Oscar Penn Fitzgerald (August 24, 1829 – August 5, 1911) was a Methodist clergyman, journalist and educator. He served as California Superintendent of Public Instruction (1867–1871) and was elected a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1890. Birth and family He was born August 24, 1829 in Caswell County, North Carolina, near Ruffin, the son of Richard and Martha Jones Hooper Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was of an old Virginia family, of Nottoway County, where many relatives lived respectably. In 1855 he married Sarah Banks of Georgia. Education His early education was such as could be obtained in the average country schools of that time. His first real educational opportunity came at the Oak Grove Academy in Rockingham County, North Carolina. His teacher, Booker Doss, was a rigid disciplinarian, though his instruction was thorough. Early journalism experience When Fitzgerald was thirteen he went to Lynchburg, Virginia to work for the Lynchburg Republican, following an irresistible bent. There his deep aptitude for journalism was confirmed. By the age of twenty he had already acquired a local reputation as a writer. When his father enlisted during the Mexican–American War, Fitzgerald was forced to return home to help support his mother. He taught in a country school in Rockingham County for a time. Meanwhile, being an earnest student, he continued writing for the press, becoming connected with the Richmond Examiner shortly thereafter. Upon his father's return, Fitzgerald continued working in newspaper offices in Richmond, Virginia, Columbia, South Carolina and Macon, Georgia (removing from Virginia to Georgia for the sake of the climate at the age of twenty-one). At Macon he also assisted in the preparation of the school history of the United States and other textbooks. He was on the eve of taking the editorship of a journal when in 1853 a great change in his plans took place and he entered the ministry of the M.E. Church, South. Ordained Ministry and missionary service He entered the Traveling Ministry of the Georgia Annual Conference, appointed to Andrews Chapel in Savannah. In 1855, he and his wife left for California on a missionary assignment. They spent the first two years in Sonora, Tuolumne County. From there they went to San Jose, then to San Francisco, where he became the Editor of the Pacific Methodist (the official paper of the M.E. Church, South in the region) and of the Christian Spectator (the two papers subsequently