early life and training rufus hathaway, an american physician and folk art painter, was born in 1770 in freetown, massachusetts. he was the eldest of six children to asa hathaway and mary phillips, with a family background of ship carpentry. the family's frequent moves led them to settle in bristol, rhode island, in the mid-1780s. despite the unknown source of his artistic training, it is believed that hathaway worked as a decorative a…