Martin W. Littleton
American politician (1872-1934)
Martin Wiley Littleton (January 12, 1872 – December 19, 1934) was an American attorney known for his involvement in a number of high-profile trials during the early 1900s, including serving as chief defense counsel for Harry Kendall Thaw at his second trial in 1908 for the murder of renowned architect Stanford White, and defending Harry Ford Sinclair, the head of Sinclair Oil, from criminal charges resulting from the Teapot Dome scandal. Littleton also served one term as United States Representative from New York from 1911 to 1913, and was borough president of Brooklyn.
Littleton initially supported himself through menial labor and was largely self-educated, never attending college or law school. He eventually became one of the richest lawyers in the world, and has been mentioned as an example of a "rags to riches" success story in motivational books and articles.
He was the father of attorney Martin W. Littleton, Jr., the district attorney of Nassau County, New York who was involved in the investigation into the death of Starr Faithfull and the murder prosecutions of Everett Applegate and Mary Frances Creighton.
Biography
Early life and career
Born on January 12, 1872, near Kingston, Tennessee, to Thomas Jefferson Littleton and Hannah G. Ingram, Martin Littleton came from a long line of mountaineers. His father had served as a federal officer during the Civil War, and had returned to Tennessee to farm and raise hogs. His mother died when he was a small child.
Martin Littleton was one of nineteen children and was born in a one-room log cabin. As a child, he did not attend school but instead worked on the family farm.
“Martin W. Littleton” enters the record as american politician (1872-1934). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Martin, Littleton and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q129741. VIAF identifies the subject as 34029645. The Library of Congress control number is no93023501. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1934, 1908 and 1911.
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This entry incorporates text from “Martin W. Littleton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.