Bird's eye view of Fitzgerald, Georgia 1908. Drawn & published by T. M. Fowler

Fitzgerald Georgia. My kind of place...

Fitzgerald is the legitimate offspring of the Old Soldiers' Colony, and was named in honor of Mr. P. H. Fitzgerald, editor of the American Tribune, Indianapolis, who was the originator and founder of the colony. The site was selected in July, 1895.

October}   "Swan", a village of four or five houses, with a post office and a store, was in one corner of the surveyed land, and served as a temporary shelter and a ralling point for the pioneers. There was also a saw mill not far away, which the colony company purchased and put in operation, day and night. Rude houses were hastily constructed of the lumber and "shacks were built of the slabs. That was the beginning.

December} Twenty-five hundred people on on the ground, but as yet there was no Fitzgerald. It was simply Swan, with new plumage and ground beyond recognition. It occupied the ground reserved for factories, and from the flimsy character of it's structure it was, not inaptly called "Shacktown."

On June 15th, 1896, six months from the completion of the first house, Fitzgerald has one bank, three newspapers, two railroads, twenty five mills and other industrial establishments, over two hundred and fifty business houses of various kinds, a large number of churches and organized societies, and a population of seven thousand or more, not including the fifteen hundred or two thousand colonists on the 5, 10 and 20 acre tracts surrounding the town.

Well, needless to say, Fitzgerald has grown since then, and has not slowed down. So, come to South Georgia. Come and breathe the pure air and bask in the sunshine of the beautiful Southland. And when "Morn, with rosy hand, unbars the gates of light," you'll arise and come forth "like a giant refreshed;" -- but you'll feel like kicking yourself for not coming South sooner!

Passages from the book "The New Canaan"
Written and published by:
Dr. Jay Shrader