at Helena, Pine Bluff and other small battles in Arkansas and vicinity, and fought in his last engagement at
Spanish Fort, Ala. In 1865 he was mustered out with an honorable discharge and immediately returned to his home in
Wisconsin to follow the occupation of a farmer. Shortly after, however, He removed to Butler county, Iowa, and
while attending to his duties as an agriculturist found time to woo and win Miss Sarah, a daughter of Winfield and
Elmira (Calkins) Sutherland, both natives of Genesee county, N. Y. With his young wife, in 1877, Mr. Fitzgerald
took up his residence in Lincoln county, Dak. Ter., where he now owns a half section of land. He cleared the ground,
turned the first furrows thereon, planted crops and in the course of time fertile fields were yielding abundant
harvests. In 1878 his labor was expended for the benefit of the grasshoppers, and all the hardships and privations
that settlers in the county experienced fell equally hard on the shoulders of our subject. It will thus be seen
that Mr. Fitzgerald had his share of adversity; but he was a hard worker and an industrious man, and has met, by
perseverence at his labor, with unqualified success in his business as a farmer. He belongs to the G. A. R., and
in the companionship of his comrades lives over again the excitement and trying experiences of war times. In his
political views he is a decided Republican, and has been ever since he became a voter. Mrs. Fitzgerald is a member
of the Woman's Relief corps. |
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JANSSEN, one of Turner county's old settlers engaged in the pursuit of agriculture in sections 25 and 30 Germantown township, was born in Germany, February 24, 1847. He received a good education, |
which is the birthright of every child of the Fatherland, and worked on the farm until he was eighteen years of age.
He emigrated to America in 1868, and sought in the new country the fortune he could not reach in the land of his
nativity. He located first in Stephenson county, Ill., where he found employment on farms, working by the month,
and for his labor received $22 per month. At this work he continued for three years, during which time he managed
to save up quite a little money, and then he rented a farm near Foreston, Ill., which he conducted for a year. At
the expiration of that time he located in Butler county, Iowa, where he rented land and engaged in farming for
seven years. The territory of Dakota in 1878 was being rapidly populated by thrifty, pioneer farmers, and our
subject was one of them. He located in that year on what is now section 27, Germantown township, Turner county
homesteading 160 acres, which he started in to break up and improve. He proved up and then sold out for $5,100,
afterwards purchasing 184 acres in sections 25 and 30 where he at present resides. He started out in the battle of
life empty handed to work by the month, but he accumulated as he progressed without scattering, and by hard work,
thrift and economy has gained a competence and is now fairly well-to-do. |
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