandchildren of Curly.

We hadn't been told yet, but it was this one day that we found out. I believe I was maybe eight at the time in my brother was 12's somewhere around that time and my grandmother had taken my brother Darren to see his first Broadway musical fiddler on the roof and he was at when he saw the show. I mean even after the show and they were driving my grandmother and in he just kept going on and on about. He wanted to be an actor. He wanted to be an actor and he was just persistent and on and I think finally, my grandmother said Darren enough, I get it, it's probably because of show business runs in your glide your biological grandfather was curly from the Three Stooges when you grandma yes yes yes nevermind that you have your grandfather that you have now so just know that your talents come inherently through your bloodline and just don't carry on with it when you get home. Love, so it's like my brother was facing shock. You know he didn't say another word, I think on the way home and then he comes and he tells me and were like, I mean I was that you have to be true and he's like Bradley, it's true. Grandmother told me and we were just being aware like when you do it that your heroes become your family and then when he's posted do with that.

I mean, I did.

I really think or do we really think the next day we went to school you know and tell our friends the same kids. I came home with us every day to watch the stooges. We are now saying, oh by the way, curly's are grandfather so you know we live with it. We watch the stooges were like wow that's are grandfather and it was like we did talk about it when we were at our dads. Once he found out because the course. That's my mom's father so he doesn't want to hearing about my mom there divorce my mom. She didn't talk about it because one she was very young when Curly died she was 14 which is three years old. She was no adopted by her new father so that really became her everyday father. She channeled out the Three Stooges. Curly was just not something that she talked about and then it was something that we were told not to talk about because even though our grandfather Moses diamond was an amazing man in an amazing grandfather to us. He wasn't Curly Howard from the Three Stooges so we basically were in check so get through high school.

Did I did I talked about being Curly's grandson now not really.

You know I was already class clown. I was space case. I was the guy that they wanted. Everyone wanted Brad server to guide the parties because I was the funny guy. It was probably only layer that I was ever signed in like mayors and I was in a kick my whatever that guy hey that's Ernesto's grandson and then that the person was okay and again yeah will THEN you been listening to Brad server tell a remarkable story, vitally, what good shot right my granddad's curly Bartolotta Hall passes when we come back more of the story of Brad server. In the end, the story of family bloodlines here on our American stores. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance.

I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days piping people and confident business owners to help the vast State Farm is in your corner and on my neighbor. There call your local State Farm agent for quote today and we continue with our American stories and Brad server story. Let's pick up when we last left off so II continue to through the 90s build my career and I still this point had met anyone from the Three Stooges family and I was 30 years old or something at the time was just crossed my mind. It was one day my mom said hey and Joan which is Mo's daughter is having a little reunion at her house and so I went to this reunion where I met my aunt Joan those daughter and it was great. She was an incredibly wonderful warm lady and she had so much memorabilia and it finally was a chance to talk about being a grandson with another family member and it was it was great and it was just it was so odd that all these years later. Why am I just talking to us each family member.

Just the whole thing about being the grandchildren of Curly Howard, one of the most iconic comedians of all time was suppressed. It was like we were to talk about it.

We did talk about it but now I was you I was with Mo's daughter and in this way, start turning into spending more time in the future with C's family members which was great but would really turn my life around was in 2000 I had my daughter Elizabeth Elaine server and she's named milling Elaine is after my grandmother Elaine and I love being a dad and you know have my career I still haven't gotten in the stooges think until I went to my first each convention and these conventions are going on for a long time and they are usually in Pennsylvania and for Washington, Pennsylvania which is about 30 minutes from Philadelphia and I went to my first each convention and I bet the fans, you know, the fans are so endearing and amazing.

They love the stooges to this day, they mean everything to them and I would hear the stories of how the stooges change their lives and how much the stooges need to make sure you want Digitech and then other stooge family members were these events. I started building relationships with them and that was great and so I would continue. I was back every year we would go to these stooge events.

I got my brother and then later I would go by myself and then I bring my daughter and she got exposed to being part of it and she she loved it for a while as she got older she is going to go to these things anymore, but it really was special and really all the fans out there. The Three Stooges are fans in general of comedy. If you're in the Philadelphia area. There is the largest stooge Museum. Maybe the only student exam, but it is three stories of the largest and greatest is museum in the world. It's called CGM and it's in Ambler, Pennsylvania which there again is it too far from Philadelphia and I strongly recommend that you go there. It's it's a must for any stagehand that can go it's it's it's it's truly amazing and a couple things that come with the singing and that the other talents Bella play music was out of the three of us. I call us the grand stooges was that it was was at what is that you, but it was like, well, I didn't even know that I can do that all these years later was like well I guess that was something that was enough God-given. Curly gave me that that I had this high-pitched voice so continue to go to the stooge of Vance and of course social media was having a big band was on Facebook is reaching out to the fans and going back and forth listening to their stories, telling no commenting them telling you there again.

Stooges brought a lot of these people out of the darkest times and meant so much for me to be able to give back and tell them thank you and how much I appreciate them in just kinda just building off that but end in 2012.

The is something that I thought that would never happen was the stooges were to be on the big screen. The Three Stooges movie. So what else happened in 2012 I on social media, met a friend who now is my business partner who is the gentleman that is extremely talented naming Annie Pagano and Andy found me shortly after the stooges movie came out and he actually tried out for the role of Curly and came in third place and he sent me his audition video sows like well I met this guy that trapper curly. He wound up having such a love not only for the Three Stooges but had such a background in the comedy trios and it was that that genre is Laurel and Hardy. The Marx Brothers all of them and we became extremely good friends and he was a writer. He was a producer he was producing wrote screenplays. He he was a great photographer with filling stuff. So as I he was like Brad make videos and he was doing surveys that is like the family to see you. I guess I left GammaRay experience at so we started filming videos in the first video that I think I remember doing that it was Kennedy my grandfather's hundred and 13th birthday and I thought that we should do a tribute birthday tribute for his birthday right so we came up with when I get hit by 113 Pines so we spent the day going throughout Hollywood and the day and night and we went to different places and some some people were celebrities. Some people are just people off the street. Most of her give up the street and for the whole day and night. I just got pelted with 113 Pines and I was like on earth I was. Be.

I was so tired I was.

I mean it was it was hard unlike second Three Stooges did this for years it took so much punishment. My grandfather took so much punishment. The least I can do is take 113 pies in one day and video can be seen on YouTube on my YouTube channel curly's grandson, but it came out great in a in the fans loved it right and so 99% of the comments which is hard to find these days were all very positive. They love it.

They laugh they enjoyed it so Andy and cupped my other buddies that are extremely talented week started doing video content so we got the curly's grandson channel and anti-madonnas got in his own channel and it's just a slapstick type comedy and I just and myself. I'm Brad server that funny guy is my high-pitched voice, but it's just naturally in my nature that I look a little bit like I'm which is a blessing that he's a very handsome man but something else came up and it was it was a challenge that I didn't think that I would ever encounter and how is the live performance were any putting on the Three Stooges live and it's gonna tour the US and we want you to be the fifth man which is basically a supporting actor in all the little skits and what what about you want to be in the shower when I was I course, as we know where the stooges still in the relevant was our show them irrelevant and it was and it was it was really after the shows were that the fans stayed for you. We did Q&A's, and a student lines for hours to take pictures with us in the safe. Thank you so much for bringing us back in time. You know when things are so much simpler and so much better today.

I so much mock mock and so much stuff going on that going to see his Three Stooges show imaginary meaning show and they absolutely loved it there some things that happen that are have all the answers to that, I went to work on and I just wanted to continue to bring laughter to the fans. I want to continue to be in front of the camera.

I want to have people go to my channel curly's grandson on YouTube and find me on Instagram and find me on Facebook and interact and I do my best to try to reach out to them in curly G there again cervical is grandson Bill that brand you know it it represents my grandfather.

I'm representing his legacy. So I want to continue to do that and I just want to thank you for allowing me to be under show on thank you Brad curly G are coming on our show and thanks to Greg Englert for the great production on the piece in my goodness. My favorite part of the story is when he went to his first stooge convention and we are heading.

The show is editing stooge convention.

We promise you and Larry met the fans who told him how much the stooges to change their lives and how much the stooges meant to them and then it led to of course Three Stooges live touring the country.

The story of Brad server. In the end, the story of a family bond between he and his grandfather, Earl of the Three Stooges here on our American story