Fletcher, John A. died 1875

FLETCHER

Posted By: cheryl Locher moonen (email)
Date: 2/10/2020 at 11:10:20

Dubuque Daily Times, Thursday, Jun 03, 1875, Dubuque, IA, Page: 3

MATILDA FLETCHER’S many friends in this city will regret to learn of the death of her husband, J. A. Fletcher, at Des Moines, on the last day of May. He was one of the best and most unselfish of men, fit partner for an able and noble woman. A merited tribute to his worth will be found in our State News column, on our third page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. A. Fletcher died at Des Moines, at 10 o’clock on the evening of May 31. He was born at Whitehaven, England, and came to America when but ten years of old. The Des Moines Register says of him: Left an orphan at an early age, he made his own way in early life. He was a teacher in the public schools, at seventeen; was educated at Lawrence University, Wisconsin, and went from college to the army. During the last year of the war he contracted a catarrh and throat difficulty. Every succeeding year interfered more and more with the plans and hopes for high success that his sanguine nature would not forego. With symptoms of disease that many would have sunk under, he learned his profession, the law, and practiced one year in Rockford, Illinois, and several years in Council Bluffs, though while in the latter place the symptoms of consumption became so apparent that close attention to his business was impossibility. He was obliged to go south.

Shortly after arriving in Washington he was prostrated with a succession of violent hemorrhages. During his illness he was appointed on the role of the House as one of the assistant doorkeepers, which position he occupied at the time of his death which most of the time he has been on duty. Mr. Fletcher looked upon death as but a gateway to better life and his only regret seemed to be the separation from his wife, Mrs. Matilda Fletcher, whom he educated and trained from the time he found her among his pupils, a little girl, eager for knowledge and hungry for sympathy and approval. From that hour to the moment of his death he planned her studies and, with loving solicitude, watched every effort she made. Whatever of culture, courage or advancement she has, she attributes to his counsel and wisdom. When the loss of their only child, their little Alice, occurred some five or six years ago, with anguish in his own heart that brought him very near to the grave, he saw that she was giving way to grief almost to the verge of distraction, and from that time has kept before her the necessity and duty of a worthy object for the benefit of the world. He won her mind from brooding over her grief to the consideration of the world’s great needs and miseries, and this course of thought culminated in public lectures.

Mr. Fletcher was a man of most exemplary life, a heart full of tender sympathy with the distresses and brave in upholding truth. To the world a friend, to the wife a loving husband, and to his associates a cherished companion, he goes from earth leaving a memory richly laden with recollections of good. He was devotedly attached to his profession.

When the last and fatal attack of his disease began, he requested that he might be brought to Des Moines to die. Although not a resident here he loved the city, and had many friends here. At his own request his pallbearers are to be composed of Des Moines attorneys.