John Fitch

John Henry Fitch was born on January 19, 1847 in the small farming village of Ingenheim in the German-speaking region of Alsace, France. At the age of 7, John, his parents and three sisters, landed in New York City.

In 1865, at the age of eighteen, John went to Greenwood, Michigan to learn the millwright trade. Mr. Fitch then turned his attention to the manufacture of mechanical inventions. In 1868, John filed a petition under the Homestead Act for 80 acres of land in Michigan. February 16, 1875, John became a U.S. citizen and moved his family near his father's farm outside of Woodstock, Ontario.

In 1879, John and his wife (Harriett) moved back to Northern Michigan to Rapid River, Kalkaska County. On August 4, 1879, John sold his 80 acres in section 34 in Custer Township and bought 80 acres of land located in section 30 of Custer Township. John and Harriett moved their family to this land located on Finch Creek south of Bellaire and east of Alden.

John built a sawmill on the river and then started a small town called "Fitchville" near the mill. John prospered in Fitchville until 1881, when the spring freshet carried out his dam, cutting his power supply and left him penniless. Now age 34, John set out down the coast of West Michigan to find work.

John was employed as millwright for two years at the Foster Brothers' shingle mill near the Washington Avenue Bridge. After taking on this job, he moved his family to Ludington in 1882. In 1884, John moved to Summit Township, Mason County to take charge of a sawmill. Later in the year, John set up his own sawmill located on Kibby Creek in Summit Here, water from a dam could be used to run his machinery. John built a house near the factory and moved his family there. He caught the fever of raising peaches which was developing rapidly in the area and started a small fruit farm on his land.

After inventing the three-slated peach basket, John formed the ‘Summit Basket Factory' at the sawmill in 1885. This was one of the first basket factories in Mason County. After the dam broke in 1887, he took a partner named Cargil and moved the sawmill north of Ludington to Lincoln Village on Lincoln Lake.

1888, John bought 40 acres of land located on Blundell Road in Riverton Township. He purchased this land initially as a lumber project, but he decided to clear all the timber off the land and raise peaches. He built a log house and the family moved there from Summit.

John became a full-time fruit farmer and earned the title “Fruit Baron" with his businesslike methods and fine orchards. Although now a farmer, John the mechanic continued to invent helpful items. In January 1897, John was granted a patent on his neat, durable and sensible package - the folding berry crate. In December 1897, he went to Milwaukee where he made arrangements for the manufacture of his patent wrench and drill. Around 1902, John invented a self-opening street car switch. He bought a house in Ludington that had a machine shop where John produced his street-car switch. He took it to Chicago where it was used on the busy Chicago thoroughfares.

John died at 10:30 on Saturday morning, November 18, 1916 at a hospital in Big Rapids where he was operated upon Friday morning for a bowel obstruction.