Joseph Fitchpatrick

#14 Joseph Andrew Fitchpatrick (1840-1922) 1882

Joseph Andrew Fitchpatrick, son of William H. Fitchpatrick and Sarah Vance Hagy, was born October 17, 1840 in Washington County, Virginia. His family moved west in 1842 and located in Clinton County, Indiana where he attended school intermittently. They remained there until 1854 when they came to Iowa settling in Boone County. After three years the family relocated to the Ames area in Story County.

Joseph Fitchpatrick worked on the family farm in his boyhood and later taught school 1859-1861. He answered his country’s call in May 1861 serving in Company E, 3^rd Iowa Infantry under Captain (later Col.) John Scott. He and a portion of his regiment were captured during the Battle of Shiloh. The rebels held him for ten weeks when he was returned to his regiment in a prisoner exchange. About six months later in July 1863, he was again captured at the Battle of Atlanta. This time he spent ten months in the infamous Andersonville Prison. He was furloughed in order to let him regain his strength but rejoined his regiment again in time to be mustered out in May of 1864.

Upon his return from war, he was elected Clerk of the District Court. It was at this time that Mr. Fitchpatrick removed to Nevada in order to fulfill his duties as Clerk. A year later, he married Harriet Victoria C. Pierce, daughter of Lyman Pierce and Phebe J. Dean, on August 16, 1866 in Ames, Story County, Iowa and the family established their home in Nevada. He served as Clerk for eleven years after which he was admitted to the bar to practice law in 1877. He formed a partnership with George W. Dyer known as Dyer & Fitchpatrick which lasted until 1885. In 1896 he formed a law partnership with E. M. McCall, who later became a District Court Judge. He then established an abstract and loan business which eventually became the Fitchpatrick Investment Company, a business he managed until his death.

In 1882 Mr Fitchpatrick was elected mayor of Nevada and served one term in 1882,

He was elected to the Iowa Senate and served from 1899 to 1904. Two years later on September 13, 1906, Harriet (Pierce) Fitchpatrick. At that time, Mr. Fitchpatrick made his home with his younger daughter, Genevieve Louise (Fitchpatrick) McCall and her husband, Judge Edward Montgomery McCall here in Nevada. However he remained active particularly in politics. He served two more terms in the Senate beginning in 1908.

He was connected with First National Bank as a stockholder and director almost from its inception. At the time of his death on February 5, 1922, he was president of that institution. He was survived by two daughters, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.