Born in Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, FitzHenry attended the public and high schools of Bloomington and, engaged in journalism before receiving a Bachelor of Laws from the law school (now defunct) at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1897.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1914 to the 64th United States Congress, and thereafter resumed the practice of law in Bloomington from 1915 to 1918.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for election as a Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court in 1915.

[1] FitzHenry was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson on July 1, 1918, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois vacated by Judge J. Otis Humphrey.

[2] FitzHenry was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 3, 1933, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge George True Page.