William Pierce Fitchpatrick (1868-1913)

FITCHPATRICK, PIERCE, RINGHEIM, WATERS, MCCALL

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Representative July 11, 1913 (front page)

W. P. FITCHPATRICK ACCIDENTALLY KILLED

AUTOMOBILE TURN-OVER IS CAUSE

Was Driving Himself When Car Overturned.

Wm. P. Fitchpatrick, only son of Hon. J. A. Fitchpatrick, and himself one of the best known citizens of this community, was instantly killed about 5:45 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon as the result of the overturning of his automobile. In the turn-over a hole was punched in the side of his head and his neck was broken, either of these injuries being sufficient to produce instant death. He also had several other bruises and injuries, of which little account is taken under the circumstances.

The accident occurred on the Transcontinental Highway near the east corporation line of the city but within the city limits. The car was a "Michigan" touring car, perhaps the finest in appearance in the city and possessing much power. In the car with him were an automobile expert for the Hupmobile agency in Des Moines and I. R. Kempkes and C. C. Montgomery of this city. All three of these men got out of the car with slight or unimportant injuries, thought Montgomery was momentarily stunned; and Kempkes has been temporarily laid up with strains and soreness; but when the others recovered their senses Fitchpatrick was lying beside the car dead. It does not appear that anyone actually saw the accident. A young man names Wheelock was following the car on a motorcycle; but for him the excitement was obscured by a cloud of dust, and he probably had his own machine to look after. Wright Ringheim was coming in his father's car; cut at the instant of the accident he was attending to a bad piece of road, and when he looked up again the Fitchpatrick car was in the ditch. For Kempkes and Montgomery it was all a very sudden performance, and the Hupmobile man from Des Moines, who was in the front seat and in the best position to observe the matter left town after giving only brief explanation to a very few people. Current understanding of the accident, therefore, is a product of deductions quite as much as of definite evidence.

Upon the whole case, however, it appears that Mr. Fitchpatrick had started to give his friends a quick drive to Fernald, which was the objective of the trip, and that when he got clear of crossings and out on the Transcontinental he speeded up. Whether next he made some mistake in management or something broke does not appear; but the car began veering and the steering wheel was wrenched loose. Then he gave a warning to jump; the emergency brake was set; the other three men went out, and the car churned ends and rolled over landing with its front west instead of east and right side up. Apparently as the car went over it crushed the driver, a broken spoke of the steering wheel seeming to have been what made the hole in his head. The young man with the motorcycle was sent back to town for help and Wright Ringheim removed Fitchpatrick, already dead, from the road-bed to the bank. Help came from town as soon as the motorcycle could com in and automobiles go back; but Fitchpatrick could not be helped and the others did not need much help. All were brought into town and later the automobile was towed in. It was considerably damaged but subject to restoration with moderate repairs.

The accident was a great shock to the community both for its suddenness and for the prominence of the citizen who was killed. Not to the same event was it a surprise, for he was an exceedingly capable driver and he liked to show his capability and those whose heart he had on occasion made to thump or stand still when they rode with him did not have the confidence that he had that something would not some time go wrong. At the same time he was the personification of coolness, and it was his skill and judgment that failed him this time, it was the first time they had done so. It will never be certainly known whether the accident was actually due to his overconfidence or to a bump in the road or some other incident serving to make the car unmanageable; but it is within the truth to say that his ending was in the line of what sundry of his friends had feared.

But whatever the occasion of the accident, the community has lost a very active and prominent citizen. Will Fitchpatrick was a man of very exceptional ability and he counted in all matters to which he gave his serious attention. He was not quite forty-five years of age; but he had been councilman and mayor of Nevada, delegate from the state of Iowa to the general synod of the Evangelical Lutheran church, member, secretary and chairman of the Republican state committee, grand trustee of the Knights of Pythias in the state and a power in affairs generally. He had the gift of penetrating situations and of influencing men and he had judgment and tact in combining forces to accomplish his ends. He was very capable in business, the limitation upon his success being that he did not hold onto money as readily as he made it; but he always recovered from his backsets, and during the present year he had spred out, there non else had seen it, a phenominally favorable location on the Transcontinental road close to the main business street for a garage and automobile business, and he had put up there a fine building and opened up an exceedingly promising business. The instant removal from the community of a man of such qualities makes a difference, and the difference is universally and deeply felt.

W. P. Fitchpatrick was the only son and eldest child of Joseph A. and Harriet (Pierce) Fitchpatrick, and he born at Nevada September 13, 1868. He died here as stated July 8, 1913, aged 44 years, 9 months and 25 days. He lived here practically all his life, his longest absence being for about a year at San Diego, California. He graduated from the Nevada high school in 1885 and later attended Commercial College in Des Moines. He was married here August 14, 1895 to Miss Ada J. Ringheim of this city. To this union have been born four children, the eldest, Jeanette, dying in infancy, and the others being Harriet, Elizabeth and Joseph. He is survived by his wife and the three children, his father, his sisters, Mrs. Viva Waters of Chicago and Mrs. Genevieve McCall of this city, and numerous and prominent connections in lodge matters, and his fraternal relations extended throughout the state.

The funeral has been conducted this afternoon from the late residence of Locust street. The deepest sympathy is manifest and expressed for the wife and children, the father and sisters, and the attendance is large in spite of the unfavorable weather, particularly on the part of business men and lodge members. Of the absent relatives Mrs. Hubert Waters arrived Wednesday from Chicago and Mr. Waters followed this morning; Mrs. Tressler arrived Thursday from Chicago accompanied by Elizabeth Fitchpatrick, who had been with her for couple of weeks; John M. Fitchpatrick of Hebron, Nebraska, and Mrs. McElyea of Ames came today; Noah Ringheim is up from Des Moines. At the funeral this afternoon were Judge Lee and Messrs. McCarthy, Bosworth and Sheldon of Ames, Frank Pratt of Montour; a delegation of Elks from Boone including Frank T. Levy, S. E. Grove, Chas. E. Wagner, T. L. Ashford, Wm. Crowe, Jr., W. W. Goodykoontz, and J. G. Gallup; and the following fellow grand officers of the Grand Lodge of Knights of Pythias in the state; A. C. Savage, Grand Chancellor, Adair; Jno. H. Merckens, Grand Keeper of Records and Seal, Fairfield; H. I. Salinger and Cassius Dowell, Supreme Representatives, Carroll and Des Moines; Ward Ferguson and J. I. Cole, past Grand Chancellors, Rolfe and Oelwein; Grand Trustees, C. H. Kenyon, New Hampton; Jas Harvey, Newton; C. W. Hofer, Battle Creek; S. S. Steinberg, Spirit Lake; Wm. Crowe, Jr., ---------; Foster E. --------, State Deputy, Center Point.

The services were in charge of Rev. Fred Ross Schirck and were conducted without ostentation, it being the suggestion of the friends that there should be no demonstration by any of the orders of which the deceased was a member. There was the expression of regret, respect and sympathy and remarks and music suitable to the occasion. The interment is in the Nevada cemetery.