Around 6 pm on May 15, 1875 a fight broke out between two men in front of a store called the "Board of Trade" on Main Street, just south of Front Street. (Actually the Board of Trade, a feed store and stable was on Madison in 1872, but we won't quibble, the place of the fight was also described as being in front of a tailoring establishment.) Perhaps rear of Rosie's, facing Main, was the fateful building?? One man was Matthew Fitzpatrick, an Englishman who was a prosperous farmer and politician in Funk's Grove and Andrew Barnes, a Kentuckian who was working as a veterinary surgeon. (Please note this reference to the Southern origins of the aggressor, a theme in the Pantagraph I have noted before. )
Great interest was shown in this fight even before the resulting death of Matthew Fitzpatrick. During the fight Barnes had breached a serious rule of street fighting by using his knife to stab Fitzpatrick. Barnes was arrested and jailed but released when it was hoped that Fitzpatrick would live, although he had been stabbed in his upper back, near his neck. Dr. White was his first doctor, and said that an artery had been cut and continued to bleed even after two days. Sepsis set in and Fitzpatrick died six days later.
Barnes was arrested again, and Fitzpatrick was buried in great pomp, Mayor Funk and General Bloomfield being two of the funeral attendees. Fitzpatrick was married with three sons and Barnes was also married, with six children. This fight allegedly stemmed from a conversation a day or two earlier when Barnes was assisting an man to find bulls for his spread in Colorado. Barnes asked Fitzpatrick if he knew of any bulls for sale, and Fitzpatrick replied that he did and asked for $5 for the name of person with the bull. Barnes was appalled that he would ask such a fee and made this exchange a subject of conversation around Bloomington. Fitzpatrick resented it and called Barnes a liar on Main Street that fateful day.
Thus this silly argument deprived a family of its only means of support and comfort in a world run entirely by the "more rational sex." The irrational defense of the tender male psyche through duelling and street fighting has been noted in other postings and stemmed from an honor code which was more commonly observed in the Southern States than the Northern States (where the Pantagraph owners originated.)
Barnes was found not guilty of murder by a jury of his peers in September 1876. Only one child of the Fitzpatrick family could be traced through the census records. That son, John Fitzpatrick, worked as a farm laborer for Thomas J. Rust in 1880 and married Nancy Minnie Rust, a daughter of William Rust, also of Randolph Township. John and Minnie owned their own farm in Randolph Township in 1900 and had three children. In 1923 John Fitzpatrick sold his farm, including his stock of purebred Percherons.