San Francisco County
THOMAS FITCH
THOMAS FITCH, an eminent lawyer of the Pacific coast, and
one whose reputation extends throughout the country as an orator and brilliant
advocate, hails from the Empire State. He was born in New York city in 1838, the son of a merchant of that place. Six
or seven generations of his ancestors were natives of New England. Sir
Thomas Fitch, one of his progenitors, was Governor of Connecticut when it was a
colony.
Thomas
attended school in Massachusetts until he was fifteen years old. In 1855
he went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and after remaining there five years he came
to the Pacific coast, landing here in 1860. He read law in the office of
Shafter, Heydenfeld & Gould, and was admitted to
the bar of the Supreme Court of Nevada in 1863, after which he engaged in the
practice of his profession. The young lawyer’s abilities were soon
recognized, and he was brought to the front in political circles. He was
elected Representative to the Legislature of California in 1863; a member of
the Constitutional Convention of Nevada in 1864; District Attorney of Washoe county, Nevada, in 1865 and 1866; and a Representative to
Congress from Nevada in 1868. He was attorney for Brigham Young and the
Mormon church in 1871, and retained the position
several years. In all probability he better understands the inside history
of the great apostle and the Mormon church than any
other man outside the church.
Mr.
Fitch subsequently went to Arizona, and in 1879 was elected to the Legislature
of that Territory.
He
is a stanch Republican, and in every campaign takes an active part on the
stump, his name and fame as an orator being well-known in every hamlet
throughout the Pacific coast.
During his early experience in law, Mr. Fitch had a large
criminal practice. More recently, however, he has given his attention to
mining litigation and equity practice. For the past twenty-eight years he
has been engaged in his profession in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona,
about half that time in this State.
Transcribed
by Donna L. Becker.
Source: “The Bay of
San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Page 475, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.