Newest Fort Mackinac Display Dedicated to Frank Fitzgerald
By Karen Gould

Inside Fort Mackinac at a new exhibit honoring the late Frank Fitzgerald are (from left) his mother, Lorabeth, his wife, Ruth, and children, John and Ellen.

Frank Fitzgerald loved Mackinac Island and Fort Mackinac, and even more, he loved sharing the history of the Fort with those who visited the National Historic Landmark, say his family and friends. In a fitting tribute, a new soldier interpretive display at Fort Mackinac was dedicated in his honor with his wife, children, and mother in attendance Friday evening, August 18.

"He had great integrity, and great interest and love of history," said Phil Porter, director of Mackinac State Historic Parks during the opening ceremony. Mr. Porter hired Frank Fitzgerald to work at Fort Mackinac in 1975.

Mr. Fitzgerald later became a head guide at Fort Mackinac, working there for six years, from 1975 to 1980. He also was the former Speaker Pro Tem of the Michigan House of Representatives, was the commissioner of the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services, and a practicing attorney before he died in 2004, at the age of 49.

Frank Fitzgerald's father, who was a former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, died last month. His grandfather, Frank D. Fitzgerald, was governor of Michigan in the 1930s.

The new exhibit, "The Soldiers and Mackinac," resides in the Post Headquarters building and contains a computerized biographical database of soldiers who were stationed at the Fort. Visitors can search for ancestors or soldiers with the same names or who immigrated from the

same town in Europe. If a soldier served at the Fort with that last name, the archival information appears on two monitors, one on the computer console and one on the wall.

The exhibit follows a new trend in historical thinking, Mr. Porter said to the more than 30 people attending the ceremony. While historians used to focus on major events, now historical thinkers are putting a face on history by telling the stories of the people who were a part of the story, he explained.

"They are far more interesting to learn about then just the big events," said Mr. Porter. "By better understanding the human history of the people of Fort Mackinac, it gives us a much better sense of the true history of what this place was really like," he said.

Mr. Fitzgerald's daughter Ellen said of her father, "This is definitely an exhibit he'd want to use."

Over the last 20 years, Mackinac State History Parks have been compiling data to learn about the men, women, and children who lived at Fort Mackinac. That included the soldiers who drilled on the parade ground, served time in the guard house, walked sentry along the Fort walls, and slept in the barracks.

Mr. Fitzgerald's son, John, said he thought the exhibit was fitting because his father always wondered about each soldier and what their role was during the battles.

The research for this exhibit was made possible by the discovery of the muster rolls at the National Archives in the 1970s. The muster rolls contain attendance reports taken every two months throughout the United States and lists the soldiers on duty at a given post at a given time. They provided tidbits about daily life at the post, such as listing

those who were gathering firewood on Round Island or getting limestone from Bois Blanc Island to make lime, said Mr. Porter. The muster rolls also included the date a soldier enlisted into army.

The Fort staff also used the Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army from 1798 to 1914.

Using those combined lists, Fort staff was able to take the name of a soldier and determine where he enlisted, his age at the time of enlistment, where he was born, and the color of his eyes and hair, said Mr. Porter.

"This begins to put a human face on the soldiers that lived at Fort Mackinac," he noted.

Computer technology, a custom designed database, and donations from family and friends of Mr. Fitzgerald made the exhibit possible.

The exhibit is approximately half completed, with more soldiers to be entered into the database, and park staff already are speculating it could be one of the park's most successful exhibits.

Mr. Fitzgerald's wife, Ruth, also spoke during the dedication, remembering how she had met her husband while working at the Fort one summer.

"Frank would walk the perimeter of the Fort after closing each evening," she said. "I think he was tucking the Fort in every night."

After they were married, and before their children could crawl or talk, her husband would carry them around the Fort and tell them about its history, she said.

While working on the new exhibit, Mr. Porter said he tested the name Fitzgerald and the database retrieved the name Edward Fitzgerald, one of the longest serving soldiers at the Fort, from 1796 to 1812, and born in Ireland.

Ireland, said Frank's mother, Lorabeth, is where her husband's family had come from.

"Those are the kinds of connections we can make with an exhibit like this," said Mr. Porter.