private life. A monument, raised by public subscription, which is still standing in the private cemetery of his home in Norwalk, Conn., commemorates his "large acquirements, virtuous character, and strict fidelity in discharge of important trusts." His descendants and the collateral branches of his family are still among the most public-spirited citizens of Norwalk. See Van Rensselaer's "Ancestral Sketches" (New York, 1882).
FITCH, Thomas Davis, physician, b. in Troy,
Bradford co., Pa., 14 July, 1829. He was educated
in his native town and at Knox college. Galesburg, Ill., to which state his father had removed
in 1846. After studying medicine and practising
in Wethersfield, 111., he was graduated at Rush
medical college, Chicago, in 1854. In the same
year he removed to Kewanee, 111., and in December, 1861, entered the army as surgeon of the 42d
Illinois regiment, but resigned in May, 1863. A
year later he removed to Chicago, where he has
since resided. He has been surgeon and lecturer
on obstetrics in various Chicago hospitals, and
was one of the originators in 1870 of the Woman's
hospital medical college in the same city, in which
institution he has filled the chair of gynecology,
and the office of trustee, since its organization.
Dr. Fitch is a member of several medical associations, has contributed frequently to the literature of
his specialty, and is the author of "Antagonism of
Opium and Quinia," a paper read before the Chicago medical society in 1865.
FITTON, James, clergyman, b. in Boston,
Mass., in 1803; d. there, 15 Sept., 1881. He was
ordained by Bishop Fenwick in 1827, and in 1828
was sent as a missionary to the Passamaquoddy
Indians. He subsequently labored among the
scattered Roman Catholics of New Hampshire and
Vermont, and soon the territory between Boston
and Long Island was placed under his charge,
with Hartford as the centre of his district. In
1855 he removed to East Boston, where he ministered
until his death. He was instrumental in
establishing the College of the holy cross at Worcester,
and the first Roman Catholic newspaper.
FITZ, Henry, telescope-maker, b. in Newburyport,
Mass., in 1808; d. in New York city, 6 Nov.,
1863. He began life as a printer, but, being of an
inventive turn, learned the trade of locksmith,
at which he worked for many years. In 1835 he
made his first reflecting telescope, and in the winter
of 1844 invented a method of perfecting
object-glasses for refracting telescopes, constructing the
first one out of the bottom of an ordinary tumbler.
In 1845 he exhibited at the American institute
fair an instrument that brought him the favorable
notice of eminent astronomers, and he thenceforth
devoted himself to making telescopes as a business
with remarkable success. He finally
succeeded in producing instruments of sixteen-inch
aperture, and also made two of thirteen inches
— one for the Dudley observatory at Albany, and
the other for an association of gentlemen at
Alleghany City, Pa. There is one of his manufacture,
of twelve inches aperture, at Ann Arbor, and he
completed another for the Vassar female college.
Mr. Fitz's methods were entirely his own devising.
When seized with his final illness, he was about to
sail for Europe to select a glass for a twenty-four-inch
telescope, and to procure patents for a camera,
involving a new form of lens.
FITZGERALD, Lord Edward, Irish patriot, b.
near Dublin, Ireland, 15 Oct., 1763; d. there, 4 June,
1798. He was a younger son of the first Duke of
Leinster, and lost his father at the age of ten. His
mother married again, and removed to the Conti-
nent, where Edward was carefully educated by his
step-father. He entered the army on his return
to England in 1779, and in 1781 sailed with his
regiment for America, where he soon obtained the
appointment of aide-de-camp on the staff of Lord
Rawdon. He gained in the Revolutionary war no
little reputation for personal courage, readiness of
resource, and humane feeling, and was severely
wounded in the battle of Eutaw Springs, S. C.
After the surrender of Yorktown, he joined the
staff of Gen. O'Hara in the island of St. Lucia, in
1783, but returned in the same year to Ireland.
He was elected as member for Athy to the Irish
parliament, and afterward rejoined his regiment
at Halifax. He subsequently travelled through
the United States, going down the Mississippi
river to New Orleans. In 1790 he returned to
Ireland, and was again returned to parliament. Having
at a public meeting avowed his sympathy with
the republicans, and renounced his title, in common
with several other English officers, he was
dismissed from the army. In 1790 he joined the
“United Irishmen,” was afterward elected their
president, and was sent to France to negotiate a
treaty with the Directory for a French invasion of
Ireland. The scheme was betrayed to the English
ministry, and several of the leaders were arrested,
but Fitzgerald, having concealed himself in a
house in Dublin, still continued to direct the
movement. A price was set on his head, the place of
his retreat discovered, and, after a severe struggle
in which he was mortally wounded, he was
captured by police officers and committed to prison,
19 May, 1798, where he died in June. See “The
Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald,” by
Thomas Moore (2 vols., London, 1831).
FITZGERALD, Edward, R. C. bishop, b. in
Limerick, Ireland, in 1833. He came to the United
States in 1849, entered the College of the Barrens,
Mo., in 1850, and finished his ecclesiastical studies
in Mount St. Mary's college, Emmettsburg. He
was ordained priest in 1857, and was appointed
pastor of a Roman Catholic church in Columbus,
Ohio, which had been laid under an interdict by
the archbishop of Cincinnati. Father Fitzgerald
was entirely successful in restoring harmony among
his parishioners, and inducing them to submit to
the archbishop. He remained over nine years at
Columbus, and in 1867 was consecrated bishop of
Little Rock, Ark. Owing to the civil war, the
number of Roman Catholics in his diocese had decreased to little more than a thousand, with five
priests and three religious institutions. He used
every exertion to attract immigration to the state,
with such success that in 1884 the Roman Catholic
population was over 7,000, with twenty-three priests
and thirty-seven churches. He introduced the
monks of the Benedictine order, established a house
of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost at Marienstadt,
for the purpose of holding special missions among
his flock, and also introduced the Sisters of Charity,
the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the Benedictine nuns,
whom he placed in charge of asylums and schools.
He visited Rome to take part in the deliberations
of the Vatican council, and was also a member of
the third plenary council of Baltimore in 1884.
FITZGERALD, Thomas, senator, b. in Germantown, Herkimer co., N. Y., 10 April, 1796; d. in Niles, Mich., 25 March, 1855. His father, an Irish soldier in the Revolutionary army, was wounded and pensioned. The son received a common-school education, and served with credit in the war of 1812 under Gen. Harrison. After its conclusion he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He
then removed to Indiana, where he was elected to the
