Richard Fitzgerald

Richard Fitzgerald was the son of Edmund Fitzgerald and Catherine Devine, both Irish immigrants. Richard was born on Christmas Day, 1850 Near Fort Winnebago and the Indian Agency House near what is now Portage, WI. Mary Ann McCloskey was born on 12/22/1857 in High Forest Township, MN. They were married in 1879.

Aunt Sheila Mary Fitzgerald’s timeline for her father, William Fitzgerald, says (page 6) that William’s father Richard Fitzgerald grew up playing with Indian friends near Fort Winnebago in Wisconsin – and was reunited with old Indian friends from that era many years later (1895) at an event in Rochester, MN.

This timeline says that Richard Fitzgerald had a damaged “withered” arm, likely do to a logging accident incurred while he was still a young boy in Wisconsin.

According to Aunt Kate (Catherine Fitzgerald) “Dad was a logger, that is, he worked in the woods chopping down mammoth trees and guiding them down the river by standing on them. I have seen pictures of the men manipulating and keeping the logs in place until they reached the sawmills. He was thrown off a log and one arm was broken in a number of places, making it quite a bit shorter."

Richard moved to Rochester, MN with his parents in 1861. Near the time of their marriage in 1879 Richard was delivering Milk in the Rochester area. Richard passed away a short time after his son William Fitzgerald and Kathleen Moonan were married on 9/11/1919 at Waseca, MN.

I love this note about Grandfather Richard from Sheila Mary Fitzgerald's timeline of her father. Written by Richard Fitzgerald's daughter Kate (Catherine)to Sheila Mary Fitzgerald:

"I think I was about seven when one night he (her father Richard) got so excited - he had read in the paper they were putting on some sort of celebration (in a place that had no) name then, named Mayo Park years later, and (they) were bringinging in a number of Indians (from central WI) in full dress. Dad said they were from the Indian tribe he used to play with and he wondered if any of them would remember him. He dropped what he was doing, took my hand, and away we went to the park. As we got inside the park, a great big Indian looked at us, jumped up, and came toward us. He had recognized Dad right away and was so glad to see and talk to him after all those years as Dad had left the Fort when he was very young."

Note - this was about 35 years apart. Richard left Fort Winnebago in 1861 as an 11 year old - and this reunion was about 1895.

William Fitzgerald timeline link. By Sheila Mary Fitzgerald