Joseph Miller LITCHFIELD

 

Joseph Miller LITCHFIELD, whose death occurred on the 4^th of October, 1908 was for virtually forty years prior to thereto actively and prominently identified with business interests in San Francisco, and his character and ability gave to him much influence in public and general civic affairs in this city.  He came to California, across the plains and over the mountains, about the year 1868, after having served with marked gallantry as a soldier of the Union during the period of the Civil war.  He was a member of a Maine volunteer regiment and took part in many engagements, including a number of the most important battles marking the great conflicts between the states of the North and the South.  In later years he has shown his continued interest in his old comrades by appreciative affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic.

 

Mr. LITCHFIELD, was born at Lewiston, Maine, and was a son of Samuel and Mary LITCHFIELD, who passed their entire lives in the old Pinetree State and who were representatives of sterling New England Colonial families.   In the family were seven children, and of the number the subject of this memoir was the fifth in order of birth.  Samuel LITCHFIELD was a wholesale butcher at Lewiston for many years, and was one of the substantial citizens of that place.

 

Joseph M. LITCHFIELD, gained his youthful education in the common schools of his native place, and for his advancement and distinctive success in connection with the practical affairs of life the full credit must be ascribed to him alone.  As a citizen and business man he manifested the same spirit of loyalty and stewardship that marked his service as a soldier in the Civil war.  After coming to California, a comparatively short time after the close of the Civil war, he numbered  himself among the active business men of San Francisco, where he engaged in the retail clothing business, as senior member of the firm of LITCHFIELD & PILLSBURY.  Later prosperous wholesale and retail business in the handling of military, fraternal and other uniforms and regalia, his concern having become one of the most important of its kind on the Pacific Coast.

 

The republican party ever claimed the loyal allegiance of Mr.  LITCHFIELD, and he was called upon to serve as supervisor of San Francisco County, he having been chairman of the finance committee of the Board of Supervisors.  He was a prominent member of the Union League Club, and was specially active and influential in the local circles of the Masonic fraternity, in which his affiliations were with California Chapter No. 5, Royal Arch Mason; California Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar, of which he was commander in 1885; and Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine, of which he served as potentate.

 

On the 22^nd of January, 1885, was recorded the marriage of Mr.  LITCHFIELD and Miss Sarah Elizabeth FRITCH, a daughter of Capt. George FRITCH and who was born at St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada, and who began in his youth to follow a seafaring life.  He was master of the vessel on which he arrived in the Bay of San Francisco in the spring of 1850, and somewhat later he made his way to the gold mining district on the Fraser River in British Columbia.  There he contracted a fever, and his condition was such that as soon as possible he returned to San Francisco, where he became the founder of business conducted under the title of the DOAN & FRITCH Coal Company.  Later he became associated with R. D. CHANDLER in the establishing of the FRITCH-CHANDLER Coal and Shipping Company.  This firm was finally dissolved, but Mr. FRITCH continued to be active in business in San Francisco until his death. He married Margaret MCKEW, and she too is deceased.

 

Mr. and Mrs. LITCHFIELD became the parents of five sons: Joseph Miller Jr., resides at Woodside, this state and is superintendent of the Commercial Fire Dispatch Company; George Fritch and Samuel Sumner are deceased; Reuben Lloyd is at the head of the foreign advertising department of the San Francisco Call, one of the leading daily newspapers of the Pacific Coast country; and Frank Sumner is in the employ of the Mercantile Trust Company in San Francisco.  The widow of the subject of this memoir continues her residence in Woodside, and has long been active in social and cultural circles with a roster of friends that is firmly defined by the aggregate of her acquaintances.