A Tattoo Shop with Heart

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show, including you, or send them to OurAmericanStories.com. There’s some of our favorites. Up next, a story from the Civil War that was nearly forgotten to history. Here’s John Busby of The Culture Buzz on KFMG 98.9 FM, in our own Monty Montgomery, with a story. A lot of history, although it deserves to be remembered, can easily be forgotten if people, well, forget about it. It then becomes almost like buried treasure waiting for someone to uncover it. Delving into history is — it’s almost like beachcombing. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to find, but sometimes you find some incredible things. And that’s what happened over ten years ago. Someone who’s a friend of mine now, Tom Woodruff of Louisa 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. It roughly went from the late eighteen hundreds to the first few years of the nineteen hundreds, and she knew it might be of interest to Tom because Tom is an amateur historian. And so she ended up getting that scrapbook to Tom. So, of course, what does he do? He sits down, and he has to go through the entire scrapbook. And there, on this fifty-seven-page scrapbook, on page twenty-three, was a little news clipping. It was from a nineteen-oh-seven Columbus Gazette newspaper, and they were talking about the devastating toll the Civil War had, and it talked 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 these 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’ve got a failure, you need to meet.” Well, I met Tom Woodruff, and the chase was on, as they say: “What can we do to bring this 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 in fact, many of the relatives — the descendants 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 records, so a number of the Littleton family members were notated as mulatto. 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 eighteen thirty-six 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 some time after that, between eighteen thirty-nine and eighteen forty-one, they completed their migration to Iowa. So when they got to Louisa County in around eighteen forty, eighteen forty-one, that is when the family completed its expansion. Rebecca was born in eighteen forty-one; Permilla in eighteen forty-three; and her twin brother Kendall, same year. Noah in eighteen forty-five. 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 Littletons in there, so we really don’t know. But Iowa has kind of a Janis 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 going to sync their roots — that they wanted to support that fierce patriotism that they seemed to have — and that’s what kept 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 on July sixteenth, eighteen sixty-one, in Company C, Fifth Iowa Infantry. Next was William Littleton. He enlisted on September twenty-first, eighteen sixty-one, Company K, Eighth Iowa Infantry. The third Littleton brother to enlist was George Littleton. He was the oldest brother. He enlisted in eighteen sixty-two, and because he was working at the time in Illinois, he enlisted in Illinois. The three final brothers were Kendall Littleton, John, and Noah. And those three brothers all enlisted on August twenty-first, eighteen sixty-two, and served in Company F of the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry, and their service was to be relatively short-lived. And you’ve been listening to John Busby tell the story of the Littletons, and the Littletons lost all six of the boys in that family — the bloodline. Four sisters remained, and so many of these stories are untold until they’re told, and 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 in all of the wars America has ever fought: six hundred thousand plus. The story continues of the Lilton brothers here on Our American Story. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past, know that all of our stories about American history — from war to innovation, culture, and faith — are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale.edu to learn more. And we returned to Our American Stories and the story of the six Littleton brothers who all enlisted to fight in our nation’s Civil War, our bloodiest war. Here again is John Busby of The Culture Buzz on KFMG 98.9, and here’s Monty. At the outbreak of the Civil War, all six Littleton brothers would enlist to 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 Fayette, 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. Noah was on a 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, the rains had kind of made the river turbulent. There’s a great passage here. This was a firsthand account by Timothy Phillips, a member of Company A of the Iowa Nineteenth. “Several days ago, nearly a hundred men were sent out as guards to a forage train. They returned the day.” The new boat was built under the supervision Lieutenant Faust — the first light duty. The boat was considered ample to carry two six-mule teams across, loaded, and 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 and several men from the boat, which, after became submerged, broke loose. The water was very cold, and water setting from shore made it require superhuman strength to reach it, while we as gazers could not render assistance and be only witnesses of their death struggles. One of those who perished was Noah. Thomas, the first to enlist, ironically fought more battles and served in actual, I guess you’d call, combat situations than any of the other brothers. He fought in the battles of Ayouka, 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 was a 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 a disease was brought in by a prisoner, it could run rampant through the ranks of the prisoners there. It was a gulag-type situation. When word about what Andersonville was about got around to the Union Army, they knew that if any of their compatriots were sent to Andersonville, it was almost assuredly a death stamp. And after two and a half, almost three 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 K, a IO Infantry. He was the second of the Litlton brothers to enlist. He 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 Saint Louis hospital. But what happened to George? George was in Company B of the Sixty-fifth Illinois Infantry. He did have a battle, and it was at a name that’s well known. It was a battle at Harper’s Ferry. He was captured and imprisoned briefly. But in these early days, there were prisoner exchanges. The honor system was 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 prisoner exchange, and he was reassigned to Chicago, where they had what was kind of the Union’s 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 middle ary 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 them, and multiple marriages because they outlive husbands, things like that. But with the brothers, you had the diversity of ways that those who served perished. You had in battle. You had wounded from battle and perished afterwards — 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, and the Littleton brothers’ is a special, unequaled sacrifice tragedy that needs to come to light again. And 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. The Louisa newspaper one hundred years ago actually commented about this when they talked about the six brothers. There needs to be a memorial bill to honor the lives of these six brothers from Toolsborough in Louisa County, who all died as a result of volunteering to fight in the Civil War. When it was dedicated on Flag Day, June fourteenth, twenty sixteen. That he note was delivered by Tom Moraine, who was 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 set 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 of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of Man, can these bones live?'” And 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, who had lost touch with their heritage, but who could live again if they recover 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, Old, William, and Noah. And a great job is always by Monty Montgomery on the production of the piece. And a special thanks to John Busby of The Culture Buzz on KFMG 98.9. Or sharing whether this was remarkable story of the Louisa County, Iowa, family — the Littletons and the Littleton brothers. Again, all six perished in the Civil War or just thereafter. The Littleton family story. Here on Our American Story. And we’re back with Our American Stories. Up next, we have a story brought to us thanks to the Cincinnati Area Better Business Bureau. Hammy Harris and her husband run a tattoo shop in Cincinnati, and they were awarded the BBB’s Torch Award. It celebrates business owners for their ethics. Here’s Robbie with the story. Tammy Harris was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I went to Aiken High School. It was a vocational school, so they had, like, back in the day. Oh my gosh, it was amazing because they had, like, body art, cosmatology. Commercial art is what I was in because I was into art. Like, seriously, my mom gave me my baby book not too long ago, and it was the cutest thing because I guess from the time I was born, I’ve been an artist, because she even wrote in there, like, “you know, what does she want to be when she grows up?” or something, and said, “artist.” I was like, “Oh my gosh, that is so cute!” So, yeah, graduated high school, got pregnant in seventeen, so I had a baby when I got out of high school, and I had a full scholarship to go. At the time, it was the best art college in America, which was in San Francisco. But since I got pregnant, I realized it’s not about me no more. So that’s when I started working in a factory just to be able to take care of her, because I didn’t want to be on welfare and have other people take care of my choices, you know what I mean. So, yeah, I just started working in the factory, taking care of my baby. It was really hard because I was a single mom. And then I decided to go to college because my high school commercial art teacher was still contacting me and trying to get me to go to college because he got me the full-ride scholarship, and he was really upset when he found out I was pregnant and I wasn’t going to go. It’s like, “I’m sorry, dude, but yeah, this thing comes first!” So, yeah, I pretty much was going to school full-time in the morning, going home, taking care of my baby for a little bit, trying to get a nap, and then I worked third shift in the factory. So it was rough. So did that for a year, and then my second year of college I started in… Like they said that they had job placement once you graduated, so I was like, “Okay, that’s perfect!” because the factory that I worked in, it was a good factory, but it was factory work — nothing fun. So I thought, “Okay, yeah, I get a, you know, start a job that has something to do with what I love.” Yeah, I didn’t turn out that way. So the second year, they had a meeting with the teacher, and he was pretty much explaining that, you know, the job placement and everything blah blah, and I said, “Well, can I ask, you know, what the job placement involves, and, like, how much you get paid?” because at the time the factory that I worked in, you made decent money, especially for me to be, gosh, nineteen, twenty. He had the nerve been looking at me and said, “Kinkos!” I was like, “What? Like, wait a minute, I am spending all this money to go to college, and your job placement is making copies for people at Kinkos? Like, you have got to be kinning!” So he was wondering why I was getting upset, and I’m like, “Dude, do you not understand? Like, I am working myself to death to pay for this and take care of my baby, to try to make my life better, and you’re telling me that you’re going to put me in a job at Kinkos when I make three times that I’m out in the factory? So why am I wasting my time?” And that’s when I quit there, and my high school teacher got a hold of me and was so upset because I quit. But I was like, “Dude, they’re just taking my money and using me. Like, I’m not okay with that!” I was back in the factory that Timmy found both a husband and an idea for a new career path. So that’s when I started thinking about the tattooing process. I was like, “Oh, you know, that that would be a pretty cool way to kind of put my art to use, and it’s cool!” Back then, it wasn’t cool, but it was cool to me because I got my first tattoo, and I thought it was the coolest thing. So, yeah, I started going around to the tattoo shops and kind of talking to all the tattoo owners about being an apprentice, and they were extremely rude — like, treated me like I was just garbage — and because I was a woman and women didn’t do tattoos…