Sacramento County
Biographies
Captain
Thomas Littlefield chief engineer on the steamer Dover, was born in Brunswick,
Maine, August 10, 1826, his parents being James and Hannah (Higgins)
Littlefield, both natives of the State of Maine, the father a farmer. He is the third of a family of seven
children, of which family his brother and himself are the only survivors at the
time of this writing. Thomas, as a boy,
attended the common district schools, but when only fourteen years of age he
went to sea, going out on the merchant ship United States of Bath, Maine,
Captain Swarton, for three years, and then for two years on the Trenton. About this time his brother, second mate of
the ship Jersey, died at Havre, France, and Thomas decided to abandon the sea
forever. He entered the emply of the
Waterman machine shop, near Providence, Rhode Island, becoming a thorough
machinist. He was afterward employed on the steam frigate Saranac, making and
putting in her machinery. On the 1st
of May, 1849, he left Boston harbor for California, in the bark Susan Jane,
Captain Prior, being one of the nine passengers. The ship New Jersey, which sailed half an hour before the Susan
Jane, and which was not sighted during the entire voyage, came through the
Golden Gate and anchored beside them at San Francisco, within half and hour of
their casting anchor. The Susan Jane
was laden with a cargo of lumber, one-half of which was owned by the captain;
this sold readily for $350 per 1000, and realized quite a little fortune. When Mr. Littlefield landed at six o’clock
on the 6th of October, his sole acquaintance on shore was Jesse
Merrill, but soon secured employment in a blacksmith’s shop, and later in
company with his friend Merrill he came to Sacramento and went to the mines at
Salmon Falls, on the American River.
Here they realized about $100 a day; but the exaggerated reports of
other greater finds in other localities induced them to leave and go to El
Dorado Canon on the north fork of the American River, where they built a flume
which proved to be an utter failure. It
is worthy of note here that the parties who took their claim at Salmon Falls
realized in a very short time over $45,000.
He then gave up mining, went to San Francisco, November 1, 1850, and
secured a position, first as fireman, then engineer on the steamer H. T. Clay,
a side wheeler running to Sacramento from San Francisco. He has been on the river and bay continually
as engineer since that date. In 1855 he
was on the Nevada, running from San Francisco to Petaluma in opposition to the
steamer Secretary, when she exploded her boiler, killing forty-five
people. For several years he was
employed by the Steamship Navigation Company.
During all the later years he has been employed by the Sacramento
Transportation Company, and at this writing is the chief engineer on the Dover,
belonging to that company. The Captain
has been twice married, first in 1857 to Mrs. Henrietta Rodfern. They had three children: Thomas Decatur,
George Lyons and Martha W. (deceased).
On the 2d of September, 1874, he was married to Maria Antonette Newton,
daughter of Judge Newton, of Woodbridge, New Jersey. The Captain is a Knight Templar, and Odd Fellow, and also a
member of the Legion of Honor and Chosen Friends. In politics he is a Republican.
Transcribed by Karen
Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 476-477. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2005 Karen Pratt.