The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 630

JOE WESLEY FITTS.

The ranch property of Joe W. Fitts seems to express the last word in
agricultural progressiveness. There is no equipment or improvement of the model
farm property that is lacking upon his place and his home is one of the
beautiful residences in the vicinity of Zillah. The life story of Joe W. Fitts
is an interesting one in that it indicates what can be accomplished through
determined individual effort, intelligently directed. He was born at Madison,
South Dakota, June 3, 1892, a son of Frank D. and Etta L. (Hill) Kitts, the
former a native of Michigan, while the latter was born in Minnesota. The father
lived in Chicago until he reached his early twenties and was employed as a clerk
in a bank. He afterward engaged in farming in Illinois for a few years and then
removed to South Dakota, where he again entered the banking business, becoming
president of the First National Bank of Madison. He remained a prominent figure
in financial circles in that place for thirty-five years. Eventually his
business operations sought a new field in the west. He became interested in the
Yakima-Zillah Investment Company in 1912 and was made its vice president. This
company had two hundred acres of land a mile and a half north of Zillah and
irrigated the tract by pumping water to it. In 1913 Mr. Fitts brought his family
to the northwest, disposing of his interests in South Dakota, and he established
his home in Yakima. In 1917 the two hundred acre tract of land was divided and
he and his son Joe took one hundred and eighty-one acres of this, of which
eighty-six acres has been planted to fruit. His orchards are devoted to apples,
with peaches, pears and cherries as fillers. This is one of the largest orchards
of the valley and the trees are all in bearing now. There is also a twenty-five
acre tract planted to alfalfa, while seventy acres of the tract is still
undeveloped. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Frank D. Fitts were four children:
Mrs. O. R. Nichols, now of Selah; Mrs. George Gorman, living in Beloit,
Wisconsin; Joe W., of this review; and Frank Leland Hill, who died at the age of
sixteen years.

Joe W. Fitts acquired a public school education in Madison. South Dakota, and
afterward attended the State University of Michigan. In 1914 he became a
resident of Yakima and through the intervening period has taken an active part
in the management of the ranch which his father acquired. They have been closely
associated in carrying on the business of developing the orchards and
cultivating the fields. They have built a fine eight-room residence upon the
place, supplied with hot and cold water and electric lights. They also have a
large tenant house upon the ranch and they are building extensive packing sheds
and a storage warehouse. In fact theirs is one of the best equipped ranch
properties of the district, supplied with every modern convenience. The whole
ranch has water pumped upon it for irrigation, derived from the Sunnyside canal.
There are twenty horsepower electric motor pumps which supply five hundred
gallons per minute. There is also a two hundred and eighty foot well for home
use, which pumps water into a big tank on a high tower and thus supplies a
constant flow of water into the house and barns.

On the 2d of February, 1916, Joe W. Fitts was united in marriage to Miss
Gertrude Clark, who was born in Colorado, a daughter of F. W. Clark, and they
now have one son, Joe Wesley, Jr.

Fraternally Mr. Fitts is connected with the Masonic lodge at Zillah and his
political endorsement is given to the republican party. Amid most pleasant and
attractive surroundings Mr. Fitts is most pleasantly situated. His home, which
is one of the finest places in the Yakima valley, commands a wonderful view of
snowcapped Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, with a gentle, rolling country
between, and the fine climate and natural resources of the district make the
situation largely an ideal one.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.