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| Name | Narrative | Branch and Rank | Unit and Specialty | Conflict/Arena | Born/Died |
| Thomas J. “Tommy” Fitzpatrick | Thomas J. "Tommy" Fitzpatrick was born in 1887 to Henry J. and Emma Fitzpatrick. He spent his early childhood on Pennsylvania Avenue in Delanco. He loved outdoor life along the river. It was here that friends introduced him to hunting, fishing, and boating. He later worked as a shoemaker in Philadelphia. His family was very musical. His father was a violin teacher in town. Tom had a wonderful ear for music and learned to play piano and accordion. Tommy married Katie Rogers Whitsell in 1916. He built a houseboat for them on property leased from the Stocktons on the Delaware riverbank and they led the lives of typical Delanco Watermen. During World War I, Tommy worked at a shipyard in Philadelphia, where he became a craftsman. He is believed to have carved his first decoy about 1910 and went on to become a renowned decoy carver. He carved over 2000 decoys in his lifetime. In the 1926 and 1929 Delanco directories, Tom was listed simply as a fisherman living at 428 Delaware Avenue, but he was much more than that. They lived off the land in their cabin on the water, building, repairing and renting rowboats and boat slips, selling bait, trapping and hunting ducks, fish and turtles for the market. He would cross the Rancocas Creek to the Riverside Inn, play his accordion, sell miniature carvings, and take orders for his working decoys. After Tom’s death in 1958 at age 70, Katie finally sold the houseboat to a man who worked for a dredging company. The new owner simply floated the unit at high tide and towed it away on the river. Tom and Katie are buried in Bridgeboro Methodist Cemetery. | Naval Construction | Naval Construction | WWI, Philadelphia | 1887 – 1958 |
Updated October 30, 2023