[1] Ferris S. Fitch Sr. was one of the largest landowners in Bunker Hill Township, and had extensive farming interests.

[2] Ferris Jr. worked on his father's farm until he was 16 years old, when he started to attend the Normal School at Ypsilanti.

[3] In 1889, Elbert J. Kelly sold an Oakland County newspaper known as the Bill Poster to a stock company headed by Fitch.

Fitch resigned as the City Schools Superintendent in June 1890 to enter journalism as the editor and manager of the newspaper he owned, which had its name changed from the Bill Poster to the Post.

[3][5] On September 10, 1890, Fitch was unanimously nominated by the Democratic Convention in Grand Rapids for the office of Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction.