James Henry Little lived a short but busy life. He died at the age of 39 from diphtheria just days after two of his children. Nineteen days after he died, his eighth child was born.

When James was 22 he married Sarah Jane Clarke in Ottawa on November 29, 1859. Sarah was from the town of Bathurst in Lanark county. She gave birth to a son, Robert Little on September 6, 1960 but died soon afterward, as James is a widower on the 1861 census.

In the next couple of years the James and Jane Clark family moved from Hinchinbrook to Pontiac region, and Mary Jane married James. They had four daughters before moving to Foley township near Parry Sound in 1871. Three more children were born there, though two died from diphtheria and one was adopted by Mary Jane's sister after James died.