USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 24
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O. is deceased ; Robert M. is a resident of Fort Wayne, and is president of the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company; and Oscar is deceased. Edward L. Feustel gained his youthful education in the schools of Fort Wayne and early learned the valuable lessons of personal respon- sibility and thrift, since, as a mere boy, he delivered daily newspapers, his energy in this line eventually enabling him to render service on four different routes. At the age of fifteen years he became a elerk in a grocery store, and with this line of enterprise continued his active asso- ciation until he had attained to years of maturity and had developed his powers as a young man of marked business aeumen and circum- spection. In February, 1896, he entered the service of R. G. Dun & Company, and no further voucher for the efficiency and fidelity of his service is needed than that offered by his advancement to his present responsible position as manager of the loeal ageney and business of this representative concern which figures as the conservator of commercial stability and credits throughout the United States. Mr. Feustel is essen- tially a business man and subordinates all else to the demands of his present executive position, so that he has had no desire for political activity further than to give loyal support to the Republican party, the while he manifests much interest in all that eoneerns the well-being of his native eity and county. In the Masonie fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated also with the adjunet organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystie Shrine. Both he and his wife hold membership in the First Methodist Episcopal church of Fort Wayne. On October 14, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Feustel to Miss Edna M. Parham, who was born in the state of Ohio, and their three children are Ruth P., Robert K. and Frederiek P.
David C. Fisher .- There are many points of more than cursory inter- est in the ancestral and personal history of this well-known and highly honored eitizen of Fort Wayne, where he has maintained his home for more than half a century, during which he has been consecutively engaged in the real estate business. Of this important line of enterprise Mr. Fisher is now one of the veteran representatives in northern Indiana and through his well-ordered operations, extended over the course of many years, he has contributed much to the development and progress of Fort Wayne and Allen county. It is specially worthy of mention that he is the recognized dean of all who are serving as notary publics in Indiana, his original appointment to this office having been made by Governor Morton, Indiana's chief executive during the Civil War, and by successive reappointments Mr. Fisher has continuously served in this office during the long intervening years since 1865. He is a scion of a family that was founded in America in the colonial days and one or more of his ancestors gave valiant serviee as patriot soldiers in the great struggle for national independence, so that he is eligible for and loyally affiliated with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In the picturesque village of Little Falls, Herkimer county, New York, David C. Fisher was born on June 25, 1843, and he is a son of James R. and Henrietta (Burnet) Fisher, both likewise natives of the old Empire state of the Union. Mr. Fisher gained his rudimentary education in the common schools of his native state and was a boy of about ten years at the time of the family removal to the city of Chicago, Illinois, in 1853. His father was a skilled eabinetmaker and in Chicago beeame one of the
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leading representatives of the undertaking business, the enterprise of which he thus became one of the founders having been continued vir- tually without interruption to the present time, and the business being now conducted under the title of C. H. Jordan & Company. James R. Fisher and his wife passed the remainder of their lives in Chicago, and his name merits place on the list of the early and representative business men of the great metropolis of the west. Of the five children in the family the subject of this sketch is the oldest; Albert and William B. are deceased ; Robert J. resides in Fort Wayne and has been for a long period a traveling representative of the Bass Foundry & Machine Company, of this city ; and Henrietta B. is now a resident of Los Angeles, California. David C. Fisher attended school for a time after the family home had been established in Chicago and finally went to Peru, Illinois, where he served as messenger boy for the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany. He made good use of the opportunities afforded him in this con- nection and finally the company sent him to Dixon, Illinois, where he had charge of its office for several years. He then returned to Chicago, and after having there been engaged in the produce commission business about two years came to Fort Wayne, in 1865. Here he engaged in the real estate business in company with John Hough, and after the latter's death assumed full control of the business, of which he continued a rep- resentative as one of the most venerable and honored exponents of this line of enterprise in this section of the Hoosier commonwealth until Jan- uary 1, 1917, when he retired. Mr. Fisher has been consistent in all his activities as a reliable and progressive business man and public-spirited citizen and in the county that has long represented his home he has the confidence and good will of all who know him. He is unwavering in his allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church. On May 13, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fisher to Miss Dora C. Graham, who was born at Peru, Miami county, Indiana, a member of a sterling and influential pioneer family of that county. Of the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher the first born, Caroline, died in early childhood; John A. died when about three years of age; and David Theodore still resides in Fort Wayne. Mrs. Dora Cecelia (Graham) Fisher is a daughter of John A. and Caroline (Avcline) Graham, the former of whom was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, and the latter in historic old Vin- cennes, Indiana. Mr. Graham came to Indiana in the pioneer days and was one of the early settlers of Peru, Miami county, whence he removed with his family to Logansport, but within a brief period he returned to Peru, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. He was one of the most honored and influential citizens of Miami county, was long a leading member of the bar of that county and was called upon to serve in many important offices of public trust. He prepared and published an interesting and valuable history of Miami county and was one of the venerable citizens of Peru at the time of his death, in 1895, his devoted wife having preceded him to the life eternal. Of their nine children the following brief data are available: Mary J. is the widow of Sylvester Brownell and resides at Peru, this state; Catherine, Richard G., and James Morris are deceased; Alice E. is the widow of Plyny M. Crume, deceased, of Peru; Mrs. Fisher was the next in order of birth; John A. is deceased; Rose Victoria is the wife of Frank M. Dozier,
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of St. Louis, Missouri ; and Caroline A. is the widow of Charles A. Pollock, of Baltimore, Maryland, in which city she still maintains her home.
Hannah Ann (Bowman) Fisher, widow of the late Samuel Fisher, long a prominent resident of Roanoke, and herself one of the foremost women of the community, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on November 12, 1835, and is the daughter of Henry and Harriett (Arm- strong) Bowman, who were natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respect- ively. Henry Bowman was a prosperous stockman all his active life. He came to Indiana in 1853, at a time when travel was difficult and only hard work was rewarded with any measure of prosperity. He drove his family and household possessions through from Ohio, the familiar ox team and wagon of the day being an important factor in the journey, and in 1852 bought a tract of two hundred acres of wild land. They experi- neced all the rigors of early life in the wilderness, subjected to the dangers from wild animals and Indians, but they fared well in spite of those difficulties, and became one of the prominent and well-to-do families of the community as the years passed. Mr. Bowman was town- ship trustee for a number of years, and also served some years as post- master at Aboite. The last ten years of his life were lived in quiet retirement on his home place. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bowman. Hannah Ann, the immediate subject of this review, was the first born. Sarah is the wife of Thomas Crawford, of Roanoke. Eliza- beth is deceased, also Malinda. Harriet Jane is the fifth child. Mary Elizabeth was the next born. Mathias Walter, Henry, Calvin and Charles are all deceased. Hannah Ann Bowman was married on July 4, 1859, to Samuel Fisher, the son of David and Sarah Jane ( Wherry) Fisher, who came from Pennsylvania to Ohio in early life. Samuel was edu- cated in the public schools of his time and worked on his father's farm after the manner of farmers' sons. He came to Allen county in 1852 and found work there, later buying a farm of eighty acres. It was un- claimed land, without a cleared spot large enough to erect a little home upon. The Fisher home was the first plank house in the neighborhood, and was one of the finest places in the community at that time. It was finished throughout in black walnut, that fine old wood of which so much was found in Indiana at that time, and the family lived there for many years. Mr. Fisher was an energetic and progressive man and gained a considerable prominence in his town during his lifetime. He was a Republican and was township supervisor for seven years. He died on January 14, 1911, and his widow is living on the old home place, prac- tically alone. They were the parents of eight children. Ivester lives in Huntington county. Harriett Amanda is deceased. Lucinda Alice became the wife of Hugh McFadden and lives in Aboite township. Ida and Sarah Jane are deceased. Leona Dell married Cyrus Johnson and is a resident of Lafayette township. Mary Luetta is the wife of Talbot G. Foulks, and Henry D. is a resident of Fort Wayne and a conductor on the Pennsylvania road. There are eighteen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren in the family at the present time. Ivester, the eldest child of Mrs. Fisher, has nine children, named Irma, Edna, Elva, Eva, Esther, Marion, Lennie, John and Florence. Lucinda also has nine chil- dren, named Edith, Anna, Russell, Otis, Mode, Elizabeth, Fay, Lester and Wilma. The great-grandchildren are as follows: Irma, eldest child of Ivester, now deceased, left Helen, Edna and Eve. Edna, the second daughter of Ivester, has Andra, Francis and Ruth. Elva is the mother
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of Harley and Maxine. Lennie has one child-Wilhelmina. Edith is the mother of a son, Royal. Anna has three children-Hugh, Helen and Ethel. Etta has four children-Arval, Mabel, Glenn and Wyburn, and the first born of these is the father of one son, Arthur Aaron. Mrs. Fisher has thus, at the age of eighty-two, the distinction of being great- great-grandmother, and she is still enjoying good health and finds much pleasure in the contemplation of the activities of the younger gener- ations that have come up about her.
Robertson J. Fisher .- In the city of Fort Wayne not to know Robert- son J. Fisher is virtually to argue oneself unknown, and though he has passed the psalmist's span of three score years and ten he exemplifies most splendidly in both his mental and physical powers the spirit of eternal youth. Buoyant, genial and optimistic, a genuine worker and a lover of his fellow men, he gives patent denial to the years that have passed and he counts as his friends both old and young, with full har- mony of interest in the sentiments and ideals of both classes. He has been assertively in and of Fort Wayne for more than a half a century and his memory links the city's primitive past with the twentieth century of opulent prosperity and progress in the capital of Allen county. Since 1864 he has been actively identified with the Bass Foundry & Machine Company, under the varied changes in title and personnel, since 1864, and is now secretary and sales manager of this important industrial concern. At the time of his sixty-sixth birthday anniversary, in 1911, Mr. Fisher consented to give an interview to a representative of the Fort Wayne Sentinel, and it is firmly believed that his host of friends will consider most appropriate the reproduction in this history of his own pertinent and gracious statements concerning his career and his long and close association with Fort Wayne. With minor elimination and paraphrase, therefore, is here given the record which appeared in the Sentinel under date of September 23, 1911, and it is certain that a more interesting personal record could not be offered: "I was born at Little Falls, Herkimer county, New York, September 24, 1845, and am a son of James R. and Henrietta (Burnett) Fisher, the former of whom was born in New York city, in 1818, and the latter was a native of the his- toric old town of Elizabeth, New Jersey. My father was engaged in business in New York city as an importer of rosewood and mahogany, and he met with large financial loss through the great fire that ravaged the national metropolis in 1835. My parents removed to Chieago in 1853, when I was eight years old. Chicago then had a population of about thirty-five thousand and old Fort Dearborn still occupied a prom- inent site on the Chicago river. When a small boy I and my eompan- ions used to visit the old fortress and pick bullets out of the logs of which it was constructed. The water of Lake Michigan at that time came to the sidewalks on Michigan avenue and the Illinois Central rail- way tracks were constructed on piling, as was also a part of the depot, which was located at the foot of Lake street. The spring following our removal to Chicago was unusually wet and the waters very high. I paddled a canoe over Madison street, between Clark and State streets, where magnificent buildings are now located. The houses in that part of the city were frame and set upon stilts, and the building in which I attended school was a cheap brick structure located on ground opposite McVicker's theater. My father was engaged in the undertaking busi- ness, with a shop and store at Madison and Clark streets, in Chicago. His partner was C. H. Jordan-Fisher & Jordan-and he brought the first iron eoffin into Chicago. The firm of C. H. Jordan & Company is
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still doing business, the proprietors being the sons of my father's part- ner. My parents died in Chicago-my mother in 1853 and my father in 1857-and in the latter year I went to Elizabeth, New Jersey, to live with a relative. In April, 1861, I came to Fort Wayne to live with my uncle, the late J. D. Nuttman, and later took a position with W. H. Brooks and Charles Hill, who conducted a book and stationery store. I worked there a year and then went into the drug store of Reed & Wall, at Columbia and Calhoun streets. Mr. Reed was colonel of the Forty-fourth Indiana Regiment of Infantry in the Civil War and was at the front during the greater part of my connection with the store, the business being conducted by Watson Wall. That corner was a pretty lively spot while I was there. Fights and riots were frequent and one of them was indelibly impressed upon my memory. In those days drug- store windows were protected by wooden shutters, and it was my duty to put them up in the evening and take them down in the morning. On this particular occasion a riot broke out before I had put up the shutters, and I performed the duty in the midst of flying bricks, stones and pieces of wood. I successfully dodged several bricks and managed to get the windows protected before they were broken, and the valuable stock of 'bear's oil,' used in those days to make the hair grow, was saved; it was made of lard-oil and alcohol. My uncle, J. D. Nuttman, and my brother, William B. Fisher, conducted the Citizens' Bank, where the Old National Bank is now located. In 1867 they organized the First National Bank, which was the first national bank in the state and the eleventh in the United States. I have one of the company's business cards yet, and on it are named the following directors: Samuel Hanna, J. F. W. Meyer, F. Nirdlinger, J. D. Nuttman, John Orff, A. S. Evans, A. D. Brandriff, W. B. Fisher, and John Brown. August 1, 1864, I left Reed & Wall and went to the Bass & Hanna foundry, now the Bass Foundry & Machine Company, and with the exception of a few months spent in Arizona and California I have been with the company since-a period of over forty-seven years (fifty-three years on August 1, 1917). That may appear a long time, but I am not old and feel as active as ever. I mean to live until I reach the one hundred mark. I attribute my activity and good health to my habits. Early to bed and early to rise, eat everything that agrees with me and take a little 'old crow' or its equivalent at dinner and lunch, some physical exercise morning and night, and don't worry. I served in the city council under Mayor H. P. Scherer and Colonel C. B. Oakley, being councilman at large during the latter part of my service. I resigned before the expiration of my term, but was there long enough to find out that I was a jackass, else I would not be there. In 1883 the late C. B. Woodworth and I organized a company for the purpose of prospecting for natural gas and oil, and we put down five wells. As oil and gas developers we were a failure, but we demonstrated the fact that there was plenty of good water under- lying the city. Some years ago I took an active interest in the clubs of Fort Wayne and devoted considerable time and money toward estab- lishing the Fort Wayne Club. I was its first president, was honored by a second term, and it was while I was filling this office that the building on Harrison street, now the home of the Commercial Club, was erected. One of the most active men in the club in early days was the Hon. Perry A. Randall, through whose efforts we were able to build. When I came to Fort Wayne there were no sidewalks on Calhoun street south of Berry
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street. Down Calhoun street was a well-worn plank road, which afforded a veritable shower bath after a storm-the only difference between it and the general kind was that the water was sent upward and was mixed with mud and sand. A part of Berry street also was without sidewalks, and there were none on any of the streets south of that thoroughfare. Charles Taylor, who later became one of the proprietors of the Daily News, and I organized the first baseball club in Fort Wayne and named the same the Kekionga. It became famous in baseball circles in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland. The history of the famous Kekionga ball team is well known in Fort Wayne. In my capacity as salesman for the Bass Foundry & Machine Company I have traveled more than six hundred and ten thousand miles in the past twenty-five years. I was never injured in all that time, nor was I ever on a train when it was wrecked. I am firmly convinced that I am destined to live a hundred years and that it is a part of the plan of the Ruler of the universe that I shall not be killed or maimed in a wreck." It is not often that a publication of this nature is able to offer so interesting an autobiographical record as the foregoing screed, and it is further significant that the resume has special pertinency in touching the history of Fort Wayne. Mr. Fisher was the fifth in order of birth in a family of six children, and the other two survivors are David C., who resides in Fort Wayne, and Henrietta, who now lives in the city of Los Angeles, California. Mr. Fisher is a Democrat in politics, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, holds mem- bership in the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and the Country Club, attends the Presbyterian church, as did also his wife. On October 30, 1866, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fisher to Miss Julia Mosby Holton, who was born at Covington, Kentucky, August 11, 1849, and who died at Los Angeles, California, September 18, 1914, her remains being laid to rest in the beautiful Mountain View cemetery at Pasadena, that state. Mrs. Fisher was a woman of most gentle and gracious per- sonality and was loved by all who came within the compass of her influence. She was eligible for membership in both the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames. She is survived by only one child, Maude F., who is the widow of Lucien E. Walker and who maintains her home at Los Angeles, her only child, Paul E. Walker, being married and having a daughter, so that Mr. Fisher, of this review, has the distinction of being a great-grandfather. He is a scion of families that were founded in America in the colonial era of our national history and is affiliated with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, one, his great-grandfather, Colonel David Chambers, of Trenton, New Jersey, having been a gallant officer of the Continental Line in the great struggle that brought independence to the nation.
Philip Fissel was a resident of Fort Wayne for more than two-score years and made his influence felt as a man of sterling character and as a citizen of utmost loyalty and public spirit. He came from Germany to America as a youth and stood as a representative of the best type of the valued German element of citizenship in Allen county, where he gained and retained secure place in popular confidence and good will. He was a man of industrious habits and was for many years actively employed at his trade, that of furniture finisher, as a skilled artisan along which line he was employed by leading Fort Wayne furniture
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houses that invariably placed high estimate upon his service and his uprightness in all of the relations of life. Mr. Fissel was born in Olden- heim, Rhinhessen, Germany, on June 24, 1847, and his death occurred at his home in Fort Wayne on June 21, 1914, three days prior to the sixty-seventh anniversary of his birth. His parents, George and Kath- erine (Muehl) Fissel passed their entire lives in the German fatherland, and the father was a weaver by trade, some of the products of his skill being owned and highly prized by the family of the subject of this memoir. Philip Fissel was the fourth in a family of nine children; Mrs. Eva Koch still resides in Germany; Katherine is the wife of John Kemna, of Cincinnati, Ohio; John and George are deceased; Adam resides in Cincinnati; Peter is deceased; Gertrude is the wife of George Fresse, of Cincinnati ; and Rosina remains in Germany. Philip Fissel acquired his early education in the excellent schools of his native land, where also he learned the trade of shoemaker. At the age of eighteen years he severed the home ties and came to the United States. He established his residence in the city of Cincinnati, and there learned the trade of fur- niture finishing, in which he became an expert workman and to which he devoted his attention up to twelve years prior to his death, in later years having lived retired. He established his home in Fort Wayne in 1872, and he identified himself fully and loyally with the community life, both civic and business, so that he was known and honored of men and made for himself a record that shall reflect lasting honor upon his name and memory. He was a staunch and well-fortified supporter of the prin- ciples of the Republican party and his religious faith was that of the Reformed church, of which his widow was a devoted adherent. On October 28, 1870, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fissel to Miss Anna M. Kuechler, who was born in Germany and who was a daughter of the late Philip Semon Kuechler and Anna Barbara (Kratz) Kuechler. Mrs. Fissel died in Cincinnati, October 17, 1916. In the passing years she had drawn to herself a wide circle of friends, and was sustained and comforted by the filial devotion of her children. Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Fissel brief record is entered in conclusion of this tribute to the honored parents: George John resides in Fort Wayne; Philip died in infancy; Charles Frederick maintains his home in Fort Wayne and is a conductor in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ; Gertrude is a popular teacher in the Franklin school of Fort Wayne; Peter is a painter and decorator by vocation and is engaged in business in Fort Wayne; Rose Ann is the wife of Elmer J. Voirol, of Fort Wayne, her husband being in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
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