Union County, SD Biographies.....Fitzgerald, Edward June 20, 1846 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 12, 2022, 10:40 pm

Source: MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties, South Dakota. (1897)
Author: Geo. Ogle & Co.

EDWARD FITZGERALD is successfully engaged in business as a grain grower and stock
raiser and shipper, and his farm in Spink township, Union county, as well as the one
in Prairie township, are classed among the most desirable pieces of property in that
part of the county. He was born in county Kerry, Ireland, June 20, 1846, and was
eleven years of age when he emigrated with his parents to the new world. They
settled in Jo Daviess county. Ill., and in the city of Galena, Edward grew to
manhood, receiving a practical education.

Our subject began life for himself at the age of seventeen years as assistant on a
farm, and for three years he continued in this capacity. At the age of twenty he
began the business of rafting on the Mississippi and Black rivers, which he followed
for another three years, and at the expiration of that time secured employment in a
saw mill on the Sinsinnawa river. In 1870 he made his first trip to Dakota
territory, driving cattle for a Mrs. Fleig. He finally arrived at Vermillion and
later at the claim of Mrs. Fleig's husband, where he left the cattle and then came
back to Vermillion. After entering a homestead, which now constitutes a part of his
present farm, he went back to Galena to harvest, and in the fall returned again to
Dakota, traveling most of the way on foot, and locating on his claim. The cottonwood
boards out of which he built a little house, warped like a bow, but they were all he
could get and had to be used. During the winter months he lived in the cellar under
his shanty, and then in the spring put in a crop. He is now the owner of 640 acres,
600 of which are under a fine state of cultivation. The home farm consists of 400
acres and the balance of the property is located in Prairie township. All the
improvements on both farms, including two complete sets of buildings he has put
there himself. Besides tilling the soil Mr. Fitzgerald is also engaged in buying and
selling live stock, and for the past five years has fed from sixty to one hundred
head of cattle during the winter months. He has depended salely [sic]upon his own
labor, and being a good manager and financier, carefully considering his
expenditures as well as receipts, has accordingly prospered. He saw some pretty hard
times, both as a boy and during his maturer years; but those times are past and he
is now classed as one of the successful and enterprising agriculturists of the
county. As a voter he uses his elective franchise independently, casting his ballot
for the best man. He has served as a member of the local school board for a period
of eight years, and takes quite a degree of interest in educational matters.

Mr. Fitzgerald has had the womanly assistance of a thoroughly competent and
energetic wife in the accumulation of his property. They were wedded in 1872, and to
their happy married life eleven children have come, ten of whom are living, viz.:
Mary, James; Catherine, wife of Thomas Naugh-ton, of Brule township; Margaret,
Julia, William, Dennis, Delia, John and Ellen. One son, Edward, the first born, is
dead. All the children are being given the advantages of a good schooling, and Miss
Mary is now a teacher of this county. Mrs. Fitzgerald’s maiden name was Julia
Jordan, and she is a daughter of Andrew Jordan, of Prairie township. Mr. Fitzgerald
says: “She was the first single young lady that came into this settlement, and I got
her, and have never been sorry of the venture.” The editor joins in a wish that he
may never be tired of the bargain, and that their lives as happy man and wife may
extend over many, many years to come. Mrs. Fitzgerald received an excellent training
in housework and is a good housekeeper, making the home cozy and comfortable for its
inmates. The family are members of St. Joseph Catholic church of Prairie township,
and Mr. Fitzgerald has been secretary of the same for some time.


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