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Nathan Whitman Littlefield received his education in the public schools of East Bridgewater and under the private tuition of Rev. Baalis Sanford, B. U., 1823, who was for many years a minister and chairman of the school committee, with whom he read Latin and Greek. His father tutored him in mathematics. The greater part of his preparation for college was made out of school while he was engaged in other occupations. Yet he found time after work to read considerably more Latin and Greek than was required for admission to college. For a short time he...
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Nathan Whitman Littlefield received his education in the public schools of East Bridgewater and under the private tuition of Rev. Baalis Sanford, B. U., 1823, who was for many years a minister and chairman of the school committee, with whom he read Latin and Greek. His father tutored him in mathematics. The greater part of his preparation for college was made out of school while he was engaged in other occupations. Yet he found time after work to read considerably more Latin and Greek than was required for admission to college. For a short time he studied at Bridgewater Academy, of which Horace M. Willard, B. U., 1864, was principal, and at Phillips Academy, Andover, under the prince of teachers, Samuel H. Taylor, LL. D., Dartmouth College, 1832, whom he has always regarded as the greatest teacher of preparatory Latin and Greek whom he has ever known. Graduating from that academy in 1865, he at once entered Dartmouth College. When the results of his entrance examinations were presented to Dr. Smith, then president of the college, he remarked: 'Without irreverence I may say that I am glad to be able to minister an abundant entrance unto you.'
He was also prominent in athletics and was chosen captain of his class when a freshman and held the place during the entire course. He was also class president for several years. Bissel Gymnasium was erected at Dartmouth in 1866 and much attention was given to athletics by the faculty and the students. Regular exercise in the gymnasium was made a part of the college course. After a course in physical culture at a school taught by Professor P. G. Welsh, of Yale and Dartmouth, he was made an assistant instructor to Professor Welsh during his junior and senior years.
He was made a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and had the pleasure as head of the Pi Chapter of inducting General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was present as the guest of the college at the celebration of its centennial anniversary, into honorary membership in that fraternity. In passing it may be said that General Sherman was received by the students of the college with such genuine manifestations of admiration and regard that the aged hero's heart greatly warmed toward his young countrymen. He went about among them during his few days' visit on terms of pleasant familiarity. He seemed to be living over the days of his own school life, so jovial and happy did he appear.
Although young Littlefield, like many of his college mates in those days, was thrown upon his own resources to meet the expenses of his education and much of his time was taken up in work to enable him to meet those expenses, he won some honors. At the Junior Exhibition of his class he gave the Greek oration the parts being assigned by the faculty on the basis of scholarship and the Greek oration being ranked as the highest honor. At the Senior Exhibition of the two open literary societies of the college, which was the most important literary function of the college course, he was selected by his society as its representative in the debate, the leading part on such occasions. The subject debated seems quite modern. It was 'Are majorities the safest rulers?' The selection of that subject indicates the trend of the student mind. Singularly enough he also gave an address during his freshman year before his literary society on the subject, 'The True Grandeur of Nations', not knowning at the time that Charles Sumner had given an address on the same subject.
The faculty sent many students whose preparation was deficient or who failed in their examinations to Mr. Littlefield to be tutored. At one time there were fourteen undergraduates under his tuition.
1869, the year of his graduation, was also the centennial of the college, an event of unusual interest in its history, and was celebrated with an elaborate program of addresses by distinguished alumni of the college. The exercises, which occupied several days, were held in a great tent on the campus and mulititudes of old graduates and friends of the college of more or less distinction attended. At the graduating exercises of the class a most unexpected and gratifying honor was given to the valedictorian of the class as he came forward to pronounce his address. Apparently without any prearrangement, the entire class arose and vigorously applauded their classmate.
For several years after graduation Mr. Littlefield taught in high schools in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was sub-master in the Charlestown, Massachusetts, high school, and for three years principal of the Newport, Rhode Island, high school. From that place he was called to Westerly as superintendent of the village schools and principal of the high school. The report of the superintendent of schools of Newport for the year 1872-73 contains these words: 'Mr. Littlefield is a man of sound and liberal scholarship and an efficient teacher and earnest worker. His amiable disposition and rare virtues have endeared him to his pupils and associates, and I am sure that we share in their regrets that the school must lose his labors and influence.' At Westerly he was equally successful as a teacher and superintendent, and very reluctantly resigned his position there though offered a large increase of salary, in order to prepare himself for his chosen profession.
In October, 1874, he entered the Law School of Boston University, and completed the three years' course in two years, graduating in 1876. In May, 1876, he was admitted to the Boston bar, but immediately went to Providence and entered the office of James Tillinghast, Esq., where he pursued the study of local statutes and court procedure during the six months required by Rhode Island law, and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in January, 1877, and in due course was admitted to practice before the United States courts.
He soon took a leading place among the lawyers of the State. His success has been won, not by superficial and showy qualities, but by thorough, careful and conscientious preparation of his cases and by the energy and resourcefulness with which he has prosecuted them.
In all matters pertaining to the improvement of the law and the elevation of professional and judicial standards he has been a fearless leader. On the reorganization of the judical system of the State in 1904-05, made necessary by a constitutional amendment, he was appointed a member of the commission which revised the laws relating to the constitution and jurisdiction of the courts, and reported the system of law known as the Court and Practice Act. When again an amendment to the constitution of the State was adopted in 1909, providing for the election of members of the house of representatives by districts, he was appointed a member-at-large of the commission which divided the State into representative districts, and was one of the sub-committee of three to whom was committed the preparation of the statutes necessary to carry into effect the radical changes in the method of electing assemblymen resulting from that amendment.
Mr. Littlefield's practice has been exclusively on the civil side of the court and mostly in equity and probate causes and in matters pertaining to real estate, although he has had a wide experience in jury trials. From the beginning of his career he has been engaged in some of the most important litigation which has come before the Rhode Island courts, both in regard to the legal principles involved and the pecuniary interests at stake.
When Roger William Park was enlarged about 1890, he was counsel for the owners of the greater part of Cunliff's Pond and the surrounding land which was taken by the City of Providence by the exercise of the right of eminent domain. The titles to various parts of that property were very defective and many conflicting claims arose. There probably has never been a single case involving so many difficult questions of law and fact before a Rhode Island court as grew out of the litigation over the titles of the heirs of Joseph G. Johnson in a large part of the land taken by the city. All the questions litigated were decided in favor of the Johnson heirs, his clients.
When the Union Trust Company, of Providence, closed its doors in 1907, the lawyers representing most of the depositors in that institution chose Mr. Littlefield to represent them on the depositors' committee which was raised to assist in evolving a plan for the reorganization of that institution. He was made secretary of the committee, and also was retained, with Cyrus M. Van Slyck, Esq., and Frank L. Hinckley, Esq., as counsel for the depositors to represent them in all court proceedings and in formulating a plan of reorganization. Cooperating with Rathbone Gardner, Esq, counsel for the receivers, a plan was evolved which was put into execution and successfully carried out. The plan and its execution were absolutely unique in the financial history of the country and has been pronounced by eminent authorities a most remarkable piece of work. Its success, however, was quite as much due to the splendid co-operation of the legal profession and business men of the city and State as to any merit of the plan itself, however great they may have been.
Mr. Littlefield was senior member of the law firm of Littlefield & Barrows from 1899 until Mr. Barrows was unanimously elected by the General Assembly a Justice of the Superior Court in 1913.
As the first referee in bankruptcy appointed in this State under the U. S. Bankruptcy Act of 1898, Mr. Littlefield had much to do with the interpretation of the law in its early stages. Some of the cases in which he wrote opinions which are reported in the American Bankruptcy Reports, were and still are leading cases on the questions decided. He has been continuously re-appointed referee since his first appointment, in conjunction with Mr. Barrows since 1900, until Mr. Barrows' elevation to the bench, and is now serving his eighth term in that office.
In politics he is a Progressive Democrat, having joined that party during Mr. Cleveland's administration. He was a candidate of that party for governor of the State in the year 1900, and has twice since that time declined a renomination for that office, owing to his business engagements. He was a member of the Rhode Island Senate from the city of Pawtucket, 1894-98, and drafted the first caucus law which was passed by either house of the General Assembly.
Mr. Littlefield has always taken a deep interest in all questions relating to the educational, moral and religious life of the communities in which he has resided.
He was elected a member of the Pawtucket School Committee for two terms, 1897-1901 and 1905-1908, having been elected first by the Democratic party and second by the Republican as a non-partisan candidate. He was chairman of the committee, 1898-1901.
His services have been much in demand as a lecturer and orator on historical, political and other subjects, and he has delivered many addresses before various societies, such as the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Old Colony Historical Society, the Providence Art Club, the Old Bridgewater Historical Society and the Bridgewater Normal School. He delivered on June 13, 1906, the oration at the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and the Phi Beta Kappa address at Dartmouth College in 1910.
The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College in 1909, on which occasion the following words were addressed to the recipient: 'Nathan Whitman Littlefield, student as well as practitioner of the law, gifted in public speech, subordinating personal interest to the public weal, upon you, as one who has carried the high ideal of his college life into his later career, I confer the honorary degree of Master of Arts.'
Mr. Littlefield is a member of the Pawtucket Congregational Church and has been a superintendent of the Sunday school for two terms of several years each, and was made a life member of the Congregational Sunday School Society by the Sunday school of the Central Falls Congregational Church, where he taught a Bible class for several years. He is vice-president of the Rhode Island Congregational Conference and president of the Rhode Island Home Missionary Society, and was the legal member of the committee of the Conference which prepared the constitution and effected the incorporation of the Conference in 1912.
In the campaign of the Men and Religion Forward Movement of 1911-12, he was chairman of the Committee on Auxiliary Cities and chairman of the Committee of the Whole which carried on the work in the cities of Pawtucket and Central Falls, and gave much time and thought to the promotion of that cause.
He is a vice-president of the National Anti-Saloon League, and president of the Rhode Island Anti-Saloon League and has represented that society in several contests before the Supreme Court of the State involving the interpretation of the statutes relating to the suppression of intemperance, and has delivered numerous addresses before conventions and the churches on the work of the League and the cause of temperance.
He is a member and officer of the National Bar Association; a member and vice-president of the National Municipal League; the American Society for the Judicial Settlement of International Disputes; the National Security League; the Rhode Island Historical Society; the Old Colony Historical Society; honorary member and trustee of the Old Bridgewater Historical Society; member and former governor of the Rhode Island Chapter of Mayflower Descendants; assistant-general of the National Society of Mayflower Descendants; president of the National Pilgrim Society; and president of the Society of the Founders of Providence Plantations. He has always been a lover of out-of-door sports and is an enthusiastic yachtsman and golfer.
On August 13, 1873, Mr. Littlefield married Arletta V. Redman, daughter of Hon. Erastus Redman, of Ellsworth, Maine, who was for many years postmaster of that city and collector of the port. She died at Providence, Rhode Island, October 18, 1878, and on December 1, 1886, he married Mary Wheaton Ellis, daughter of Asher Ellis, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and has two sons: Nathan Whitman, Jr., born April 20, 1877, Brown University, 1899; and Alden Llewellyn, born December 19, 1889, was a student at Dartmouth College, class of 1914. Mrs. Littlefield is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and regent of the Flitlock and Powderhorn Chapter, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, having joined through her ancestor, Deacon Asa Wane, of Dedham, Massachusetts. She was also vice-chairman of the Pawtucket Woman's Liberty Loan Committee. She is a lineal descendant of Rev. John Ellis, one of the early pastors of the ancient Newman Congregational Church of East Providence, Rhode Island, formerly Rehoboth, Massachusetts. She is also a member of the Pawtucket Congregational Church, and takes an active part int he church work, being a member of various church societies. |
