Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/501

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FITCH
FITZGERALD
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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