Born on December 13, 1824, in Montgomery County, New York, Abram Newkirk Littlejohn graduated with honors from Union College in 1845. Following three years of additional study, he was ordained as a deacon in 1848 and began his clerical career as an assistant at St. Anne’s in Amsterdam, New York. In 1850, he was appointed rector of Christ Church in New Haven, Connecticut, and during this decade, he also became the second rector of Holy Trinity in Brooklyn. His early ministry was recognized by the University of Pennsylvania, which awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity.
When the existing Episcopal Diocese of New York was divided, creating the new dioceses of Long Island and Central New York simultaneously, both bodies elected Littlejohn to the episcopate. He chose Long Island and was officially consecrated as its first bishop in 1869 by the Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New York. Over his long tenure, Littlejohn received further academic distinctions, including a Doctor of Law from the University of Cambridge in 1880 and a Doctor of Civil Law from the University of the South in 1887.
Bishop Littlejohn served until his death from apoplexy in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1901. Following his funeral at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, he was laid to rest in the churchyard of All Saints in Great Neck, New York.