Large numbers of low-to-medium-resolution spectra of M-type dwarf stars from both the local Galactic disk and halo are available from various surveys. In order to fully exploit these data, we develop a template-fit method using a set of empirically assembled M dwarf/subdwarf classification templates, based on the measurements of the TiO and CaH molecular bands near 7000{AA}, which are used to classify M dwarfs/subdwarfs by spectral type and metallicity class. We further present a pipeline to automatically determine the effective temperature Teff, metallicity [M/H], {alpha}-element to iron abundance ratio [{alpha}/Fe], and surface gravity logg of M dwarfs/subdwarfs using the latest version of BT-Settl model atmospheres. We apply these methods to a set of low-to-medium-resolution spectra of 1544 high proper-motion ({mu}>=0.4"/yr) M dwarfs/subdwarfs, collected at the MDM observatory, Lick Observatory, Kitt-Peak National Observatory, and Cerro-Tololo Interamerican Observatory.