Cam Jordan and Sherri Butler
Founded in 1896 by pension attorney P. H. Fitzgerald as a colony for
Union veterans escaping the drought-stricken Midwest, Fitzgerald has
built on the spirit of unity exhibited by its early Union and
Confederate founders. The town produced such notable citizens as Gen.
Ray Davis, assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps; U.N.
ambassador Morris Abram; author Frances Mayes; Chief Justice Norman
Fletcher; and folk artist Ulysses Davis. The inherent sense of citizen
investment in the community led Fitzgerald to be dubbed "the Recruiting
Colossus from Nowhere" by the Wall Street Journal after some 40
industries choose Fitzgerald as home. This is a story of pioneer vision
and migration, of hewing a town from pine barrens, and of the reuniting
of America.
