Jonas Fitch

Jonas Fitch worked as a carpenter and architect while also supported the antislavery cause.

"History of the Fitch family" by Roscoe Conkling Fitch, Internet Archive.

Quick Facts

Significance:

Carpenter, Architect, Anti-Slavery activist,1850 Boston Vigilance Committee Member

Place of Birth:

Pepperell, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

March 21, 1811

Place of Death:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

February 19, 1882

Place of Burial:

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Forest Hills Cemetery

Boston carpenter and architect Jonas Fitch served his community in several ways, including as an elected official and as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.

Born in 1811, Jonas Fitch grew up in Pepperell, Massachusetts. He later moved to Boston where he married Catherine Blodgett in 1836 and began a family with her. Fitch became a prominent carpenter, architect, and contractor in the city involved in large scale projects including City Hall, the Masonic Temple, and other public and private buildings and residences.¹ 

According to a family historian, Fitch also took part "in building up the nation in righteousness" through his work in the antislavery movement. He focused his antislavery activism largely through the political arena. In 1848, he participated in a meeting at Tremont Temple to discuss the creation of a "Third Party." At this meeting, "speakers devoted themselves to arguments against slavery, and to statements that its extension can only be prevented by opposition to the two parties which now enroll almost all the votes of the country."² 

These early meetings led to the creation of the Free Soil Party, which later merged with other groups to form the Republican Party in the 1850s. Both the Free Soil and Republican parties sought to stop the expansion of the slavery in the country. Fitch actively participated in the early days of both parties.

Beginning in the 1850s, he ran and won elected office in both the city and state, serving at various times as a state representative, city councilor, and alderman. While serving in the state legislature, Fitch voted to remove Massachusetts Judge Edward G. Loring for ruling that freedom seeker Anthony Burns be sent back to slavery in Boston's most notorious Fugitive Slave Law case.^[3]

Fitch also joined the Boston Vigilance Committee, an organization formed in the aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Though Fitch's specific contributions remain unknown, the Vigilance Committee provide valuable assistance to freedom seekers coming to and through Boston on the Underground Railroad.⁴

In perhaps the greatest testament to Fitch's abolitionist beliefs, a family historian wrote in his 1930 History of the Finch family that:

Practice was always in harmony with principle. His life was the embodiment of his beliefs. He gave employment to negroes in his own workshops, at a period in our national history when such a policy involved considerable self-sacrifice, and exposed him to hostile criticism, if not something worse.⁵

In addition to his antislavery and political work, Fitch also participated in many social, government, business, and charitable endeavors. He joined the Masons as well as the Odd Fellows. He served on the Governor's Council and on various committees for the city and state. He worked on the boards of banks and insurance companies. He also held several leadership positions in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association and helped oversee many of its annual fairs.⁶ 

Fitch passed away in 1882. His remains are buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.⁷

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Footnotes

1. Roscoe Conkling Fitch, History of the Fitch family, A. D. 1400-1930; a record of the Fitches in England and America, including "pedigree of Fitch" certified by the college of arms, London, England, compiled by Roscoe Conkling Fitch. (Haverhill: Record Publishing Co., 1930), 216-219, Internet Archive; George Adams, Boston City Directory, 1850-1851, 155; "Recent Deaths," Boston Evening Transcript, February 20, 1882, 3. NPS maps geo-locate Fitch at the approximate location of his 1850 address at 56 Essex Street, Boston. 
2. "The Third Party Meeting, in Boston," New-Bedford Mercury, July 14, 1848, 4.
3. Roscoe Conkling Fitch, History of the Finch family, 216-219; "Republican Ticket for Representatives," Boston Evening Transcript, October 21, 1855, 2; "Ward Seven," Boston Evening Transcript, October 4, 1856, 2; "The Republican City Convention at Chapman Hall," Boston Daily Traveller, August 10, 1858, 5; "Address for the Removal of Judge Loring," Liberator, May 29, 1857, 3.
4. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society.
5. Fitch, 218-219.
6. Fitch, 216-219; "Recent Deaths," Boston Evening Transcript, February 20, 1882, 3.
7. "Jonas Fitch," Find a Grave, accessed July, 2024.