'Christopher FitzSimons Dies in Columbia' — The Watchman and Southron, 10 October 1925
Book 4, Page 13 ·1925
Transcription
CHRISTOPHER FITZSIMONS DIES IN COLUMBIA
Pioneer in Cotton Seed Oil Industry and Leading Citizen of Capital City
Columbia, Oct. 8.—Christopher FitzSimmons, widely known citizen of Columbia and for years a recognized authority in the cottonseed oil industry, died at his residence, 1117 Barnwell street, yesterday afternoon at 5 o’clock after an illness extending over a week.
The funeral services will be held this afternoon at 4:30 o’clock at Trinity Episcopal church. The funeral party will leave Columbia for Charleston Friday morning at 6 o’clock and interment will be in the family lot at Magnolia cemetery, Charleston.
Mr. FitzSimmons was born in Charleston January 26, 1856, and was a son of Dr. Christopher FitzSimmons and Susan Milliken (Barker) FitzSimmons. He received his education at the Carolina Military institute, Charlotte, N. C., under the veteran educator, Col. John P. Thomas. He started out in life as a civil engineer but it was not long before he became interested in the cottonseed oil industry. He was truly a pioneer in this business. Commencing as a salesman in 1880, he rose, step by step, to the highest position in his chosen occupation.
It is said of Mr. FitzSimmons that he was the first salesman to buy a whole carload of cotton seed. He traveled about over the state in the early years of the industry trying to induce cotton planters to dispose of their cotton seed.
At that time, cotton seed was largely a waste product, though to some extent it was used for feed and fertilizer. His advancement in the cotton seed business was rapid and he was largely instrumental in the purchase of a number of large oil mills which led to the formation of the Southern Cotton Oil company. He was offered the vice presidency of this company, preferring to remain in his native state, he was made general manager of the company.
Mr. FitzSimmons was a recognized authority upon all questions in the cottonseed oil industry and it was generally conceded that he was the best informed man in his profession in the entire southern states. Not only was his ability in his chosen field of work recognized, but there was no man ever connected with a large and influential corporation that was more beloved than was Mr. FitzSimmons.
Ever ready to recognize talent and worth in his subordinates, no man did more than he to advance the fortunes of those associated in business with him. He was actively interested in bringing about the organization of the Interstate Cotton Seed Crushers’ association and served as its president in 1904-1905. He also gave effective aid in the organization of the South Carolina Cotton Seed Crushers’ association, serving as president in 1907-1908.
[The Watchman and Southron clipping ends here; the continuation — the 1898 acting-presidency of The State newspaper, the 12 Feb 1890 marriage to Frances Motte Huger, the list of survivors, and the pallbearer slate — appears on the album page at book-001/p308.]
Source: The Watchman and Southron (Sumter, S.C.), Saturday, 10 October 1925, page 6, column 4. Image from newspapers.com, image 668792988. Public-domain newspaper (pre-1929). The source PDF — which preserves the publication metadata — is archived in this repository under additionalDocumentation/The_Watchman_and_Southron_1925_10_10_6.pdf.
AI Notes
The Watchman and Southron of Sumter, S.C., 10 October 1925, page 6 — a newspaper-syndicated obituary of Christopher ‘Kit’ FitzSimmons Jr., the cottonseed-oil pioneer of Columbia. The body text is nearly identical to the longer obit pasted on book-001/p308 of the album, which is missing its head; the Watchman and Southron version preserves that head — the headline ‘CHRISTOPHER FITZSIMONS DIES IN COLUMBIA / Pioneer in Cotton Seed Oil Industry and Leading Citizen of Capital City’ and the lede paragraph with three precise facts. (1) Exact death date and time: the Columbia-datelined story is filed ‘Columbia, Oct. 8’ and reports that he died ‘yesterday afternoon at 5 o’clock’ — so death was 5 P.M., Wednesday, 7 October 1925. (2) Residence: he died at his own home, 1117 Barnwell Street, Columbia. (3) Cause: ‘after an illness extending over a week’ — a brief final illness, not a prolonged decline. The Watchman and Southron version cuts off mid-page at the 1907-1908 SC Cotton Seed Crushers’ presidency paragraph; the album p308 clipping continues from there through the 1898 Ambrose Gonzales/Cuba acting-presidency anecdote, the 12 Feb 1890 marriage to Frances Motte Huger, the survivor list, and the full pallbearer slate. The two clippings are therefore complementary halves of the same syndicated obit text.
The two preserved clippings of this obituary — this one in the Sumter weekly and the longer continuation pasted into the album — are not two different obits but two clippings of the same syndicated text, run by separate South Carolina papers within days of Kit’s death. The Watchman and Southron, a Sumter weekly published on Saturdays, ran the obit on Saturday 10 October, three days after the Wednesday-evening death. The album clipping (paper unknown, almost certainly The State of Columbia given its detail and the prominence of A. E. Gonzales of The State in the deceased’s biography) is a longer-format daily-paper setting that preserves the second half.
Address and family standing. 1117 Barnwell Street places Kit in Columbia’s elite professional district of the period — the same blocks that housed several of the pallbearers named in the album-clipping continuation (M. C. Heath, Julius H. Taylor, the Gonzales brothers). The “illness extending over a week” framing matches the obit-writer’s tone elsewhere: Kit died suddenly enough to surprise his community but slowly enough that the obit was professionally written and the funeral arrangements completed within 24 hours of death.