FITZGERALD, FRANK E. AND EDITH (OLIVER)

by Wayne Fitzgerald

Entry F140 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Frank and Edith (Oliver) Fitzgerald 1899 several
years before there marriage.

Frank E. Fitzgerald and wife Edith (Oliver)
Fitzgerald arrived in Mullen, Nebraska with
their two sons, Wayne R. and Corliss V., ages
three and two years, respectively in the
month of March, 1913. Burlington train No.
43, then simply called "43" pulled into the
brick depot platform about 10:00 A.M. this
chilly March morning. Wayne, his nose
flattened against the coach window, was
singing out, "We're coming to Mulling, We're
coming to Mulling." The family was met by
the proprietor of the Evergreen House,
pushing a two-wheeled cart to carry hand
luggage to the hotel or Evergreen House, the
name then. James Oliver, the proprietor, was
also father of Edith Fitzgerald and grand-
father of Wayne and Corliss.

Frank Fitzgerald lived and worked in the
building construction and maintenance busi-
ness in the Mullen area from his arrival in
1913 at the age of thirty one years until his
death at seventy six in June 1958. He was
born in Litchfield, Illinois February 3, 1882,
the youngest of six children. He came to
Mullen about three years after becoming a
master carpenter by serving as a carpenter's
helper and an apprentice during the con-
struction of Fort Russell, a federal military
installation in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This was
in the early years of 1900.

Frank and Edith May Oliver were married
in 1904. As a young woman before her
marriage Edith had helped her parents in the
operation of hotels and eating houses in
Callaway, Nebraska. So, when Frank and
Edith came to Mullen she again assisted,
working at the Evergreen House as cashier
and waitress. She also was an exemplary
mother, wife and homemaker. She was expert
in the preparation of wild game and fish.

Mullen and Hooker County were part of
the area covered by the Kinkaid Act and
enjoyed the boom condition created by the
many farmers, ranchers and tradesmen that
were coming in to the town and vicinity. It
was into this agreeable atmosphere for work
and business that Frank Fitzgerald came.

In 1913 Mullen had a half dozen or so
buildings that were not wooden frame struc-
tures. The court house, Rosebery's store, a
few cement block buildings, stores and homes
and one or two brick residences. Fitzgerald,
commenting on the early structures, said
when he came here the only building he knew
of with rabetted door jambs and weight
balanced windows was the then new court
house. No building had indoor plumbing and
very few, if any of the homes had a full
basement, so common today. Nor was there
an open stairway with an ornate curving
banister of the type quite common in the
farming area of eastern Nebraska. One of
Frank's first jobs in Mullen was construction
of the grain elevator. I did a brisk business
for a few early years before the folly of
plowing sandhill land became apparent. In
the spring of 1917 Fitzgerald and George
Hawley joined forces bought two lots on Main
Street (First Street) next to the just-complet-
ed Ham Hotel and built the building pres-
ently occupied (1986) by the Hampton
Agency and Long's Recreation. Hawley own-
ed the east half and Fitzgerald the west half
of the building. The Fitzgerald family made
their home in the second floor west apart-
ment for the next five years. 1917 to 1922.

From the founding of Mullen with the
coming of the railroad until 1910, a little over
20 years, of the houses constructed there were
perhaps twenty five good structures. Many of
them with maintenance and renovations were
occupied in 1986. A number of them are on
Second Street beginning on the west with the
Roseberry house, now the Assembly of God
parsonage to the home of A.G. Humphrey,
now owned by the Bob Boyer family.

From 1913 until the late thirtys Fitzgerald
did a lion's share of the building. He built
more than forty five homes, schools, ranch
houses and other buildings in Mullen, Sene-
ca, Hyannis and Whitman and the country
around. In 1935 to 1937 he built five homes
and two business buildings in North Platte.
In the early years house construction was not
the assembly of preconstructed, prefinished
units. Door frames, window frames, stair
parts etc. were shop work or built on the site.
Window sash and house doors, millwork
items, were generally available at the local
lumber yards.

After World War II there were many
changes in home construction. Then there
were mobile homes, double-wides and factory
assembly methods. After this most of Frank's
work was repair and maintenance and cabin-
et work. In the early 1950s he gradually
retired, working less and fishing more.

Edith died in 1969 at age eighty six.