At the age of eleven, Ed moved from Ireland to America with his mother, Mary Harrington Fitzgerald. The 1860 United States Federal Census shows Ed and his mother living in the city of Galena, Jo Davies, Illinois. There he grew to adulthood. At the age of seventeen, he went out on his own and spent three years working on a farm. At age twenty, he began rafting on the Mississippi and Black Rivers and continued for three years. He then worked at a sawmill on the Sinsinawa River.
Ed arrived in Dakota Territory for the first time in 1870, driving cattle, and arrived at Vermillion. He entered in on a homestead in Union County, Dakota Territory, near the town of Beresford, which eventually became a part of the 640-acre farm he would later own. He returned to Galena, Illinois to harvest; but Ed returned to Dakota to locate on his claim, taking his mother with him..
Edward Fitzgerald was a prominent cattle rancher. He homesteaded farms of 120 acres for each of his sons in Dell Rapids, Minnehaha, SD. 3 of his children, James, Mary Ann and Catherine and their spouses farmed this land. His gift to his son Dennis and wife, Anna Marie Manning on their wedding day was a white bull (to start him in or increase the herd of his cattle ranch) In those days that was an expensive gift!
In addition to their own eleven children, Ed and his wife Julia Ann Jordan raised a boy named Dan Fox.
On the day of his death, Ed had hitched up his mules at about 5pm to get a load of hay from the Brule bottom near his home. After he loaded the hay he started for home and traveled about one hundred feet when the accident occurred. He had fallen from the wagon, and it had rolled across his chest, killing him instantly in the meadow on his farm. It was not known exactly what had happened, but one theory is that he was climbing onto the load when the mules started to run, causing Ed to fall from the ladder and under the wagon. His funeral was reported to have been attended by the largest gathering ever assembled for such an occasion. Note: Info from the obituaries of Edward and his Wife, and death notice of his father-in-law, Andrew Jordan.
| Additional Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1st Jun 1846 | VIEW SOURCE |
| Date of Death | 2nd Oct 1910 | VIEW SOURCE |
| Mother (First Name/s and Maiden) | Mary Harrington Fitzgerald | |
| Spouse (First Name/s and Maiden/Surname) | Julia Ann Jordon | |
