The extraordinary saga of the Fitch Family Heritage Farm begins before the Civil War. Portions of the farm were homesteaded in 1854 by Fitch Family ancestor, George“ Judge” Washington Vaughan, then passed down to his son-in-law Catlett Fitch and daughter Margaret Louisa Vaughan Fitch. The remaining portions of the farm were acquired by Catlett Fitch. George Washington Vaughan was Frankie’ s greatgreat-grandfather and Catlett Fitch was his great-grandfather.

“ My great-grandfather, Catlett Fitch, came to Madison County from Tennessee with $ 12.50, two horses and a wagon,” Frankie Fitch began.“ The Vaughan family also came from Tennessee. They settled in Madison County in the Hindsville area, known at the time as Vaughan Valley.”

Catlett raised cattle, selling an average of 300 head each year. In 1887, he fed his cattle over 7,000 bushels of corn and sold over 200 bushels of wheat. In earlier years, the Fitch family raised various crops and livestock including corn, wheat, oats, various grasses for hay and pasture, apples, cattle, sheep, horses and goats.

“ Catlett Fitch was known to be industrious, and with his own hands cleared over 100 acres of timbered land,” Frankie said.“ And his contributions ended up being more than farming. Growing up on the farm and helping work the fields also made it the perfect development tool for many diverse careers.”

Several of Catlett’ s children went on to make significant contributions in many fields. Irma Fitch Giffels went on to use

her master’ s degree in home economics to become one of the first women to use those skills in the business field. She later became a major benefactor at the University of Arkansas, establishing an endowed chair for the College of Engineering and helping to renovate Giffels Auditorium in Old Main.

Catlett’ s son, Larkin, used his degree in agriculture to establish a prosperous operation in Mesa, Arizona. The city of Mesa ended up naming a park after him and erecting a statue near Arizona State with his likeness named“ The Wall Street Farmer.” Rolla went on to be a top aide for Governor Faubus in the sixties. Onell and Stella became teachers, Roe was a forest ranger and farmer. Stona farmed and held political offices in Oklahoma, and Thad worked in radio in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Many of Catlett’ s grandchildren and great grandchildren have gone on to pursue Master’ s and PhD degrees and careers in politics, business, anthropology, chemistry, physics, academia and more.

The farming operation passed from Catlett to his son Catlett“ Dick” Fitch, then to several of Dick’ s children, including Cecil Fitch( Frankie’ s father), Rolla Fitch and Roe Fitch. Frankie and his wife Marie are the current owners of part of the original farm and have lived and worked there for nearly 60 years raising pumpkins, fescue seed, alfalfa, other hay crops and cattle. Frankie and Marie raised their children, Lezlie and Trey, the sixth generation on the farm.“ Lezlie and Trey grew up doing everything from helping me feed hay to the cattle in the winter, bottle feeding baby