Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Fitzpatrick, Patrick 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 7, 2008, 3:08 am

Author: Past and Present Will County IL; 1907

Patrick Fitzpatrick, deceased, who came to Lockport in 1835 as a pioneer 
settler of limited means, was at the time of his death the owner of more than 
twelve hundred acres of valuable land, all in Will county. A business man at 
once recognizes the fact that to have advanced along the highroad to success 
must have required indomitable energy, perseverance and capable management. 
His early life was spent upon a farm in Ireland. He was born March 17, 1802, a 
son of John and Mary (Gowan) Fitzpatrick. the father a farmer and landowner of 
Queens county, Ireland. In the year 1820 Patrick Fitzpatrick bade adieu to the 
Emerald Isle and sailed for the new world, stopping in Quebec, Canada. He was 
at that time a young man of eighteen years. He joined a government surveying 
party engaged in surveying western Canada lands and was thus employed for 
three or four years. During his residence in the Dominion he was also an agent 
of the government, taking immigrants west for settlement. Shortly after 
leaving the government service he bought a small farm and sent for his 
parents, who joined him in Canada, where they lived for some time. Mr. 
Fitzpatrick, leaving that country, made his way by boat from Buffalo to 
Chicago in 1833, and after a brief stay in the future metropolis and vicinity 
he came to Lockport, where he purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres 
of raw and unimproved land from a Mr. Hutchins. On this he built a log cabin 
and began farming in Lockport township, where in the course of years he made 
extensive investments until he became the owner of something over twelve 
hundred acres of land in one body before his death. He was supervisor of 
Lockport township for three years and held many local offices there. He was 
very active in church work and was a communicant of St. Dennis, being one of 
its largest contributors during his life. In 1842 Mr. Fitzpatrick was joined 
in wedlock to Miss Mary Cassin, of Queens county, Ireland, and they became the 
parents of four children: Mary, the wife of T. J. Kelly, of Joliet, a merchant 
and former mayor of the city; Michael, Catherine and Frances, all on the home 
farm. Michael filled the office of supervisor of his township for five years 
and then resigned, preferring to concentrate his attention upon his business 
interests. He is a member of St. Dennis Catholic church. Mr. Fitzpatrick 
departed this life May 21, 1887, while his wife survived until March 13, 1895. 
He had been a resident of the county for more than a half century and was 
closely associated with its early development, having located here when Will 
county was largely a frontier district. He shared in the hardships and trials 
of pioneer life, made all the more difficult by the fact that he was in very 
limited financial circumstances, but as the years passed by his wealth 
increased as the result of his unfaltering diligence and determination, and he 
became one of the wealthy residents of his community. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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