| Notes |
- As Remembered by Joseph N. Fisher
My father was born in 1892, the only son of four children in the family of Joseph Edward and Catherine Fisher. Dad was born in Newark, Ohio and after graduating from high school, he attended secretarial school then worked as a stenographer skilled in short hand and typing.
My mother was born on October 26, 1890 on a farm in Mahoning county, Ohio. The population of the United States was 63 million people and it was the year that Henry Ford first experimented with his horseless carriage. Eight years later Ford introduced the Model T, an automobile that had a profound influence on the urbanization of rural America including Columbiana county where my mother was born. She was the daughter of Ida and Enos Feicht the oldest of two children. 
Mom and Dad were married in 1914, the year Germany declared war on France, the Panama Canal was opened, and transcontinental telephone. service began between New York and San Francisco. Joseph Mathias was 22 years old and Myrtle May was 24 when they were married on November 25 in Akron, Ohio. There were four children from this marriage: Robert Joseph, Donald Jefferson, Bonita Marie, and Joseph Norman.
When he was a young man, my father hoped for a career in South America. Because of this interest, he learned Spanish through the International Correspondence School in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I can see and hear him now, reading aloud from his Spanish books practicing his pronunciation. He recorded his lessons on wax cylinders (tape recorders were unheard of) and sent them by mail to the school in Pennsylvania. The instructors then returned another wax cylinder with their comments, suggestions, or test grades.
Dad wrote letters to me in Spanish when I was in Europe during World War II. Fortunately I had a Spanish-English dictionary that helped me know what was going on at home.
My father had many hobbies, one of which was writing. He submitted stories to various magazines when he was young but there are no copies of his work in existence today.
Joseph Mathias also liked to argue. He argued with his father, his sons, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States. When Roosevelt delivered radio speeches called "Fireside Chats", Dad listened, interrupted and profanely disagreed with every point Roosevelt made, interjecting many of his own comments that profanely pointed out the errors of the President's thinking.
Dad was a self-taught artist and painted with oil and water color and also did needlepoint. A framed piece of his work hangs in the home of his granddaughter, Janice Bertena Nelson.
Joseph Mathias Fisher was a traveling salesman most of his life and sold grave vaults, textiles for the interiors of caskets, tires, school text books, and gum balls.
When we were kids, my mother often had to manage the family by herself because Dad traveled so much. When he went on West Coast trips, he was freguently gone for as long as a month.
We had a coal furnace when we lived on Alvord Street in Springfield, Massachusetts and in the winter Mom was either shoveling coal or snow during the New England blizzards.
Because of Dad's changes in jobs and transfers, the family lived in many places: Ashland Ohio, Akron Ohio, Kirkwood, Missouri, Toledo Ohio, Springfield Massachusetts, and Oak Park, Illinois.
During various "poor me" phases in my life, I have been known to complain that I was deprived because I never owned a bicycle. However my parents gave me something much better than a two-wheeler when they bought my trumpet at the Carl Fischer Music Store on Wabash Avenue in Chicago. It cost $110.00, a lot of money in 1939 and they made monthly payments until it was completely paid for.
Mom was always in pretty good health although she often complained about various ailments. She was 83 years old when she died on January 4, 1973. It was only three months after the sudden death of her oldest son, Robert Joseph who died at the age of 57. We went to Birmingham, Michigan for Bob's funeral in October and Mom died three months later.
Joseph Mathias Fisher died in a Beaverville, Illinois nursing home in 1966 at the age of 74 and Mom and Dad are buried in Chapel Hill Gardens, Oak Brook Terrace, Illinois.
|
Fisher-Gunn Families Genealogy
1892 - 1966 (73 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
