Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 290
DENNIS FITZGIBBON

Dennis FITZGIBBON, of section 24, Calhoun Township, has been a resident of Harrison County since 1882. He first rented the Daniel BROWN farm of his brother for one year, but the next year rented a farm of William McDONALD, which place he bought after McDONALD's death. It consists of two hundred acres, and has been brought under a high state of cultivation, and has one of the finest small orchards in Harrison County.

Our subject was born in the county of Limerick, Ireland about the year 1844, and his mother died when he was twelve years old, and the father a year later. Like most of the people of the Emerald Isle, his parents were very poor, and he was compelled to work out, receiving as low as ten dollars per year, but by being a trustworthy lad, when he became of age he was placed at the front gate of the premises of a man of nobility, by the name of Edward MAROONEY. This was quite a promotion for our subject, and was considered a place of no small distinction, for a laboring man, as he had charge of the farm, purchased goods at the market place, etc. He remained in this position for five years, receiving a shilling a day for his services, amounting in all to about $400. After leaving this place, he followed farm life, until he came to this country in 1873. Mr. FITZGIBBON says that in Ireland the laboring man, as a rule, is about as much of a slave as the negroe was here before the war.

After leaving Castle Garden, New York, our subject came directly to Honey Creek, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and for two years worked as a track hand on the Chicago Northwestern Railway, after which he commenced to farm on rented land until he came to Harrison County.

When twenty-one years of age Mr. FITZGIBBON was married to Mary COLLINS, in the county of Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of Thomas and Johannah (MURPHY) COLLINS, who came to America several years before our subject and his wife.

Mr. and Mrs. FITZGIBBON are the parents of seven children, James J., Michael J., Johanna C., Minnie, Henry, Margaret and Elizabeth, all living and at home. The family are members of the Roman Catholic Church and he affiliates with the Democratic party, but votes for the man and not for the party.

He is educating his children in the district schools of Harrison County, which are scarcely excelled in Iowa. Hard work and careful management, by a man who came to our shores from Ireland, and who is now in possession of a valuable and pleasant home, bespeaks well for our Governmental institutions, and no one appreciates the condition of affairs here more than our subject and his wife, who came to this country with three children, but did not have money enough to buy a cook stove.

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