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.
