52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Prosperity is synonymous with monetary wealth and riches. My paternal ancestors emigrated from Ireland to the United States in the late 1840s and early 1850s. This was a time of famine and disease in Ireland and residents were looking to escape the misery. I have to date, not found any evidence of these ancestors being prosperous upon arrival. Their prosperity came from education and hard work. The following highlights the success of three of their children.
Robert Fitzgerald, my great-grandfather, in his lifetime was a farmer, logger and businessman. Born in 1869 in Connecticut, he was brought to Lebanon township, Waupaca Co., Wisconsin as an infant by his parents John H. and Anna Malloy Fitzgerald. John and Anna were Irish emigrants. Robert attended a little log school where he received his formal education while assisting his father in the development of the land and farm.
Robert Fitzgerald married Mary Ellen Casey, daughter of Timothy Casey and Margaret Clifford in 1884 in Clintonville, Wisconsin. They had eight children in 14 years.
Robert and Mary Ellen’s children grew to be successful and prosperous adults. Below are highlights of the lives of three those children. Each achieved exceptional success as grandchildren of Irish emigrants to the United States.
The oldest Fitzgerald daughter, Margaret Helen (1888-1975), was a pioneer in deaf education. Margaret was hired as the first teacher of the deaf at Atwater School in Shorewood, Wisconsin. She had been teaching similar classes in Oshkosh, after graduating from the Milwaukee Normal School, a predecessor school of UW-Milwaukee. As she and Shorewood’s program gained notoriety, Margaret also taught about the teaching of the hearing impaired at universities and colleges. The author of a book and pamphlets on the subject, she lectured throughout the United States after her retirement in 1953. (i)
Robert Leo Fitzgerald (1894-1979), Robert and Mary Ellen’s third son graduated from Marquette Dental School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1917. After graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the first dental unit in Georgia. Upon completion of his service in 1918 he returned to New London, Wisconsin, his hometown, where he operated a dental practice of 56 years.
Daniel Isadore Fitzgerald (1897-1974), fifth child of Robert and Mary Ellen became a pharmacist. After working for the Whitefish Bay Pharmacy for years, Dan rented a building and started his own pharmacy in 1954 in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Dan eventually retired and sold his business. It remained under the name Dan Fitzgerald Pharmacy until closing August 27, 2019, after 65 years of operation. The Facebook page for the pharmacy is still open and holds many memories of “Fitzies,” as it was known by locals. Dan was described by community members as “a real businessman who served others — with humility and gratitude, with a smile and a laugh, and with true listening and sincerity – in the normal comings and goings of each day.” (ii)
As seen in the examples above, prosperity comes from education and hard work. Riches or economic wealth may follow but does not have to be “the measure of the (wo)man.”
Sources:
(i) Shorewood, Wisconsin Historical Society
(ii) Dan Fitzgerald Pharmacy Facebook Page