OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

FRANCIS BARTOW FITE, M. D.
Vol. 3, p. 1298-1300

Whether as leading physician and surgeon, prominent citizen, or
energetic and progressive founder of movements making for advancement
and education, morality and business and civic life, it is difficult
to know which to speak of first where Dr. Francis Bartow Fite of
Muskogee is concerned. His career has several important distinctions
which claim attention. He has for more than a quarter of a century
been identified with the practice of his profession in old Indian
Territory and Oklahoma State, and as a surgeon he has few peers
anywhere in the Southwest. His home city of Muskogee will long
remember gratefully his administration as mayor of that city, during
which he sacrificed his own time and money to promote the welfare of
the city, which was then backward because of certain restrictions
placed upon its improvement, and which restrictions Doctor Fite
removed and inaugurated a new era in municipal improvement.
Though most of his active career has been spent in what is now
Oklahoma, Doctor Fite is native Georgian, and was born in Bartow
County, October 17, 1861. His parents were Dr. Henderson Wesley and
Sarah Turner (DENMAN) Fite. His father, who was born in McMinn County,
Tennessee, a son of Peter Fite, a native of North Carolina and member
of an old Revolutionary family, was also a physician, and was surgeon
in the fortieth Georgia Regiment of the Confederate army during the
war between the North and South, and after the war lived in the small
town known as Pine Log in Georgia and practiced medicine in addition
to carrying on agricultural operations on his plantation. The mother
of Dr. F. B. Fite was born near Oxford, Mississippi.

Reared in his native county of Bartow, Doctor Fite had the usual
advantages of a southern planter's son, but had to gain most of his
education through his own earnings and as a result of his own
determined ambition. When as a boy he attended the Johnstone's Academy
at Cartersville, Georgia, but in 1883, soon after reaching manhood, he
came out to Indian Territory, reaching the Town of Muskogee in May of
that year. He had little capital except ambition and determination.
Going to Tahlequah he applied for a school in the Cherokee Nation, and
during the following year had charge of a school near Sallisaw, where
in addition to his duties as a teacher he applied himself to the study
of medicine. Not long afterward he returned to Georgia, and entered
the Southern Medical College at Atlanta, from which he was graduated
in 1886. Soon after entering this institution Doctor Fite made house
surgeon of the Central Ivy Street Hospital which although supported as
a city hospital was largely under the control and supervision of the
Southern Medical College. Dr. Fite resigned his position with this
hospital in the summer of 1886, a short time after having graduated
with the degree Doctor of Medicine and the highest honors of his
class.

Having prepared himself for practice, he was not long in making up his
mind as to his location. He had become very favorably impressed with
the opportunities and the prospects of Indian Territory. He once more
located in Tahlequah and spent one year in practice there. He then
went east to New York City and pursued post graduate studies, in the
meantime serving for two years as house surgeon for the New York
Polyclinic Hospital. Then in the fall of 1889 Doctor Fite located
permanently at Muskogee, in which city he has performed both his
professional and civic services for more than a quarter of a century,
and has indelibly impressed his personality and his influence upon the
vital growth of that community.

Since locating at Muskogee, Doctor Fite has several times interrupted
his practice to pursue post-graduate studies in New York and
Philadelphia and in the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore.
Unquestionably Doctor Fite is now one of the best-known and most
successful surgeons in Oklahoma, and he has established an enviable
reputation all over the Southwest. For several years he has limited
his activities to surgery, office work and special consultation, and
even so the demands upon his time and energies are more than he can
meet. He is a member of the Muskogee County Medical Society, the
Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
He served as president of the state organization when it was the
Medical Society of Indian Territory. He was secretary of the medical
examining board for the Cherokee Nation for several years, and was a
prime factor in bringing about changes in the law in regard to the
practice of medicine among the Indians. He was first secretary and
later president of the United States Pension Board, and has been a
member of that body for about twenty years. He is also a member of the
State Board of Medical Examiners, and for more than four years has
been president of the body.

It seldom occurs that a physician or surgeon of the very highest rank
attains any prominence in affairs outside of his profession. Doctor
Fite, however, has a growing reputation all over the state as one of
Oklahoma's ablest citizens, and his effective work in behalf of
Muskogee during his term as mayor has frequently been accepted as a
qualification for higher political honors. It was from an intense
loyalty and desire to do good to his home city that Doctor Fite was
induced to serve as mayor, and that has been practically the only
office he has ever been willing to accept. He held that office during
1905-06. It is generally agreed that the splendid paving, sewerage and
water system of Muskogee was practically inaugurated and placed on a
satisfactory basis during the administration of Doctor Fite as mayor.
Of his services in this direction a magazine article said of him as
follows: "He was first in the paving movement by personal example and
induced through emulation of his efforts many modern streets. That was
before the passage of the Curtis Bill, and at a time when paving was
not compulsory, but was optional with the individual property owners,
and before a majority of the property owners living on a specified
thoroughfare could determine what they desired in the way of
improvement. It was during Doctor Fite's term as mayor of Muskogee
that the Curtis Bill was being debated in Washington prior to its
passage, and when its precepts covering municipal conditions were
undetermined he went to Washington and for weeks labored incessantly
for the incorporation in the Curtis Bill of provisions making it
obligatory for property owners to accede to the wishes of a majority
in the matter of establishing municipal improvements. He was
successful in having this accomplished in the Curtis Act and also the
inclusion of the provision compelling railroad companies to pay a just
proportion of taxes. By bringing about these two important remedial
measures, Dr. Fite clearly deserves distinction as one of Oklahoma's
most illustrious citizens, as few men within the borders of the State
have done so much for the commonwelath in a physical sense."

Not only while mayor but as a private citizen Doctor Fite has
generously contributed to the upbuilding of Muskogee with his time,
abilities and means, and has also given his influence and money in the
matter of railroad building and to everything that has promised the
betterment of the community. He has taken an active interest in public
improvement, including church and educational purposes, the state fair
and for more than three years has been a member of the Oklahoma State
board of Education. It should be recalled as a matter of history that
doctor Fite built the home of the Dawes Commission during its sessions
in Oklahoma. He was primarily the medium through which this commission
was induced to make its headquarters in Muskogee instead of at
McAlester.

While prominent as a public-spirited citizen and in other ways, Doctor
Fite is thoroughly devoted to his profession. Some years ago he
resigned from the office of vice president of the First National Bank
on Muskogee, and declined election to the presidency of that
institution, when he found that the duties of the position interfered
with his professional responsibilities and labors. With his family he
is a member of St. Paul's congregation of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and has been a generous contributor to building and
other funds of the church. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason, a
member of the Temple of the Mystic Shrine, of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In
public, professional, religious and social circles his acquaintance is
wide and no man in Muskogee has a larger circle of friends.

In 1889 Doctor Fite married Miss Julia PATTON of Vinita, Oklahoma.
Five children have been born to their marriage: William P., Frances,
Francis Bartow, Jr., Edward Halsell and Julian B. Doctor Fite and
family reside in what is regarded as one of the most palatial homes of
the entire state. The building of this fine example of colonial
architecture, on North Sixteenth Street in Muskogee, was in every way
creditable to Doctor Fite, since it illustrated his thorough faith in
the city which has been his home for so many years. His home has been
regarded as one of the attractive landmarks in the city, and it cost
many thousand dollars to construct. Though Doctor Fite enjoys the
comforts and luxuries of this beautiful home, and moves on terms of
easy equality with the foremost men of Oklahoma he is personally one
of the most democratic of men, and is essentially genial, kind
hearted, and more interested in the welfare of others than himself.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, March 3, 2000.

[NOTE: small error in the publication of the book
Titled "History of Oklahoma" by Joseph B. Thoburn.  The article
transcribed by Lee Ann Collins on  "Dr. Francis Bartow Fite, born Oct
7, 1861, in his native Bartow Co., Ga.".  This appears to a statement in
error!  The county now called Bartow County , Georgia  was officially
Cass Co., Georgia, until 1862.    The gentleman for whom the name
change was initiated was Brig. Gen. Francis Bartow, killed at the
battle of First Mananass, while commanding the  8th Regt. Georgia
Volunteer Infantry.  This was an early and probably one of the most
notable of the Confederate victories in the war between the states.
There is a monument to Gen. Bartow on the battle grounds in Virginia.
Note submitted by Charles Brightwell]