Hartson Jerome Fitzgerald 1860-1927
2010
Hartson Jerome Fitzgerald was born in 1860 in Missouri. In 1885 he married Mary Watrous Reynolds. Mary was the daughter of William Reynolds, who was brother of our direct ancestor Mary June Reynolds Watrous. Thus, Mary Reynolds Fitzgerald was the niece of Mary June Reynolds Watrous. It is not known why the younger Mary had the middle name of Watrous, since she was not a Watrous by any connection we can find. Hartson and Mary became the parents of three children. They were Charles, Marie and Thomas. They raised their children in Muscatine, Muscatine, Iowa where Hartson practiced law. Sometime after 1911 and before 1920, Hartson and his family moved from Iowa to Utah. They are found in the 1920 Census in Salt Lake City. Living at home are children Charles and Marie. The children are twenty-nine and thirty.
Hartson and his family came to Utah at a time when Mary’s cousin Henry Reynolds Watrous was practicing law and spending time and money in the pursuit of mining claims. By 1916, the Utah Watrous family which included Henry, his two sons Everest and Earl and others, including the mayor of Salt Lake City, incorporated The Cottonwood Metals Mining Company. We assume that Hartson came to Utah to practice mining law. That was his specialty.
Hartson is mentioned in two different letters written about 1919-1920 by Sarah Rebecca Watrous Gittings, sister of Henry Reynolds Watrous and thus also a first cousin to Mary Watrous Reynolds Fitzgerald.
Hartson died in 1927 and was buried in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Buried with him is his son Charles, both of Charles’ wives, his daughter Marie and his wife Mary Watrous Reynolds Fitzgerald. The men were buried but the women were both cremated. Mary actually died in California and had her remains sent home for burial.
Unless a person is familiar with the people in this summary, it is easy to see how the various uses of the name Mary, Watrous and Reynolds could be confusing.