Margaret Ann Bridget (Donahue) Fitzgerald was born on September 17, 1860 in Phoenicia, Ulster County, New York. She was the daughter of Irish-born parents John Donahue and Bridget (Mahoney) Donahue. On June 4, 1882, she married Patrick James Fitzgerald in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, which was under construction at the time of their marriage. Margaret spent her life as a housewife and mother, giving birth to ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood.
Patrick James Fitzgerald was born in Cork, Ireland (1852-1909). He immigrated with his parents to Essex County, New York, when he was about eight years old. Patrick came to Arizona Territory in 1871 when he was about twenty years old. He came to Yavapai County in 1879. In 1882, he traveled back to New York to marry Margaret Donahue. Shortly after their marriage, they left New York for Prescott by train. The railroad went only as far as Winslow, Arizona Territory, at the time, as the bridge over Canyon Diablo was not yet complete. In Winslow, they waited a week for a stagecoach to Prescott. The stagecoach ride took two days, with an overnight stop in Big Chino Valley where Margaret saw the bodies of two men who had been hanged for stealing cattle.
Upon their arrival in Prescott, and after a short stay at the Congress Hotel on East Gurley Street, the newlyweds headed out the Senator Highway for the mining camp at Turkey Creek, where they would spend the next twelve years. Here, their first five children were born: John Edward (1882-1935), Patrick James, known as Jim (1885-1954), Catherine Bridget Thorbecke, known as Kate (1887-1918), William Robert, known as Will (1889-1954), and Alice Margaret Mahoney (1891-1952). Margaret brought each baby to Prescott by horseback to be baptized in the Catholic faith.
While living at Turkey Creek, Margaret learned Spanish from the Mexicans who manned the burro teams hauling ore from the mines. They regularly stopped at Turkey Creek for water.
In 1894, while pregnant with her sixth child, Margaret took all five children to New York to visit her family. Upon their return, Margaret insisted that the family move from Turkey Creek to Prescott so that the children could go to school and would have access to other amenities of a city. The Fitzgeralds built a fine Victorian home on several acres at 502 South Cortez Street, where they had a lovely view over Prescott. Five more children were born after the move to Prescott: Mary Ellen Young (1894-after 1954), Agnes (1897-1899), Irene (1902-1904) (the latter two dying of diphtheria), Gerald Emmett (also listed as David Gerald) (1900-1953), and Gertrude Elizabeth Jackson, known as Gertie (1906-1994).
Patrick died at home on April 16, 1909. Margaret stayed in their home until her death on October 31, 1935. She, her husband, four of their children, and one grandchild are buried in a family plot at Citizens Cemetery in Prescott. Almost all of the Fitzgeralds’ children remained in Arizona for most of their lives, leaving a legacy of several generations of native Arizonans to carry on the family name and history.
Margaret and Patrick’s daughter Alice Margaret (Fitzgerald) Mahoney is also memorialized in the Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden.
Donors: Mary Alice Mahoney, great granddaughter, and Nancy Burgess, 2016
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box F, F-Fitzgerald, Margaret (Donahue)
Updated: 5/12/2016; D. Sue Kissel
