G. W. Littlefield Chaves County, New Mexico

Although a resident of Austin. Texas, the extensive business interests of G. W. Littlefield in the southwest place him among the leaders in industrial circles here. He formerly owned what was once known as the L. I. T. ranch, which was established in 1877 in Texas, but in 1881 sold that property to the Prairie Cattle Company, this being just before the rise in cattle, and Captain Littlefield then went to southern Texas and bought cattle, which he drove to the Pecos Valley, locating at Bosque Grande, on the Pecos. There he established the L. F. D. ranch, one of the most important in New Mexico, and at that time there were no ranches between Fort Sumner and Roswell. In 1887 he went on the plains eighty miles east of this place, this being at a very early day in the southwest, and not a house could be seen between Roswell and Midland, Texas. In 1892 Captain Littlefield purchased a farm three miles from Roswell, where he keeps blooded stock and a large feeding yard. He purchased the land for five dollars an acre, and there he now owns twelve hundred and fifty-two acres, all of which is under irrigation. In 1901 he went to Texas and purchased the south end of the Capital Syndicate land, known as the X. I. T. ranch, consisting of about three hundred thousand acres, all of which is grazing land, and there he has a fine herd of high-grade Durhams and Hereford cattle.

Major Littlefield maintains his home in Austin, Texas, where he is president of the American National Bank, and his extensive interests in New Mexico are conducted by his nephews, T. P. White and Thomas D. White.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.