The Manassas Journal, Manassas, Virginia
August 16, 1912 (page 1)
SUICIDE OF MR. FITZWATER
A Well Known Real Estate Man of the County Ends His Life in Washington.
Mr. S. W. Fitzwater, of Nokesville, this county, a member of the real estate firm of Fitzwater, Earhart & Co., was found dead in a room in the Lawrence hotel on Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, Friday [August 9, 1912] afternoon. It is believed he committed suicide by taking poison.
The proprietor of the hotel found Fitzwater dead in his bed about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. He said Mr. Fitzwater looked ill when he entered the hotel and he was solicitous about him, and for that reason entered the man’s room.
The police were notified, and the body was removed to the morgue. An autopsy, performed by Assistant Coroner White, showed that Fitzwater had died of poison, it is said. It is believed Fitzwater took the drug with suicidal intent.
Mr. Fitzwater had several slips, showing he had deposited money in a Nokesville bank, and a railroad ticket and a small amount of cash in his pocket.
The police communicated with his friends in Nokesville and Mr. Baker, an undertaker from this place, went down and prepared the body for burial. His remains were taken to Valley View cemetery Sunday for interment.
Mr. Fitzwater was about fifty years of age and was a native of West Virginia, but he removed to the Valley of Virginia when a young man, where he married a Miss Anderson. He moved to this county five years ago.
His widow, father, a brother and sister — all residents of the county — survive him.
We learn that this was not Mr. Fitzwater’s first attempt at self-destruction but over the man’s frailties, for the sake of family and friends, let us draw the veil of charity. He had his weaknesses and some of them may have been even greater than the weakness shown in the morbid appetites that revel and feast on other’s misdeeds.
-- Transcribed by Morgan Breeden, RELIC Volunteer, Bull Run Regional Library, Manassas, VA; Submitted by: LK Perry (#47129998)