FITCHETT
Merced Express, March 13, 1886
BORN - Near Merced, March 10, 1886, to the wife of J. C. Fitchett, a son.

Collection: 1900 United States Census
Name: Carlton Fitchett
Titles:
Residence: Everett city, Snohomish, Washington
Birth date: Mar 1886
Birth place: California
Relationship to head-of-household: Son
Spouse name:
Spouse titles:
Spouse birth place:
Father name: J C Fitchett
Father titles:
Father birth place: Canada
Mother name: Phebe Fitchett
Mother titles:
Mother birth place: California
Race (Term on Certificate): White
Head-of-household name: J C Fitchett
Gender: Male
Marital status: Single
Years married:
Estimated marriage year:
Mother how many children:
Number living children:
Immigration year:
Enumeration district: 0215
Sheet number & letter: 19A
Household id: 387
Reference number: 46
GSU film number: 1241750
Image number: 00337
Collection: 1900 United States Census

1910 Census: 2nd Precinct, Snohomish County, Washington; enumerated in the household of Lewis PARR; age 24, single, Brother-in-Law.

Fitchett, Carlton - Census Records for 1910 Federal Census
Last Name: Fitchett
First Name: Carlton
Middle Name:
Age: 24
Birthplace: CA
County: Snohomish
Original Page Number: 81A
Line Number: 11
Township: Everett W2 p2
Enumeration District: 279
Page Number: 0

1920 Census: 89th Precinct, Seattle, King Co., Washington. Listed with wife, Florence. Newspaper writer.
Seattle, King, Washington
Roll:T625_1927 Pg:7B ED:155 Image:0492
Fitchett Carlton Head Rents home 33 M b:Calif f:Can m:Calif Newspaper writer
Fitchett Florence Wife 32 M b:Wisc f:PA m:Iowa

Born in California per 1920 census.
Chadbourne Family Notes: married Florence McNeal

The 'lines' of Carlton Fitchett discovered in a Richmond attic

RAY MCALLISTER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST

Oct 16, 2003
The brown scrapbook of newspaper clippings is nearly 12-by-15 inches and in remarkably good shape these 58 years later.
But why was it in a Richmond attic?
Michael and Susan Creasy found the book three years ago while clearing out the Highland Park home of Michael's late mother. They put it away.
Now, preparing to move, they came across it the other day. "We thought it was time to find the relatives of the person who originally put the album together," Susan says.
What's in it?
The opening pages are from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's front page on Aug. 15, 1945. The white word "PEACE!" is bannered on blue above an article proclaiming the end of the Second World War.
Prominent on the page is a six-stanza poem, "They Drew the Sword," by Carlton Fitchett. It claims the Japanese surrender was made inevitable by their "sneaking in by air" at Pearl Harbor. It begins:
"They drew the sword with savage cheers/ And struck their blow with fiendish stealth/ To win the goal they'd planned for years -/ To loot our land and rape its wealth."
It ends:
"Long years ago the Holy Word/ Proclaimed their project's direful end-/ That he must perish by the sword/ Who draws its blade to smite a friend."
There are mostly Seattle news articles in the first 21 pages of the book.
But the most intriguing may be the remaining 11 pages. They are filled with 73 of Fitchett's small daily "Fitch's Lines" columns, each four stanzas long. Topics vary, from the topical to the whimsical. A few one-stanza excerpts:
* THE PRICE! "Peace was bought at a terrible price! Blood and tears were our sacrifice. Wounded writhing in dying pains; sightless men with their tapping canes. Gold Star Mothers and widowed wives; blasted cities and blasted lives!"
* THE OYSTER: "The oyster plays a useful role because he's highly edible. The way he side-steps birth control is nothing but incredible. The sons and daughters he begets are numbered by the myriad. They're known as 'spats,' the little brats, throughout their baby period."
So who was this newspaperman who wrote in rhyme?
Through the Internet, I tracked down Don Fitchett.
Don is the great-nephew of Carlton Fitchett. "I was born in'38," he said by phone yesterday from his home near San Diego, Calif. "He passed away in'46. I do not recall ever meeting him."
But Fitchett, a retired colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers, well knows his great-uncle.
"Carlton, I don't think, ever left the Pacific Northwest," Don said.
A Californian by birth, Carlton moved to Washington as an infant, before it became a state in 1889. He started newspaper work in his teens. The day he died, he had been gathering material for a second "Rediscovering Washington" series on his home state after the war. Two weeks before his death, the first series had won the annual award for the state's best feature writing.
Don Fitchett e-mailed me pages of a book published after his great-uncle's death: "Rimes of a Reporter: A Collection of the Northwest's Beloved Humorist, Carlton Fitchett (1886-1946)."
The book's publisher had written: "While he was probably better known for his 'lines' than for anything else, 'Fitch' was primarily a reporter - his rhymes representing his avocation. He dashed his 'lines' off the first thing every morning - and then was ready for whatever kind of assignment that the day's news might hold in prospect for him."
A co-worker wrote in the introduction: "As he grew older, Carlton Fitchett became philosophical rather than cynical. . . . He had a lively and warmly sympathetic interest in people and in the simple things that concern people most."
Don Fitchett said Carlton and his wife, Florence, did not have children.
He would be pleased to have the scrapbook, he said. "I think this is remarkable that this scrapbook shows up in an attic in - did you say, Richmond?" Don said. "[But] I am at a loss to explain it."
So we'll send it off to him, the mystery of its existence unsolved.
And for everyone else, here are a few parting lines from Fitch:

* CREASE-PROOF!: "Well, folks, will wonders never cease! By methods new and clever, they'll soon make trousers with a crease designed to last forever. And mankind then can sit with ease - oh, what a boon and blessing! He'll not be pulling up his knees for fear he'll spoil their pressing."
* THE VOICE: "Across the land an anguished shriek is to the heavens wafted. Sinatra has been called this week and maybe will be drafted! The board will shortly make its choices - the world awaits the story. If bobby-sockers lose The Voice, they'll ask us 'What price glory.'"


Ray's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Call him at (804) 649-6333; fax (804) 775-8059; or e-mail rmcallister@timesdispatch.com.

Collection: Washington Death Certificates, 1907-1960
Name: Carlton Fitchett
Death date: 06 Jun 1946
Death place: Manchester, Kitsap, Washington
Gender: Male
Race or color (on document):
Age at death: 60 years 2 months 27 days
Estimated birth year: 1886
Birth date:
Birth place:
Marital status: Married
Spouse name: Florence
Father name: Joseph Fitchett
Father birth place:
Mother name: Phoebe Chadborne
Mother birth place:
Occupation:
Street address:
Residence:
Cemetery name:
Burial place: Seattle, Wash.
Burial date: 06 Jun 1946
Additional relatives:
Film number: 2032475
Digital GS number: 4223015
Image number: 2458
Reference number: State File No. 91
Collection: Washington Death Certificates, 1907-1960

• Married: 3 JUN 1911 in Snohomish Co., Washington

1. Text: US Census, 1920; Seattle, WA
2. Text: Transcribed by Thomas and Paulette Hilk,