Ambrose Fitzgerald was born on March 17, 1827, in Tennessee and came to Texas in 1846, settling on a 640 acre land grant in the Mercer Colony about 7 miles south of present Lone Oak. At that time the land was part of Nacogdoches County. When Van Zandt County was formed in 1848, he became its first County Clerk. Two years later, when Wood County was formed from part of Van Zandt County, he was elected the first County Clerk of Wood County at an election held east of Mineola on August 5, 1850. He served as County Clerk from 1850 to 1869, except during the Civil War when he joined the Confederate Army. After Rains County was created in 1870, he was again chosen as its first County Clerk, the third time he had held that distinction in a new county, and he resigned from office in 1871. While living on his original homestead, he lived in five different counties and served as the first county clerk in three of them.