___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
Kinsley, Edwards County, Kansas
Thursday, September 20, 1877
Page 3, Column 1
Local News
EDWARDS CO. FARMING !
A DAY AT FITCHBURG [Nettleton], and a Chapter on Sod Culture
Availing ourself of the invitation of a friend, we took a seat in his buggy a day or two since and enjoyed a very pleasant ride to Fitchburg. It was our first visit to the eastern line of the county, and we were surprised to find such extensive and successful farming operations as were to be seen on every hand. The waving corn fields rustled their welcome, and the immense stacks of grain and hay at every farm resembled Egyptian pyramids standing out so prominently upon the distant prairie plane.
Arriving at Fitchburg we found Mr. Fitch at home and his hospitable latch string hanging out. He at once took us in hand and after a sumptuous dinner, mostly home grown from his garden, we were shown the rounds. What we saw was not of the usual order for Kansas or any other new country, but as more usually to be met with in old settled and wealthy communities.
Mr. Fitch arrived in this county with his family on the 1st day of December last. He started his plow about the middle of last February. Since those dates, he has completed his house - the largest in the county - barns, mill &c. and has planted and grown fifty-five acres of sod crops of almost endless variety. The garden exhibit was quite complete. Potatoes, early and late, sweet potatoes of three varieties - very fine - onions grown from the seed, beets, turnips (perfectly immense), cabbages, early and late, squashed, cucumbers and melons in great variety, rhubarb, red peppers, sage, and tomatoes - remarkably plenty and fine. In fact, we could hardlyrealize that we were standing on sod ground without an atom of manure and with very little cultivation, inthe midst of a very prolific one and a half acre garden.
We were next shown a 25 acres corn field that will compare favorably with corn in Illinois and Missouri, also barley in stack, finely headed and plump; and an 8 acre field of German millet of marvelous growth, some of the stalks as thick as our little finger and from 4 to 5 feet tall, with a seed head like a small ear of corn. There was also a 10 acre field which had borne a fine crop of barley, and which Mr. Fitch had just sown to wheat, thus realizing two crops from the first year of sod breaking.
We have made special mention of this effort of Mr. Fitch at sod culture to show how easy it is for the farmer to make a start in the Arkansas Valley. The soil is so rich and the seasons are so early and favorable that one needs but to tickle the ground with a hoe to see her laugh, as Horace Greeley was want to say.
We have not space to make mention at this time of Mr. F.'s buildings, live stock, tools &c. His wind mill is an institution, surely. By raising a lever he set it in motion, and a brisk breeze that was blowing at the time made
the wheels and machinery rattle pretty lively. We should judge it to be a complete success.
We cordially invite all readers, excursionists, visitors and friends to make a trip to Fitchburg and see what we have seen for themselves. They will then realize the fact that a sufficient extent of capital and industry well applied will render this portion of the Arkansas Valley a land of wonderful promise.
P.S. - Since the above was written we have seen a quantity of specimens from Mr. Fitch's garden and fields. They are to be sent ot Col. A.S. Johnson, Land Commissioner at Topeka, to show what can be done the first year on sod in Edwards county. They are now on exhibition at Mr. Milner's office.
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 18,1878
‟On Monday, while Mr. John Fitch was raking hay with a sulky rake, his horses ran away and threw him from his seat before the rake. One of the prongs of the rake struck him in the side inflicting a severe wound.‶
___
THE KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 20, 1878
‟John Fitch, Esq. met with a serious injury Wednesday. A fractious horse ran away while he was raking hay and he was struck by a wheel. The physicians regard his condition as critical.‶
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 25, 1878
Mr. John Fitch, of Fitchburg, died at his residence last Saturday about noon from the effects of the injuries received by him from his horse running away while hitched to a hay-rake and throwing him from the seat.
Mr. Fitch was one of the prominent men of our county and has been an active and energetic worker in every movement set on foot to advance the best interests of the county. He was a man of middle age and has been cut-off in the hours of usefulness. He leaves a large family dependent upon themselves as the mother died early this spring. His remains were buried near his residence at Fitchburg on
last Sunday at 4 p.m. By the death of Mr. Fitch, we lose one of our best citizens and the LEADER one of its most useful correspondents.
___
KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 27, 1878
The death of John Fitch, last Saturday, is a public loss we can but lament at this time in the history of our young county. He came to us from Chicago, and in less than a year and a half has put up improvements consisting of the largest house in the county, a very fine mill - run by our prairie winds - and barns, fences and out houses, comprising the main part of the village of Nettleton or Fitchburgh. He was aged only fifty-two years and bad fair for a long life among us.
He had a new horse in the rake, and as it became fractious, he went to it head to pacify it, when by a sudden start he was thrown down and struck by the wheel above the groin, producing a hemorrhage within, from which after five days caused a seemingly painless death, on Saturday at two o‵clock p.m. This seems the more sad as Mrs. Fitch had died of cancer not quite four months previous, and thus a family of four orphan children are left nearly a thousand miles from a former home and all relatives and near friends.
The funeral services last Sunday afternoon, at the late residence of the deceased, were of the most interesting and mournful character. They were conducted by Rev. W.H. Honnell and his excellent choir. The perfect order, the intense interest manifested by a large concourse of neighbors, the system and appropriateness of the entire service was such as to impress most profoundly every one present. The sermon form the words, ‟How unsearchable are his judgements, and his way past finding out.‶
The children will take up the cares and responsibilities of their fallen parents. There are, in the beautiful front yard, three graves side by side, two of them almost the only ones of adults in our county.
___
KINSLEY GRAPHIC
August 24, 1878
The Late John Fitch - from the Chicago Evening Journal
A telegram was received at Hyde Park, last evening, with the sad intelligence of the death of Mr. John Fitch, at Fitchburg, Kansas. Mr. Fitch was formerly a well known
citizen at Hyde Park, and went to Kansas and settled on a farm about two years ago. July 15th, while raking hay with a horse rake, the horse became frightened and ran, throwing Mr. Fitch from his seat in such a manner that one of the wheels passed over him, injuring him so that he died the Saturday following. The remains will be buried at Fitchburg [Nettleton], near those of his wife, who died last May.
The Alton (Ill.) Weekly Telegraph, commenting on the above notice of Mr. Fitch‵s sad death, pays the following tribute to his memory:
The above intelligence will be received with great regret by the many friends of the deceased in this city. Mr. Fitch was for many years a prominent resident of Alton.
He was a lawyer by profession and editor of the Alton National Democrat. He was proprietor of that paper when the building it occupied, on the site of the present Telegraph office, was totally destroyed by the great tornado of 1860. Soon after the breaking out of the war he entered the army and at one time held the position of Judge Advocate. He was the author of a voluminous work, ‟Annals of the Army of the Cumberland.‶ He removed to Chicago about 1864, where he entered upon a successful business career. His wife was the daughter of the late Leander Hamlin, of this city. Mr. Fitch was a gentleman of fine abilities. He was a talented and versatile writer, an energetic business man, and a genial companion. He was scarcely past the prime of his life when he met with the accident which resulted in his death. He leaves relations still residing in Chicago, we believe, and a brother-in-law, Mr. Palmer Hamlin, living at Nokomis.
___
The accounts of Mr. Fitch‵s accident vary, but whether he was with the horse at the time it bolted or sitting on the hay-rake seat, his death was the result of that farming raking accident.
As a point of happier times returning to the surviving children of the family, The Kinsley Graphic reported of an Equestrian Party in its September 21, 1878 issue, ‟A party of our young folks rode to Nettleton Monday evening and spent a very pleasant hour at the home of Miss (Mollie) Fitch, where they were most royally entertained. Although a surprise party, the features including excellent music on piano and vocal by Miss Fitch, Miss Kitty Alcorn and
Miss M. Shatzer. The ride home by moonlight will long be remembered as an event of
‘78.‶
In 1879, the four surviving Fitch children moved into Kinsley when Mollie, the oldest, sold the mill to N.L. Mills, who moved it to his farm outside of Kinsley. Mollie then purchased of Mr. Mills his residence at the northwest corner of Colony and Second Street, later known as the Judge Blanchard residence. They lived in that house until the time they returned to the Chicago area.
___
Married Mary E. Hamlin, March 1, 1858, Alton, Illinois.
The memorial for his brother, Timothy S. Fitch, is found at Find A Grave Memorial# 71919666
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
Kinsley, Edwards County, Kansas
Thursday, September 20, 1877
Page 3, Column 1
Local News
EDWARDS CO. FARMING !
A DAY AT FITCHBURG [Nettleton], and a Chapter on Sod Culture
Availing ourself of the invitation of a friend, we took a seat in his buggy a day or two since and enjoyed a very pleasant ride to Fitchburg. It was our first visit to the eastern line of the county, and we were surprised to find such extensive and successful farming operations as were to be seen on every hand. The waving corn fields rustled their welcome, and the immense stacks of grain and hay at every farm resembled Egyptian pyramids standing out so prominently upon the distant prairie plane.
Arriving at Fitchburg we found Mr. Fitch at home and his hospitable latch string hanging out. He at once took us in hand and after a sumptuous dinner, mostly home grown from his garden, we were shown the rounds. What we saw was not of the usual order for Kansas or any other new country, but as more usually to be met with in old settled and wealthy communities.
Mr. Fitch arrived in this county with his family on the 1st day of December last. He started his plow about the middle of last February. Since those dates, he has completed his house - the largest in the county - barns, mill &c. and has planted and grown fifty-five acres of sod crops of almost endless variety. The garden exhibit was quite complete. Potatoes, early and late, sweet potatoes of three varieties - very fine - onions grown from the seed, beets, turnips (perfectly immense), cabbages, early and late, squashed, cucumbers and melons in great variety, rhubarb, red peppers, sage, and tomatoes - remarkably plenty and fine. In fact, we could hardlyrealize that we were standing on sod ground without an atom of manure and with very little cultivation, inthe midst of a very prolific one and a half acre garden.
We were next shown a 25 acres corn field that will compare favorably with corn in Illinois and Missouri, also barley in stack, finely headed and plump; and an 8 acre field of German millet of marvelous growth, some of the stalks as thick as our little finger and from 4 to 5 feet tall, with a seed head like a small ear of corn. There was also a 10 acre field which had borne a fine crop of barley, and which Mr. Fitch had just sown to wheat, thus realizing two crops from the first year of sod breaking.
We have made special mention of this effort of Mr. Fitch at sod culture to show how easy it is for the farmer to make a start in the Arkansas Valley. The soil is so rich and the seasons are so early and favorable that one needs but to tickle the ground with a hoe to see her laugh, as Horace Greeley was want to say.
We have not space to make mention at this time of Mr. F.'s buildings, live stock, tools &c. His wind mill is an institution, surely. By raising a lever he set it in motion, and a brisk breeze that was blowing at the time made
the wheels and machinery rattle pretty lively. We should judge it to be a complete success.
We cordially invite all readers, excursionists, visitors and friends to make a trip to Fitchburg and see what we have seen for themselves. They will then realize the fact that a sufficient extent of capital and industry well applied will render this portion of the Arkansas Valley a land of wonderful promise.
P.S. - Since the above was written we have seen a quantity of specimens from Mr. Fitch's garden and fields. They are to be sent ot Col. A.S. Johnson, Land Commissioner at Topeka, to show what can be done the first year on sod in Edwards county. They are now on exhibition at Mr. Milner's office.
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 18,1878
‟On Monday, while Mr. John Fitch was raking hay with a sulky rake, his horses ran away and threw him from his seat before the rake. One of the prongs of the rake struck him in the side inflicting a severe wound.‶
___
THE KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 20, 1878
‟John Fitch, Esq. met with a serious injury Wednesday. A fractious horse ran away while he was raking hay and he was struck by a wheel. The physicians regard his condition as critical.‶
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 25, 1878
Mr. John Fitch, of Fitchburg, died at his residence last Saturday about noon from the effects of the injuries received by him from his horse running away while hitched to a hay-rake and throwing him from the seat.
Mr. Fitch was one of the prominent men of our county and has been an active and energetic worker in every movement set on foot to advance the best interests of the county. He was a man of middle age and has been cut-off in the hours of usefulness. He leaves a large family dependent upon themselves as the mother died early this spring. His remains were buried near his residence at Fitchburg on
last Sunday at 4 p.m. By the death of Mr. Fitch, we lose one of our best citizens and the LEADER one of its most useful correspondents.
___
KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 27, 1878
The death of John Fitch, last Saturday, is a public loss we can but lament at this time in the history of our young county. He came to us from Chicago, and in less than a year and a half has put up improvements consisting of the largest house in the county, a very fine mill - run by our prairie winds - and barns, fences and out houses, comprising the main part of the village of Nettleton or Fitchburgh. He was aged only fifty-two years and bad fair for a long life among us.
He had a new horse in the rake, and as it became fractious, he went to it head to pacify it, when by a sudden start he was thrown down and struck by the wheel above the groin, producing a hemorrhage within, from which after five days caused a seemingly painless death, on Saturday at two o‵clock p.m. This seems the more sad as Mrs. Fitch had died of cancer not quite four months previous, and thus a family of four orphan children are left nearly a thousand miles from a former home and all relatives and near friends.
The funeral services last Sunday afternoon, at the late residence of the deceased, were of the most interesting and mournful character. They were conducted by Rev. W.H. Honnell and his excellent choir. The perfect order, the intense interest manifested by a large concourse of neighbors, the system and appropriateness of the entire service was such as to impress most profoundly every one present. The sermon form the words, ‟How unsearchable are his judgements, and his way past finding out.‶
The children will take up the cares and responsibilities of their fallen parents. There are, in the beautiful front yard, three graves side by side, two of them almost the only ones of adults in our county.
___
KINSLEY GRAPHIC
August 24, 1878
The Late John Fitch - from the Chicago Evening Journal
A telegram was received at Hyde Park, last evening, with the sad intelligence of the death of Mr. John Fitch, at Fitchburg, Kansas. Mr. Fitch was formerly a well known
citizen at Hyde Park, and went to Kansas and settled on a farm about two years ago. July 15th, while raking hay with a horse rake, the horse became frightened and ran, throwing Mr. Fitch from his seat in such a manner that one of the wheels passed over him, injuring him so that he died the Saturday following. The remains will be buried at Fitchburg [Nettleton], near those of his wife, who died last May.
The Alton (Ill.) Weekly Telegraph, commenting on the above notice of Mr. Fitch‵s sad death, pays the following tribute to his memory:
The above intelligence will be received with great regret by the many friends of the deceased in this city. Mr. Fitch was for many years a prominent resident of Alton.
He was a lawyer by profession and editor of the Alton National Democrat. He was proprietor of that paper when the building it occupied, on the site of the present Telegraph office, was totally destroyed by the great tornado of 1860. Soon after the breaking out of the war he entered the army and at one time held the position of Judge Advocate. He was the author of a voluminous work, ‟Annals of the Army of the Cumberland.‶ He removed to Chicago about 1864, where he entered upon a successful business career. His wife was the daughter of the late Leander Hamlin, of this city. Mr. Fitch was a gentleman of fine abilities. He was a talented and versatile writer, an energetic business man, and a genial companion. He was scarcely past the prime of his life when he met with the accident which resulted in his death. He leaves relations still residing in Chicago, we believe, and a brother-in-law, Mr. Palmer Hamlin, living at Nokomis.
___
The accounts of Mr. Fitch‵s accident vary, but whether he was with the horse at the time it bolted or sitting on the hay-rake seat, his death was the result of that farming raking accident.
As a point of happier times returning to the surviving children of the family, The Kinsley Graphic reported of an Equestrian Party in its September 21, 1878 issue, ‟A party of our young folks rode to Nettleton Monday evening and spent a very pleasant hour at the home of Miss (Mollie) Fitch, where they were most royally entertained. Although a surprise party, the features including excellent music on piano and vocal by Miss Fitch, Miss Kitty Alcorn and
Miss M. Shatzer. The ride home by moonlight will long be remembered as an event of
‘78.‶
In 1879, the four surviving Fitch children moved into Kinsley when Mollie, the oldest, sold the mill to N.L. Mills, who moved it to his farm outside of Kinsley. Mollie then purchased of Mr. Mills his residence at the northwest corner of Colony and Second Street, later known as the Judge Blanchard residence. They lived in that house until the time they returned to the Chicago area.
___
Married Mary E. Hamlin, March 1, 1858, Alton, Illinois.
The memorial for his brother, Timothy S. Fitch, is found at Find A Grave Memorial# 71919666
___
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
Kinsley, Edwards County, Kansas
Thursday, September 20, 1877
Page 3, Column 1
Local News
EDWARDS CO. FARMING !
A DAY AT FITCHBURG [Nettleton], and a Chapter on Sod Culture
Availing ourself of the invitation of a friend, we took a seat in his buggy a day or two since and enjoyed a very pleasant ride to Fitchburg. It was our first visit to the eastern line of the county, and we were surprised to find such extensive and successful farming operations as were to be seen on every hand. The waving corn fields rustled their welcome, and the immense stacks of grain and hay at every farm resembled Egyptian pyramids standing out so prominently upon the distant prairie plane.
Arriving at Fitchburg we found Mr. Fitch at home and his hospitable latch string hanging out. He at once took us in hand and after a sumptuous dinner, mostly home grown from his garden, we were shown the rounds. What we saw was not of the usual order for Kansas or any other new country, but as more usually to be met with in old settled and wealthy communities.
Mr. Fitch arrived in this county with his family on the 1st day of December last. He started his plow about the middle of last February. Since those dates, he has completed his house - the largest in the county - barns, mill &c. and has planted and grown fifty-five acres of sod crops of almost endless variety. The garden exhibit was quite complete. Potatoes, early and late, sweet potatoes of three varieties - very fine - onions grown from the seed, beets, turnips (perfectly immense), cabbages, early and late, squashed, cucumbers and melons in great variety, rhubarb, red peppers, sage, and tomatoes - remarkably plenty and fine. In fact, we could hardlyrealize that we were standing on sod ground without an atom of manure and with very little cultivation, inthe midst of a very prolific one and a half acre garden.
We were next shown a 25 acres corn field that will compare favorably with corn in Illinois and Missouri, also barley in stack, finely headed and plump; and an 8 acre field of German millet of marvelous growth, some of the stalks as thick as our little finger and from 4 to 5 feet tall, with a seed head like a small ear of corn. There was also a 10 acre field which had borne a fine crop of barley, and which Mr. Fitch had just sown to wheat, thus realizing two crops from the first year of sod breaking.
We have made special mention of this effort of Mr. Fitch at sod culture to show how easy it is for the farmer to make a start in the Arkansas Valley. The soil is so rich and the seasons are so early and favorable that one needs but to tickle the ground with a hoe to see her laugh, as Horace Greeley was want to say.
We have not space to make mention at this time of Mr. F.'s buildings, live stock, tools &c. His wind mill is an institution, surely. By raising a lever he set it in motion, and a brisk breeze that was blowing at the time made
the wheels and machinery rattle pretty lively. We should judge it to be a complete success.
We cordially invite all readers, excursionists, visitors and friends to make a trip to Fitchburg and see what we have seen for themselves. They will then realize the fact that a sufficient extent of capital and industry well applied will render this portion of the Arkansas Valley a land of wonderful promise.
P.S. - Since the above was written we have seen a quantity of specimens from Mr. Fitch's garden and fields. They are to be sent ot Col. A.S. Johnson, Land Commissioner at Topeka, to show what can be done the first year on sod in Edwards county. They are now on exhibition at Mr. Milner's office.
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 18,1878
‟On Monday, while Mr. John Fitch was raking hay with a sulky rake, his horses ran away and threw him from his seat before the rake. One of the prongs of the rake struck him in the side inflicting a severe wound.‶
___
THE KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 20, 1878
‟John Fitch, Esq. met with a serious injury Wednesday. A fractious horse ran away while he was raking hay and he was struck by a wheel. The physicians regard his condition as critical.‶
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 25, 1878
Mr. John Fitch, of Fitchburg, died at his residence last Saturday about noon from the effects of the injuries received by him from his horse running away while hitched to a hay-rake and throwing him from the seat.
Mr. Fitch was one of the prominent men of our county and has been an active and energetic worker in every movement set on foot to advance the best interests of the county. He was a man of middle age and has been cut-off in the hours of usefulness. He leaves a large family dependent upon themselves as the mother died early this spring. His remains were buried near his residence at Fitchburg on
last Sunday at 4 p.m. By the death of Mr. Fitch, we lose one of our best citizens and the LEADER one of its most useful correspondents.
___
KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 27, 1878
The death of John Fitch, last Saturday, is a public loss we can but lament at this time in the history of our young county. He came to us from Chicago, and in less than a year and a half has put up improvements consisting of the largest house in the county, a very fine mill - run by our prairie winds - and barns, fences and out houses, comprising the main part of the village of Nettleton or Fitchburgh. He was aged only fifty-two years and bad fair for a long life among us.
He had a new horse in the rake, and as it became fractious, he went to it head to pacify it, when by a sudden start he was thrown down and struck by the wheel above the groin, producing a hemorrhage within, from which after five days caused a seemingly painless death, on Saturday at two o‵clock p.m. This seems the more sad as Mrs. Fitch had died of cancer not quite four months previous, and thus a family of four orphan children are left nearly a thousand miles from a former home and all relatives and near friends.
The funeral services last Sunday afternoon, at the late residence of the deceased, were of the most interesting and mournful character. They were conducted by Rev. W.H. Honnell and his excellent choir. The perfect order, the intense interest manifested by a large concourse of neighbors, the system and appropriateness of the entire service was such as to impress most profoundly every one present. The sermon form the words, ‟How unsearchable are his judgements, and his way past finding out.‶
The children will take up the cares and responsibilities of their fallen parents. There are, in the beautiful front yard, three graves side by side, two of them almost the only ones of adults in our county.
___
KINSLEY GRAPHIC
August 24, 1878
The Late John Fitch - from the Chicago Evening Journal
A telegram was received at Hyde Park, last evening, with the sad intelligence of the death of Mr. John Fitch, at Fitchburg, Kansas. Mr. Fitch was formerly a well known
citizen at Hyde Park, and went to Kansas and settled on a farm about two years ago. July 15th, while raking hay with a horse rake, the horse became frightened and ran, throwing Mr. Fitch from his seat in such a manner that one of the wheels passed over him, injuring him so that he died the Saturday following. The remains will be buried at Fitchburg [Nettleton], near those of his wife, who died last May.
The Alton (Ill.) Weekly Telegraph, commenting on the above notice of Mr. Fitch‵s sad death, pays the following tribute to his memory:
The above intelligence will be received with great regret by the many friends of the deceased in this city. Mr. Fitch was for many years a prominent resident of Alton.
He was a lawyer by profession and editor of the Alton National Democrat. He was proprietor of that paper when the building it occupied, on the site of the present Telegraph office, was totally destroyed by the great tornado of 1860. Soon after the breaking out of the war he entered the army and at one time held the position of Judge Advocate. He was the author of a voluminous work, ‟Annals of the Army of the Cumberland.‶ He removed to Chicago about 1864, where he entered upon a successful business career. His wife was the daughter of the late Leander Hamlin, of this city. Mr. Fitch was a gentleman of fine abilities. He was a talented and versatile writer, an energetic business man, and a genial companion. He was scarcely past the prime of his life when he met with the accident which resulted in his death. He leaves relations still residing in Chicago, we believe, and a brother-in-law, Mr. Palmer Hamlin, living at Nokomis.
___
The accounts of Mr. Fitch‵s accident vary, but whether he was with the horse at the time it bolted or sitting on the hay-rake seat, his death was the result of that farming raking accident.
As a point of happier times returning to the surviving children of the family, The Kinsley Graphic reported of an Equestrian Party in its September 21, 1878 issue, ‟A party of our young folks rode to Nettleton Monday evening and spent a very pleasant hour at the home of Miss (Mollie) Fitch, where they were most royally entertained. Although a surprise party, the features including excellent music on piano and vocal by Miss Fitch, Miss Kitty Alcorn and
Miss M. Shatzer. The ride home by moonlight will long be remembered as an event of
‘78.‶
In 1879, the four surviving Fitch children moved into Kinsley when Mollie, the oldest, sold the mill to N.L. Mills, who moved it to his farm outside of Kinsley. Mollie then purchased of Mr. Mills his residence at the northwest corner of Colony and Second Street, later known as the Judge Blanchard residence. They lived in that house until the time they returned to the Chicago area.
___
Married Mary E. Hamlin, March 1, 1858, Alton, Illinois.
The memorial for his brother, Timothy S. Fitch, is found at Find A Grave Memorial# 71919666
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
Kinsley, Edwards County, Kansas
Thursday, September 20, 1877
Page 3, Column 1
Local News
EDWARDS CO. FARMING !
A DAY AT FITCHBURG [Nettleton], and a Chapter on Sod Culture
Availing ourself of the invitation of a friend, we took a seat in his buggy a day or two since and enjoyed a very pleasant ride to Fitchburg. It was our first visit to the eastern line of the county, and we were surprised to find such extensive and successful farming operations as were to be seen on every hand. The waving corn fields rustled their welcome, and the immense stacks of grain and hay at every farm resembled Egyptian pyramids standing out so prominently upon the distant prairie plane.
Arriving at Fitchburg we found Mr. Fitch at home and his hospitable latch string hanging out. He at once took us in hand and after a sumptuous dinner, mostly home grown from his garden, we were shown the rounds. What we saw was not of the usual order for Kansas or any other new country, but as more usually to be met with in old settled and wealthy communities.
Mr. Fitch arrived in this county with his family on the 1st day of December last. He started his plow about the middle of last February. Since those dates, he has completed his house - the largest in the county - barns, mill &c. and has planted and grown fifty-five acres of sod crops of almost endless variety. The garden exhibit was quite complete. Potatoes, early and late, sweet potatoes of three varieties - very fine - onions grown from the seed, beets, turnips (perfectly immense), cabbages, early and late, squashed, cucumbers and melons in great variety, rhubarb, red peppers, sage, and tomatoes - remarkably plenty and fine. In fact, we could hardlyrealize that we were standing on sod ground without an atom of manure and with very little cultivation, inthe midst of a very prolific one and a half acre garden.
We were next shown a 25 acres corn field that will compare favorably with corn in Illinois and Missouri, also barley in stack, finely headed and plump; and an 8 acre field of German millet of marvelous growth, some of the stalks as thick as our little finger and from 4 to 5 feet tall, with a seed head like a small ear of corn. There was also a 10 acre field which had borne a fine crop of barley, and which Mr. Fitch had just sown to wheat, thus realizing two crops from the first year of sod breaking.
We have made special mention of this effort of Mr. Fitch at sod culture to show how easy it is for the farmer to make a start in the Arkansas Valley. The soil is so rich and the seasons are so early and favorable that one needs but to tickle the ground with a hoe to see her laugh, as Horace Greeley was want to say.
We have not space to make mention at this time of Mr. F.'s buildings, live stock, tools &c. His wind mill is an institution, surely. By raising a lever he set it in motion, and a brisk breeze that was blowing at the time made
the wheels and machinery rattle pretty lively. We should judge it to be a complete success.
We cordially invite all readers, excursionists, visitors and friends to make a trip to Fitchburg and see what we have seen for themselves. They will then realize the fact that a sufficient extent of capital and industry well applied will render this portion of the Arkansas Valley a land of wonderful promise.
P.S. - Since the above was written we have seen a quantity of specimens from Mr. Fitch's garden and fields. They are to be sent ot Col. A.S. Johnson, Land Commissioner at Topeka, to show what can be done the first year on sod in Edwards county. They are now on exhibition at Mr. Milner's office.
___
EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 18,1878
‟On Monday, while Mr. John Fitch was raking hay with a sulky rake, his horses ran away and threw him from his seat before the rake. One of the prongs of the rake struck him in the side inflicting a severe wound.‶
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THE KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 20, 1878
‟John Fitch, Esq. met with a serious injury Wednesday. A fractious horse ran away while he was raking hay and he was struck by a wheel. The physicians regard his condition as critical.‶
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EDWARDS COUNTY LEADER
July 25, 1878
Mr. John Fitch, of Fitchburg, died at his residence last Saturday about noon from the effects of the injuries received by him from his horse running away while hitched to a hay-rake and throwing him from the seat.
Mr. Fitch was one of the prominent men of our county and has been an active and energetic worker in every movement set on foot to advance the best interests of the county. He was a man of middle age and has been cut-off in the hours of usefulness. He leaves a large family dependent upon themselves as the mother died early this spring. His remains were buried near his residence at Fitchburg on
last Sunday at 4 p.m. By the death of Mr. Fitch, we lose one of our best citizens and the LEADER one of its most useful correspondents.
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KINSLEY GRAPHIC
July 27, 1878
The death of John Fitch, last Saturday, is a public loss we can but lament at this time in the history of our young county. He came to us from Chicago, and in less than a year and a half has put up improvements consisting of the largest house in the county, a very fine mill - run by our prairie winds - and barns, fences and out houses, comprising the main part of the village of Nettleton or Fitchburgh. He was aged only fifty-two years and bad fair for a long life among us.
He had a new horse in the rake, and as it became fractious, he went to it head to pacify it, when by a sudden start he was thrown down and struck by the wheel above the groin, producing a hemorrhage within, from which after five days caused a seemingly painless death, on Saturday at two o‵clock p.m. This seems the more sad as Mrs. Fitch had died of cancer not quite four months previous, and thus a family of four orphan children are left nearly a thousand miles from a former home and all relatives and near friends.
The funeral services last Sunday afternoon, at the late residence of the deceased, were of the most interesting and mournful character. They were conducted by Rev. W.H. Honnell and his excellent choir. The perfect order, the intense interest manifested by a large concourse of neighbors, the system and appropriateness of the entire service was such as to impress most profoundly every one present. The sermon form the words, ‟How unsearchable are his judgements, and his way past finding out.‶
The children will take up the cares and responsibilities of their fallen parents. There are, in the beautiful front yard, three graves side by side, two of them almost the only ones of adults in our county.
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KINSLEY GRAPHIC
August 24, 1878
The Late John Fitch - from the Chicago Evening Journal
A telegram was received at Hyde Park, last evening, with the sad intelligence of the death of Mr. John Fitch, at Fitchburg, Kansas. Mr. Fitch was formerly a well known
citizen at Hyde Park, and went to Kansas and settled on a farm about two years ago. July 15th, while raking hay with a horse rake, the horse became frightened and ran, throwing Mr. Fitch from his seat in such a manner that one of the wheels passed over him, injuring him so that he died the Saturday following. The remains will be buried at Fitchburg [Nettleton], near those of his wife, who died last May.
The Alton (Ill.) Weekly Telegraph, commenting on the above notice of Mr. Fitch‵s sad death, pays the following tribute to his memory:
The above intelligence will be received with great regret by the many friends of the deceased in this city. Mr. Fitch was for many years a prominent resident of Alton.
He was a lawyer by profession and editor of the Alton National Democrat. He was proprietor of that paper when the building it occupied, on the site of the present Telegraph office, was totally destroyed by the great tornado of 1860. Soon after the breaking out of the war he entered the army and at one time held the position of Judge Advocate. He was the author of a voluminous work, ‟Annals of the Army of the Cumberland.‶ He removed to Chicago about 1864, where he entered upon a successful business career. His wife was the daughter of the late Leander Hamlin, of this city. Mr. Fitch was a gentleman of fine abilities. He was a talented and versatile writer, an energetic business man, and a genial companion. He was scarcely past the prime of his life when he met with the accident which resulted in his death. He leaves relations still residing in Chicago, we believe, and a brother-in-law, Mr. Palmer Hamlin, living at Nokomis.
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The accounts of Mr. Fitch‵s accident vary, but whether he was with the horse at the time it bolted or sitting on the hay-rake seat, his death was the result of that farming raking accident.
As a point of happier times returning to the surviving children of the family, The Kinsley Graphic reported of an Equestrian Party in its September 21, 1878 issue, ‟A party of our young folks rode to Nettleton Monday evening and spent a very pleasant hour at the home of Miss (Mollie) Fitch, where they were most royally entertained. Although a surprise party, the features including excellent music on piano and vocal by Miss Fitch, Miss Kitty Alcorn and
Miss M. Shatzer. The ride home by moonlight will long be remembered as an event of
‘78.‶
In 1879, the four surviving Fitch children moved into Kinsley when Mollie, the oldest, sold the mill to N.L. Mills, who moved it to his farm outside of Kinsley. Mollie then purchased of Mr. Mills his residence at the northwest corner of Colony and Second Street, later known as the Judge Blanchard residence. They lived in that house until the time they returned to the Chicago area.
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Married Mary E. Hamlin, March 1, 1858, Alton, Illinois.
The memorial for his brother, Timothy S. Fitch, is found at Find A Grave Memorial# 71919666
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