FITCH
The first member of the Lewis county family of Fitch who settled in America was Rev. James Fitch, born in England in 1622, sonof Thomas Fitch, born 1590. Rev. James was one of the founders of Yale College.
He married (first) Abigail Whitefield, (second) Priscilla Mason; by his second wife he had a son named Jeremiah.
(II) Jeremiah, son of Rev. James and Priscilla (Mason) Fitch, was born Sept., 1670; married Ruth Guilford, and had a son: Abner.
(III) Captain Abner, son of Jeremiah and Ruth (Guilford) Fitch, was born in 1703; married 1736, Ruth Rose, and had: Jeremiah, Jeptha, born Nov. 22, 1740; Betty, born Sept. 1, 1743; Ruth, born Oct. 13, 1744; Abner, born Nov. 16, 1749; Jeptha, born Sept., 1752.
(IV) Jeremiah (2), born March, 1737; married, Feb. 1, 1759, Abigail Whitmore, and had Daniel, born Jan. 17, 1760; Thaddeus, born July 21, 1761; Roxana, born Jan. 13, 1763; Thankful, born Jan. 16, 1765; and Converse.
(V) Converse, son of Jeremiah and Abigal (Whitmore) Fitch, born Oct. 24, 1769, married Aruma, daughter of Oziaas Grant, fifth in descent from Matthew Grant. (see Grant VI). Ozias Grant served in the French and Indian war and in the Revolution. Children: Augustus, Russell, Warren, Abiel, Halsey, Nathan S., Fanny, Lorana, Orson and William.
(VI) Augustus, eldest child and son of Converse and Aruma (Grant) Fitch, was born in Tolland, Connecticut, Nov. 8, 1793, died May 27, 1867. He was reared on the farm and received education furnished by the common schools of his day, supplemented by the education gained by reading, study and observation.
He served as a soldier in the war of 1812-14. In 1821 he went to Rodman, Jefferson county, New York, to look after the interest of the family of his brother Russell, who had settled and died there. He remained in New York, married, and removed to St. Lawrence county, settling in Morristown in the early history of that settlement. He followed farming all the remainder of his life. The famly were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and until the formation of the Republican party in 1856, Augustus voted and acted with the Domocratic party.
He married, Oct. 31, 1821, Emily Nims, born in Deerfield, Mass., April 29, 1801, daughter of Rufus and Cynthia (Wright) Nims.
Children:
1. Russell Wright, born Jan. 12, 1825, in Rodman, N.Y. In 1839 the family removed to Morristown, St. Lawrence county. He was educated in the common schools; engaged in farming, which he followed with success until 1875, when he retired from active life and settled in Lowville. He is a Methodist in religious faith and a Republican in politics. He married, Jan. 12, 1846, Margaret Tyler Budlong, born in Rutland, Jefferson county, N.Y., Nov. 2, 1824; died June 15, 1886, daughter of Daniel and Lydia (Tyler) Budlong.
Children: 1. Lamont Daniel, born Sept. 1, 1848; married (first) Lucinda Rogers; (second) Lizzie Richter; one daughter, Nina, born May 23, 1886. 2. Deloss Augustus, born Aug. 18, 1853; a merchant of Lowville; married Gertie Pelton, of St. Louis, Missouri. 3. Manning Eugene, born April 13, 1857; member of the firm of Fitch Brothers, Lowville; married June 14, 1905, Cora L. Young, daughter of Norman Young, of St. Lawrence county; she died Aug. 16, 1906. 4. Warner Fayette, born Jan. 1, 1864.
2. Leander L., born June 6, 1827.
3. Amos Nichols, born Jan. 30, 1830; died Sept. 10, 1909.
4. Charles Carrol, born Dec. 5, 1832, a veteran of the New York heavy artillery during the civil war.
5. Frederick M., born Nov. 10, 1839; enlisted Aug. 14, 1861, Company C., Sixtieth regiment, New York Volunteers, was mortally wounded at Fort Stedman, died April 26, 1865.
6. Warren R. see forward.
(VII) Warren R., son of Augustus and Emily (Nims) Fitch, was born in Rodman, N.Y., Dec. 31, 1836. When he was still an infant the family removed to Morristown, St. Lawrence county, where he attended the public schools, afterward entering Ogdensburg Academy and the Wesleyan Seminary at Governour, N.Y.
At age sixteen he began teaching, and continued in that profession until May, 1860. At that time he entered mercantile life, operating a store at Brier Hill until March, 1873, when he removed to Lowville, where for several years he had a store with a branch at Carthage. He purchased the Lowville Times, and for twelve years was editor and publisher of that publication. While a resident of Morristown he served as supervisor for seven years, justice of the peace for twelve years, and postmaster eleven years, resigning these offices on removing from the county. He was a director of the Morristown Black River Railroad from the time of its incorporation until the completion of the road to Philadelphia, N.Y., and final consolidation with the Utica & Black River Railroad Company.
He was one of the incorporators of the Lowveille Asbestos Burial Casket Company, and president from its organization. He has served three terms as treasurer of the vilage. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, for president, and has always stood loyally for Republican principles. During the war he aided with all his power to secure recruits, visited the camps, assisted the families of those killed in battle, and all needy soldiers' families.
In early life Mr. Fitch was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal church, studied theology at Wesleyan Academy, and was ordained a minister of the Methodist church by Bishop Randolph S. Foster, of Boston. In 1892 he was a lay delegate to the general conference of his church, held in Omaha, Nebraska, where for five weeks he served on many of the important committees of the conference. For many years he has been treasurer of the Thousand Islands Park Association, and under his management it has become one of the most prosperous summer resorts on the St. Lawrence. He has devoted a great deal of time to this enterprise, and its success has been of keen satisfaction to him.
He is a welcome and frequent contributor to the religious publications of his church, and is author of a work telling the story of the Savior's life, entitled "From Bethlehem to Bethany." He is an ardent worker in the cause of temperance and religion.
He married (first), Sept. 18, 1860, Lydia Jane, born July 18, 1836, in Morristown, N.Y., died April 11, 1873, daughter of Calvin and Lydia (Tyler) Blackstone. Calvin Blackstone was born in Adams, Jefferson county, N.Y., son of Ebenezer Blackstone. Lydia was a daughter of Frederick Tyler.
Children:
1. Leone Adelle, born Feb. 5, 1865, at Brier Hill, N.Y.; married, Dec. 12, 1888, Rev. Herbert Greenfield Coddington, D.D., Rector of Grace Episcopal Church of Syracuse, N.Y.: has one child, Dorothy, born April 23, 1894.
2. Inez Genevieve, born Feb. 6, 1871; married June 7, 1893, Rutson Rea Smiley, of Lowville; has Ethel, born Aug. 9, 1895, and Evelyn, April 6, 1903.
He married (second), Oct. 1, 1874, Edna Luella, died Feb. 12, 1895, daughter of Edwin Arthur. He married (third) Jan. 21, 1897, Roxa A. Snow, born Sept. 10, 1848, daughter of Ephraim and Electa (Rose) Snow, a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants through her lineal descent from Stephen Hopkins (a Mayflower passenger, 1620), and a signer of the Compact.
The Fitch line begins in America in 1639, with a minister of the gospel, and this review closes with a minister of the gospel, 1909. That sacred calling seems inherent in the family and there have been many in the different branches who have taken holy orders. The many-sided acitivities of the last generation go far to disprove the assertion that a good minister is a poor business man.