William Andrew Fitzgerald and Louisa Jane Dillard Fitzgerald

From Susie Dent, great-granddaughter of W.A. and Louisa Fitzgerald:

William Andrew "W.A." Fitzgerald was born October 10, 1851 in Forsyth County, Georgia to William R. Fitzgerald and Beersheba K. Mitchell Fitzgerald.

W.A. was a soldier in the U.S. Cavalry from 1873 to 1878, and later was Arkansas' National Commander of the Veterans of the American Indian Wars.  In one battle he was wounded in the knee by a tomahawk and he wore the scar from that wound for the rest of his life.

In a biography published in the Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas, February 20, 1938, Rev. Fitzgerald told how he had enlisted in the Army, along with a group of companions, when he turned 21 (in 1873). He was trained at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri. He traveled with his troop to many locations across the West including Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and the states of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

 

After he was discharged from the U.S. Cavalry in 1878, W.A. attended church often and on one Sunday, he met a very young Louisa Jane Dillard who was visiting the church with a sister. I believe this church was the Wesleyan Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church at Point Cedar, Hot Spring County, Arkansas.

Louisa was the daughter of a prosperous Caddo River farmer, William Frank Dillard, and his wife, Judah Dillard. Their home was in the Shiloh community near Sugar Loaf Mountain not far from the Caddo River and Point Cedar.  Louisa Jane, later to be called Louise by her husband and family, had dark hair and light-colored eyes. W.A was smitten with the 15-year-old girl. The courtship was short and on W.A.'s 28th birthday, October 10, 1879, he married Miss Louisa Jane Dillard. They were married for 61 years and had nine children:  Frances “Fannie”, Mary Ellen “Mollie”, Callie “Peggy”, Carrie, Maude, James Whitten “Jim” and Merrill McMaster, and two who died in infancy, Ida and Jewell.

Louisa Jane Dillard was born April 16, 1864 in the Shiloh community near Amity, Arkansas to William Frank Dillard and Judah Dillard, who were first cousins.  Louisa’s grandparents were Samuel Dillard and Elizabeth Reid Dillard and Harcaneous Dillard and Nancy Bryant Dillard.  Louisa's grandfathers, Samuel and Harcaneous, were brothers.

W.A. Fitzgerald became an ordained minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1887, and an ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1897, serving as minister of the Amity Methodist Church for many years.  He also served as the Treasurer of the Methodist Conference for 10 years.

Louisa was a school teacher at Amity High School for many years.

Rev. W.A. Fitzgerald died of malaria in 1941 at his home in Amity, Arkansas.  Louisa died in 1954.