RIGMJLittlefield
JAMES BANCROFT LITTLEFIELD 1882-1948
Grand Master 1947 (died in office)
BIOGRAPHY
From Proceedings of Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, 1948:
James Bancroft Littlefield, of Thomas Smith Webb Lodge No. 43 of Providence, was elected and installed the ninety-second Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at its One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth Annual Communication held in Providence on Monthly, May 19, A. L. 5947, A. D. 1947. He was the first member of Thomas Smith Webb Lodge No. 43 to be so honored.
Horn in Boston, Massachusetts, March 19, 1882, the eldest son of George Aimer and Kmma Warren (Bancroft) Littlcfield, he was a direct descendant of Edmund Littlclield, who came to Boston in 1637 from Titchfield, County Hants, England, and who settled in Wells, Maine, and of John Bancroft, who came to Boston in 1632 from Swarkeston, Derbyshire, Kngland, and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts.
His parents moved from Boston to Newport, Rhode Island, when he was six months old, in 1882 and his early education was obtained in the public schools of that city, where his father was superintendent of schools from 1882 to 1889.
He later attended the public schools of Providence, after his father became principal of the Stale Normal School in 1889. He graduated from Classical High School in 1898, from Brown University in 1902, with the degree of A. B., and from Harvard Law School in 1905, with the degree of LL. B. At Brown University he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
He was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar in 1905 and commenced the practice of law in his father's law office which had been opened some years previously.
He was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1909 to 1911, serving one term as a Representative from Providence and two terms as Representative of the 4th District in Providence. After the First World War he resumed practice in Providence, and from 1922 to 1912 was a member of the law firm of Littlefield, Otis & Knowles. He was appointed Associate Judge of the Juvenile Court of Rhode Island July 1, 1944 and served in that capacity until the date of his death, December 3, 1947.
Brother Littlefield enlisted in the Rhode Island Militia in 1906 and served successively as private, second lieutenant, first lieutenant and captain in Company C of the First Regiment of Infantry, which in 1907 became the 3rd Company, Coast Artillery, Rhode Island National Guard.
He entered the United States military service in 1917 as Captain of the 19th Company, Coast Artillery Corps, R. I. N. G., which he recruited in Bristol, Rhode Island, and which was stationed at Fort, Rodman, New Bedford, as the 3rd Company until July, 1918. He was then assigned to the 40th Artillery at Camp Eustis, Virginia, was promoted to Major, serving for a time as Camp Adjutant, was later assigned to the 38th Artillery, and was discharged in December, 1918.
He continued in the Organized Reserves for some twenty years after the war, serving as Major, Field Artillery, for ten years, and as Lieut. Colonel for ten years. For several years he was a member of the Rhode Island Rifle Team.
Brother Littlefield was one of the organizers of the American Legion in Rhode Island and in 1922 was Commander of Providence Post No. 1. He was Vice-President of the Reserve Officers Association from 1932 to 1935. He had been Secretary of the Church House since 1913, was President of the Rhode Island Medico-Legal Society 1922-1924, Chairman of the Speakers Bureau of the Providence Community Fund 1929-1931, and in 1932 Chairman of a subcommittee of former Governor Case's Conference on Unemployment. In 1925 he organized and for twelve years served as Chairman of the Providence World Court Committee. He was a member of the Central Congregational Church in Providence. He was a memher of the Sons of the American Revolution, and of the Providence Art Club. In politics, he was a Republican.
On February 28, 1914 he was married to Maybelle Clifford Kingsbury, of Providence, who survives him, together with three sons and two daughters. All three of their sons served in the Second World War: .lames Warren Littlefield as an Ensign in the Navy, David Blair Littlefield as a Captain and bomber pilot in the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, and Richard Bancroft Littlelield as a Private Lc in the Field Artillery. The elder daughter, Olive Gifford Liltlefield, was a Field Representative of the American Red Cross in Australia and the Philippines, and was married in Sydney, Australia, to Major (then Captain) Donald Dean Burris, U. S. Army Air Corps, of Plalteville, Wisconsin. They are now living in Chicago, Illinois. The younger daughter, Frances Kingsbury Littlefield, was married to Lieut. Thomas Carry Buckley, of the Army Air Corps, in Maxton, North Carolina. They are now living in Bennington, Vermont. There are two grandsons, Thomas Carry Buckley, Jr., born in Providence March 24, 1940, and Donald Dean Burris, Jr., born in Philadelphia December 20, 1940.
The Masonic record of the Grand Master began in 1927. He was raised a Master Mason in Thomas Smith Webb Lodge No. 43, on May 29, 1928, and was elected its Worshipful Master on October 31, 1932. He held membership in Providence Royal Arch Chapter No. 1, R. A. M., of the Capitular Rite, Providence Council No. 1, R. & S. M., of the Cryptic Rite, and Thomas Smith Webb Commandery No. 51, K. T., of Cranston, Rhode Island. He was a member of the four Coordinated Bodies of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, in the Valley of Providence.
In Grand Lodge he served as Grand Sword Bearer under Past Grand Master Albert Knight, as Master of Ceremonies for three years for R. W. Herbert M .Sherwood, District Deputy Grand Master, as District Deputy Grand Master of the several Masonic Districts for six years, and successively as Junior Grand Warden, Senior Grand Warden, Deputy Grand Master, and on May 10, 1947 was elected and installed Most Worshipful Grand Master.
He had served one-half of his term as M. W. Grand Master when he was suddenly stricken and passed away on December 3, 1947 in his sixty-sixth year, in his office at the Juvenile Court, of Rhode Island.
He had planned to visit each and every lodge in the jurisdiction during his term and had already started on his schedule. He enjoyed these fraternal visits most when he could attend without great form and ceremony. He was a courteous, modest, and lovable Christian gentleman.
