A DREAM OF PEACE . . .

"In 1895 P.H. Fitzgerald of Indianapolis, editor of the American Tribune, a great Grand Army of the Republic organ, conceived of the idea of locating in the balmy Southern climate, a colony of ex-union soldiers."

Fitzgerald Enterprise
August 19, 1911
The southern state of Georgia had called itself to Fitzgerald's attention quite recently, when Georgians sent trainloads of food to relieve the drought-stricken midwest. It was a gesture from the defeated South that intrigued Fitzgerald. He wrote to Gov. William J. Northen to tell him of his plans for a colony.


. . . after the bitterness of war


Fitzgerald's goal was to find a temperate place for the aging Union veterans - 30 years after the war - to live out their lives in comfort. The South seemed a logical choice. Only, what would the aging Rebels think?

After traveling over the state with Northen, Fitzgerald settled on a site - some 50,000 acres in what was then northern Irwin County and a portion of southern Wilcox county. Back in Indiana, Fitzgerald organized the American Tribune Soldiers Colony Company to finance his scheme of development.

More


























LE FastCounter