- Charles (1856-1915 ). Charles sold furniture and ran an undertaking business in 1893 and was Sec of Lennox Machine Co in 1900.
- Alice (1858-1945) , Alice married John Thomas Fletcher.
- Albert G. (1860-1917), A.G. married Nellie Abbott, prominent in Marshalltown, he took over
as cashier of the bank, then Sec/Tres Brittain Co., and was prominent in the
restoration of the Episcopal Church.
His son, Frank Lewis Glick, was a marine killed in France in WWI and the local American Legion Post is named after him. - Frank E. (1865-), and
- Fredrick. E. (1872-1938). Fred E. in a lawsuit was said to be “with no means and no property”.
Frank Jack Fletcher was born April 29,
1885 and raised in the home of his grandfather built at 202 Church
Street, Marshalltown, Iowa. This was the second house built by
George Glick after has family outgrew the first and when he became
prosperous. Both houses stand today as museums to the family.
The
house sits one block from the public square on which was being built
the Marshall Country Courthouse, dedicated 1886, and is still in
use, and in the midst of the principle business district on Main
Street. The 6,000 square foot, two story brick house sits on a
corner lot of 120 feet by 180 feet with a house of such substance as
to become a hotel, the "Dodge House", soon after Jack went
on to Annapolis and the house was sold. The stables across the back
yard were almost the size of the house.
Church Street is aptly
named and Jack was raised across from the Episcopal Church with
a Methodist Church on the next block and many churches on that street.
George Glick (1827-1910) immigrated to America in 1840 at
the age of thirteen with his parents, Johann Georg Glick and
Katharina Geier from Otterberg, Bavaria in May 1840 to Mansfield,
Ohio. On graduation from Cincinnati Medical College in 1849, George
and a professor, Eli Teegarden, went to the California gold fields
as doctors and miners for five years when he returned married Jane
Ziegenfeller of Pickaway, Ohio, Nov 1, 1855. Persuaded by relatives
to take a half interest in a dry goods and grocery store, he moved
to Marshalltown, Iowa, 1856.
Marshalltown was founded in 1853
by Henry Anson. An 1860 census shows 30 buildings in Marshalltown.
Population in 1875 - 4,384 ; 1885 - 8,298 In 1893 the city built a
four story high school.
In 1858, George opened a drug store and
was appointed Postmaster. He ran the drug store with post office
attached until 1870, speculated in land, helped build the town
cemetery and was a leader in getting the railroad to run through the
town in 1863. In fact, two rail lines intersect and remain as junction
and repair yard to this day. As a result, George was elected a city
councilman in 1868.
Dr. George and wife Jane Glick raised five children in a modest house at
201 East State Street they had built in 1859. He sold his house to the
George Sower family in 1870. Today it is a museum know as Glick-Sower Museum
or the Susie Sower House The home was placed on the National Register of
Historic Places in the early 1990's.
They raised 5 children :
In 1863 George Glick formed with Rev. De Los and others the Marshall Cemetery Association for the Riverview Cemetery -- a 65 acre showplace to this day.
In 1864 he helped establish the First National Bank of Marshalltown acting as cashier, vice president and president for 18 years.
In 1864 he was also treasurer of the school board.
Dr. George Glick built a new, larger house for his family in 1870 where Jack Fletcher was raised until he entered the Naval Academy. When Frank, the youngest, left home. the family sold the property that was so substancial that it became a hotel under the names of the Dodge House Hotel and the Wilson Hotel. The Historical Society of Marshall County purchased the building in the mid-1980's and made it the new museum and main office.
He and two partners built Hawkeye Oil Mill, 1872, to process flax oil in which he both sold the seed and bought the crops -- bought by Standard Oil which closed Marshalltown operations in 1878. The building in now Diamond Vogel Paint factory.
With four partners organized the Marshalltown Library in 1879. This became a Carnegie Library in 1902.
He was a co-founder in 1879 of The Bankers Life Association (now Principle Financial Group), to provide low-cost life insurance for fellow bankers and their employees as its first medical officer.
He with four partners formed Marshalltown Sugar Refining Company 1880, known as the "Glucose Company" to process corn, cane, and potatoes -- purchased by Firmenenich, Germany, employing 400 workers -- it closed in 1891 for pollution.
He persuaded the Iowa State Assembly to build the Soldier's Home, now the Iowa Veterans Home, opened in 1887 on 160 acres and is still a major factor in Marshalltown.
He moved to Des Moines in 1893, but
retained a vice presidency of his bank.
Glick Elementary School is named in his honor, built in 1902
to serve the third ward and had eight teachers.
George died 1910 in Marshalltown.
Brothers Thomas Jack Fletcher
and Frank Friday Fletcher's family had moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, from Indiana.
There had been an earlier Fletcher in Marshalltown, a doctor who
sold patent medicine, which confuses the genealogy with the names
Ancil (d 1912) and wife Etta (d 1966), Pearl (d 1939), Rollan (Ralph)
(d 1954)
Thomas J. Fletcher (Aug 9, 1842 - June 30, 1929), father, was born in Indiana and moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, as a child. He served in the Civil War, joining Iowa 25th Iowa 9th Infantry
in 1864 at Pella. Mustered out July 1, 1865 at Louisville, KY.
He moved to
Marshalltown and was made cashier of the First National Bank in
1877 and on the first of October of that year, married George Glick's
only daughter, Alice, age 18. They first lived at 9 South Third Street, then to a large house at 106 south Second Avenue, which is now the children's wing of the Episcaopal Church,
and in 1884 moved into her family's home and raised three children there :
Emma Belle (called Belle)(1881-1966) trained as a teacher and moved to Hollywood, CA.;
George Glick (1882-aft 1950) moved to Des Moines;
Frank Jack (called Jack) (1885-1973) became a naval flag officer.
Census records show, Anne, a domestic; Fred, who died in infancy;
and often a boarder.
T.J. was Cashier of First National Bank 1877-1882.
Succeeded by A. G. Glick.
In 1882 he was treasurer of the Glucose Company.
Thomas was co-founder with Frank Letts of the
Letts-Fletcher Wholesale Grocery [c1894-1946]
The building is located at the other end of the block from the
Glick-Fletcher home.Tom ran
Operations and was Treasurer until 1889 when they expanded to Carroll, Iowa, he sold his interests and
rejoined the Bank. The Wholesale company expanded to Carroll in 1889 and
operated at least through 1946. The building became Iowa Plumbing Wholesale Supply in 1963. A grant was received in 2010 for it to be converted to retirement apartments.
Thomas was Cashier again in 1891 for a further 16 years until
the First National Bank was sold by the Woodbury brothers to City
National in 1907.
About 1893 Thomas was Local Treasurer of Iowa Central Railway, a 49 mile, 67 locomotive, freight line.
Tom Fletcher and Frank Letts founded the Marshalltown Public Library, established
in 1898 and built with Carnegie Library funds in 1902.
After Tom had retired from the bank, he and Alice in 1909 went to live with their
daughter, Belle, in Hollywood, CA. They later returned to Marshalltown,
T.J. died June 30, 1929. Alice Glick Fletcher lived to see her
son's victory in WW2. She died Oct 21, 1945. Both, and their daughter, Belle,
are buried on founders hill in Riverside Cemetery in Marshalltown.
Frank Friday Fletcher (November 23, 1855 - November 28, 1928), uncle, went to Annapolis, class of 1875. He became a specialist in new weapons and was a Lt. Commander at the Torpedo Station, Newport, RI when Jack went off to Annapolis. Frank Friday Fletcher led the landing a Veracruz, Mexico, April 1914, and earned the Medal of Honor for his command. He became Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet before World War One. He served on the General Board until 1919 and was twice recalled for temporary active duty. (more)
Alice Glick Fletcher (Oct 22, 1858 - Oct 21, 1945) ,
mother, was almost as an enthusiastic booster of Marshalltown as her
father and husband. She taught at the Industrial School for
underprivileged children. She chaired the library committee. Was
active in woman's rights. Helped for the Iowa Federation of Woman's
Clubs, was Sate Secretary in 1901 and President in 1903. Promoted
the traveling library (now inter library loan system). She was a
charter member of the Hawthorn Club, Twentieth Century Club and
Marshalltown Country Club. She spent part of her later years living with her
daughter Belle in Hollywood, California, before returning to Marshalltown.
Alice died in 1945 and is buried in Marshalltown's Riverside Cemetery
with her husband and daughter.
Frank Jack Fletcher (April 29, 1885 - April 25, 1973). Jack was raised
in a household devoted to public service and entrepreneurship and
familiar with politics. Young Jack attended the public school, and
played football and graduated Marshalltown High School among a class
of 29. Jack was appointed to Annapolis in 1902 by Senator Jonathan
Dolliver. The Fletcher family home was sold soon after Jack left and
the family moved to 5 S. Fifth Avenue, now part of a hospital parking lot.
Jack is only known to have returned once to Marshalltown,
for the funeral of his mother in October 1945.
His Neighborhood.
An open town square was the center of
Marshalltown when Frank was born a block away on the corner of 2nd
Street and Church Street. The present county courthouse was built on
that square before he reached school age. The block on in which he
lived had only seven houses, his and another facing Church Street,
the others facing Main Street. Across the street was a "stone church"
which had a varied history. By the time he was ten years old
the center of town had grown, the church was Universalist, the
Odeon Opera House was built next door, across second Street, a steam
plant ran heat to the Courthouse and the Odeon, a carriage works was
built between his house and the Courthouse, and Doctor Gets had established a
Surgical Hospital on Third Street.
By the turn of the century, when Frank turned fifteen, The Stodart
Hotel and the Letts-Fletcher Wholesale Grocery (now
Wholesale Supply) were built on the property to the back
of the Fletcher house, facing Main Street, and three shops where
built diagonally across his block on Main, a tailor, a bakery, and a
t{illegible}.
The Glick-Fletcher house (now Marshalltown Museum) had two families : his grandparents, George and Jane Glick, and his parents, Thomas and Alice Fletcher, with their children Emma Belle (1881-1966) who studied as a teacher, later to Holliwood; his brother George G. (1884 -after 1950's) later lived in Des Moines, and Frank Jack (1885-1974) who became a naval flag officer.
The stone church across the
street had a varied history. The Episcopalians had met at Woodbury Hall from
1863 until 1870 when they
bought the former Lutheran Church, the first church built in Marshalltown,
at 18 E. State Street (then River Street) (now photoshop near Senior Citizen Center) , and renamed it St. Matthews Chapel.
That building was sold to the Swedish Lutheran Church in 1871 and construction
started of a stone building on the current church site.
The St. Matthew's Episcopal Church was completed in 1872.
During the depression of 1878, they were forced to
sell off parts of the furnishings and finally turnover of the deed to the
mortgage holder in 1880. The building was then sold to the
Unity Universalist's which worshiped there for 15 years before leasing it as the Peoples Church 1897 and the Church of Christ Scientists in 1899 until their building was incompleted in 1903; that attractive prairie architecture church lasted for one hundred years.
The Episcapalians built a new building in 1884 at 107 North Center Street funded by the Ladies
Guild and called the Guild Hall. The congregation changed their
name from St Matthew's to Saint Paul's in 1886 and expanded and evolved into St. Paul's Church. The Guild Hall became an auto garage that burned in 1930s and is now a parking lot.
In 1903 the original stone church was re-purchased, from the Universalists, renovated
and enlarged as the present Saint Paul's Episcopal Church.
The Methodist Church down the street at First Avenue and South Center was established in 1863. A new location was built at Second Street and West Main in 1894 and is still the First United Methodist Church. The old building became a theater.
The Odeon Opera House, at 13-17 S. Second Avenue, across the street beside Fletcher's home, was built in 1888 and was where some of the biggest names performed. It began showing movies in the 1920s, becoming all movies by 1935. It burned in 1942, was rebuilt and reopened in 1943 as a beautiful 756 seat movie hall with a large performance stage where Wallace Beery attended the opening and the likes of Tim Holt, Walter Brennan, and Ruth Warrick performed. With the advent of TV, business waned and the building was torn down in 1957 and remains a parking lot today.
Fisher Governor . In 1880, William Fisher, town waterworks manager, invented a constant pressure pump governor. In a major fire, he had had to regulate water pressure by hand for many hours. He started to build them for other water works around the country . Early employees operated belt-powered machines to the light of tallow candles for $13-a-week. The first product catalog was hand-written. He incorporated the Fisher Governor Company in 1899 with a total of $30,000. Fisher Controls is now a billion business.
In 1900, the seventeen saloons in Marshalltown were temporarily closed by the Supreme Court until new licenses were approved.
Annapolis
- Frank went off to the United States Naval Academy,
Annapolis, Maryland, in 1902. Each Senator and Representative may recommend two candidates for midshipmen each year. The candidate must be between sixteen and twenty at the time of the examination for admission. Candidates must be physically sound and over five foot two,and at least 105 pounds at age 16 and, these numbers increase with age. The entrance examination is on Grammar, Geography, U.S., and World History and Arithmetic. If the candidate passes, he immediately goes to the Academy. The course of study is six years – four years at the Academy and two years at sea followed by an examination for final graduation and assignment to one of the lower ranks of officers of the Navy or Marine Corp.
Frank Jack Fletcher graduated 26th in his class of 1906 with high marks in conduct, efficiency, ordinance and seamanship.
In the four years at the Naval Academy, a midshipman develops a passing or close acquaintanceships with members of seven classes, in his case, the classes of 1903 through 1909, This group was to comprise much the naval leadership during World War Two. Twenty two of his own class of 116 graduates of 1906, achieved flag rank. Names from that seven year period that earned fame in the Pacific War include :
* Juniors '04 : Husband Kimmel, CINCPAC ; William Halsey, Third Fleet.
* Sophomores '05 : Chester Nimitz CINCPAC ; Royal Ingersoll CINCLANT ; Albert T Church, flag officer ; John H. Newton, DCINCPAC
* Fletcher's class of 1906 : Robert Ghormley, SoPacArea ; William L. Calhoun, ComSrvPac 1939-45 ; Leigh Noyes, Ch Inspections ; William A. Glassford, ABDA ; Frank Jack Fletcher, Task Force Commander, North Pacific Area ; John Towers, DCINCPAC ; Milo Draeme, Fourth District ; Isaac Kidd, Battleship One (died USS Arizona) ; John McCain, BuAir ; Willis Bradely, Inspections ; Aubrey Fitch, Naval Air S.Pac .
* The class behind him '07 : Robert Theobald, TF-8 ; Raymond Spruance, Fifth Fleet.
* Two years behind, '08 : Thomas Kinkaid, SWPA, 7th Fleet ; Willis Lee, commander Battleships ; Richmond Turner, commander Amphibious ; Lloyd Stark, Gov Mo. ; Marc Mitscher (grad'10), Fast Carrier Forces.
* Entered when he was in his senior year '09 : Jonas Ingram CINCLANT ; Theodore Wilkinson, ONI, Bouganville ; Franklin Valkenburgh, Captain, Arizona.
During World War I, Fletcher captained the destroyer U.S.S. Benham operating on convoy escort and patrol duty in British and French waters for which he was awarded the Navy Cross. He married Martha Richards in February 1917. She was the daughter of Gertrude M. and Walter B. Richards of Kansas City, MO. Martha Richards Fletcher passed away September 14, 1974, in La Plaza, Maryland at the age of 79 a year after her husband of fifty-six years.
Early in the war Marshalltown had a bond drive Sept 5, 1942 in his name complete with a band concert on the Courthouse lawn. Such concerts are a usual summer event on the Marshalltown courthouse lawn to this day.
References:
"In Bitter Tempest: The
Biography of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher" by Stephen D. Regan.
"Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher and the
Pacific Fleet" by John Lundstrom
MarshallTimes Vol 3 No
12, Dec 1994.
Sanborn Maps -- editions of 1884, 1888, 1894 and
1901 spanning Jack's life in Marshalltown.
Historical
Society of Marshall County
School
Presentation
Supreme
Court decision clearing the Glick Estate of debts. Pages
648-663.
The
Germans of Iowa And Their Achievements (Die Deutschen von Iowa
und deren Errungenschaften) by Jim W. Faulkinbury
Archives
Fletcher Papers.
"Past and Present of Marshall
Country Iowa" by Battin & Moscript, 1912, published by
Bowen & Company
Country History, 1878.
PastTimes, historical periodical about Marshalltown, July 2003
Return to: WW2 Menu < Fletcher
About this page : FJFMtn.html - The early life of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher.
Last updated on April 25, 2011 -- finished with some questions remaining.
- Last updated on August 23, 2010 -- draft
March 18, 2009. - rough draft
November 2, 2008 - very rough draft
October 30, 2008 - first very rough draft