J.R. Fitzpatrick Memoir
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University of Illinois at Springfield Norris L Brookens Library Archives/Special Collections J.R. Fitzpatrick Memoir F582. Fitzpatrick, J.R. (1895-1982) Interview and memoir 5 tapes, 450 mins., 83 pp. Fitzpatrick, Springfield resident and businessman, recalls his neighborhood, lumber business, sponsorship of numerous athletic teams, effects of the Depression, involvement with the publication The Citizens Tribune, local political campaigns, violence during the mine wars, service on the Illinois Boxing Commission and Golden Gloves, and sponsorship of semi-professional softball including the Fitzpatrick Lumberjacks. He recalls a softball game played between the Lumberjacks and Joe Louis's team (the Brown Bombers) and the sponsorship of the Springfield Sallees (a professional women's baseball team that played during WWII). He also discusses Springfield in the 1920's and 1930's, the Lincoln Home property, racism and the 1908 race riot, the Ku Klux Klan in Springfield, prejudice against Catholics, construction of defense homes during WWII, automobile races at the state fair grounds, and the publication of Main Street. Interview by Richard Shereikis, 1980 OPEN See collateral file: Interviewer's notes, article about Fitzpatrick, photographs his Lumber Company, a baseball team, employees, newspapermen William Menghini and Jim McCloskey, boxer Joe Louis, race driver A.J. Foyt. Archives/Special Collections LIB 144 University of Illinois at Springfield One University Plaza, MS BRK 140 Springfield IL 62703-5407 © 1980, University of Illinois Board of Trustees Preface This manuscript is the product of tape recorded interviews conducted by Richard Shereikis for the Oral History Office during November, 1980. Linda S. Jett transcribed the tapes and Richard Shereikis edited the transcript. Mr. Fitzpatrick reviewed the transcript. J. R. "Bud" Fitzpatrick was born in Springfield, Illinois on September 25, 1895, and his Lived there ever since. After working for several years for the Peter Vredenburgh Lumber Company and serving in World War I, Mr. Fitzpatrick started his own lumber business in the early twenties, at which time he also first sponsored a baseball team, the Fitzpatrick Lumberjacks, the first of many semi-professional and amateur athletic teams that he sponsored over the years. In 1930, while still in the lumber business, Fitzpatrick began publishing The Citizens Tribune, a weekly newspaper which ran for twenty years, and which gave Fitzpatrick a significant voice in local political campaigns. During this period, Fitzpatrick served several years as a member of the Illinois Boxing Commission and continued his sponsorship of athletic teams, including the Springfield Sallees, a professional women's team which played in a league that functioned briefly during World War I1 with aid and encouragement of P. K. Wrigley. He was also instrumental in reviving auto racing at the fairgrounds and in bringing minor league baseball to the city in the early fifties. Mr. Fitzpatrick continues to operate a real estate business while also publishing Main Street, a four-page weekly newspaper which has over 700 subscribers. Richard Shereikis, the interviewer, is Associate Professor of Literature at Sangamon State University, He holds the B.A. degree in English from Northern Illinois University, the M.A. in English from the University of Chicago, and the PhD. in English from the University of Colorado. Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that it is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, narrator and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. Sangamon State University is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for views expressed therein; these are for the reader to judge. The manuscript may be read, quoted and cited freely. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the Oral History Office, Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois, 62708. J. R. Fitzpatrick Memoir - Archives/ Special Collections - Norris L Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield - UIS Table of Contents Birthplace and Earliest Memories of Springfield Fitzpatrick's Lumber Business--The Twenties Sponsor of Sports Teams The Depress ion A Weekly Newspaper: Citizens Tribune Bill Menghini Leaves Newspaper Office of Price Administration Lawsuit End of the Newspaper Colonel Copley's Adopted Children John Hunter Feud City Manager Campaign The Springfield Sallees Fred Saigh Edmund Burke and the Shelton Gang Miners' Union Battles Scott Lucas Golden Gloves and League Sponsorship Joe Louis The Boxing Commission Jim Farley Progressive Miners and UMW Turmoil Jack Johnson and the Battle Royal Springfield in the Twenties and Thirties Lincoln Home Property Telford and Howarth Mayoralty Campaign The 1908 Race Riot J. R. Fitzpatrick Memoir - Archives/ Special Collections - Norris L Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield - UIS J. R. Fitzpatrick, November 7, 14, 21, 1980, Springfield, Illinois. Richard Shereikis, Interviewer. Q. This is an oral history interview with J. R. Bud Fitzpatrick conducted in his off ice on November 7, 1980. The interviewer is Richard Shereikis. Mr. Fitzpatrick, if you could start off with your earliest recollections of Springfield as you knew it as a youngster and your early family recollections and things like that. A. Well, I was born in the city of Springfield east of the tracks. That's on East Jefferson Street and kind of a mixed neighborhood, poor people. Q. Mixed racially? A. Mixed racially also. There were Negroes at that time, Blacks now. There were Portuguese, there were Italians, there were Irish. The Irish kind of predominated because that was their main industry--the coal mines of Springfield was our first industry. Of course in the midst of a farming community and those are back in the days of the horse and buggy and the streetcar. Well, it was before the streetcar, I guess. Q. What year was that? A. I was born in 1895. September 25, 1895. That's in the other century. And it was in the era of the horse and buggies and the streetcars. And the main industry we had here was coal mines and the state capital--being the state capital. Q. Was your father involved in either of those, the mines or the capital? A. No, my father was a common laborer, worked for the streetcar company. Had a afe and six children. Family of eight. And that's when a nickel was;a nickel, And the main concern was to get enough to pay your rent and ik& enough food on the table. Q. ~ehyou able to go to school or did you have to work from an early age? A. I went to St. Mary's Grade School, graduated from there after finishing the eighth grade, and then I went to work. At the wages of five dollars a wqek fox the Peter Vredenbusgh Lumber Company which waa the leading lumber company in Springfield and owned by one of the richest families in dpringf ield. And I was messenger boy or of £ice boy. That's the only place I ever worked outside of being in the army in World War I a little while and after that I went back to Vredenburgh's and come down here at this place and started in business for myself. Q. Now you got into the lumber business yourself, is that right? J. R. Fitzpatrick Memoir - Archives/ Special Collections - Norris L Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield - UIS J. R. Fitzpatrick Lumber Company about 1933 J. R. Fitzpatrick Memoir - Archives/ Special Collections - Norris L Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield - UIS J. R. Fitzpatrick 2 A. Yes, all by myself. And on a shoe string and that shoe string wasn't too good, but luck was with me. Right on this same block here. This was all residential. I lived here in this block in most of my boyhood days. And the thriving industry around here then was the Wabash shops. Railroads were a big industry here because they had their shops like the Wabash I mentioned, the Illinois Central, the C & A--which is now Illinois Central Gulf--and the B & 0. And later on came the electric lines, the interurbans which was a big boom to the middle towns around here. Q. When was that, the interurban's? I've heard of it. A. That'd be about 1908. I think about 1908. And they had their connections with the little towns between here and Decatur and the little towns between here and St. Louis and Peoria. Q. I remember reading in one of your papers about how all your starts in business were done at the worst times for business. Was that true of the lumber business? Could you talk about that? When that was and how you made it and what kind of luck it was you had? A. Well . Q. Or is that secret? A. No, that's all right. That's all right. 1'm just trying to collect my thoughts. A recession followed World War I and the economy of the country changed. And I started as an office boy at Vredenburgh's when I was fourteen. That was in the year 1909. Then I was prodded on by some of my older friends, contractors that were customers there, to get more education. One fellow, Vern Crawford, said, "NOW Bud, you've got to get some more education. You got the education it's the one thing that they can't take away from you." So I told Vredenburgh's that I was going to take off and quit and go to business college. They said, "Well, why don't you come down here and sweep out the floor at swen o'clock in the morning and you don't have to go to school until nine.