Page 7 - June 2023 News On 7

HAZZARD'S HISTORY NOTES

by Grant Ketcheson
THE FITZGERALD FAMILY

The story of the Fitzgerald family is one of tragedy, determination and hard work. It is featured as our June story to honour
RUTH FITZGERALD HOLMES on the occasion of her 103RD BIRTHDAY. This remarkable lady lived in her own home until
after her 100th birthday. Ruth, born in 1920, grew up on the Fitzgerald family farm at what is now 1929 Cooper Road. She
attended Remington School and later married Gordon Holmes from Cooper, just a short distance up the road.
The Fitzgerald family's Canadian story began when 12-year-old John Fitzgerald, from Kilkenny Ireland, took the bold step
of coming alone to Canada. Family lore says that he may have been a stowaway but the truth of this long-ago adventure is
lost in time. John, a labourer, settled in Hungerford Township where he married Amarilla Connelly. They had six children.
Later they moved to the neighbouring county of Lennox and Addington. John and Amarilla are buried in the Milligan
Pioneer Cemetery in Centreville.
Two of their children, Garrett and John L., made their way to Madoc Township settling in the community of Remington,
Garrett as a farmer and John L. as a blacksmith. Garrett married Hannah Doughty and they had five children. Tragedy
struck when Garrett died of gangrene at only 41 years of age. It is hard for us to imagine the plight of a young widow being
left with children, 13, 11, 8, 6 and 2 years of age.
One of the children, eight-year-old Billy, went to live with a neighbouring farmer, Charles Bacon. As the Bacons lived
nearby, young Billy could visit back and forth, but he probably never had the warm family home- life that so many of us
knew.
Charles Bacon was a prosperous local farmer from whom young Billy must have learned the farming trade well. In spite of
the odds, Billy Fitzgerald persevered and bought his own farm. He married Fannie Sager, who coincidentally had lost her
mother as a wee child and was raised by a neighbour. Such was life a century ago. Billy and Fanny had two children, Carl
and Ruth, who both married and remained in the community with Carl carrying on the family farm.
What memories of life in rural Ontario must dwell in the amazing mind of 103-year-old Ruth Fitzgerald Holmes! She has
grandparents as well as great-grandparents buried in Hazzard's Cemetery.
HAPPY 103rd BIRTHDAY, RUTH!!