Bio of FISH, Daniel (b.1848), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol II, pg 38-42
DANIEL FISH
The above name heads the section devoted to the Fish family in Savage's
"Genealogical Dictionary," the standard account of the earliest settlers of New
England, who were mostly of English birth. That Christian name recurs at
intervals throughout the list and the fact that his father bore the name of
Daniel leads Judge Daniel Fish, long a prominent lawyer of Minneapolis, to infer
that he is of the same English stock, thus early transplanted. His mother,
Permelia Adams, also of New England origin, probably was remotely connected with
the famous Adams family of Massachusetts. These parents were married in 1827 in
Washington county, New York. Farmers by occupation, they lived for a time on
rented land in the same county, removing thence to western New York, where they
occupied a farm of their own near Buffalo. About the year 1840 the farm was sold
and with a family of six children the pair pushed on, by wagon, to the new
country of Illinois. There after another period of renting the purchased one
hundred and twenty acres six miles east of Rockford in Winnebago county. In the
pioneer home thus established the subject of this sketch was born, on January
31, 1848. His father having died in the preceding November, his upbringing
devolved upon the widowed mother. She afterward was married to James F. Palmer,
whom she also survived. The boy from a very early age attended the short
sessions of school kept in the neighboring village of Cherry Valley, otherwise
leading the ordinary life of a farmer's home conducted necessarily under the
strictest economy. In his fifteenth year he became a pupil in the public schools
of Rockford, the county town, maintaining himself as a chore boy in a Rockford
family.
Three of his brothers having already become soldiers of the Union he naturally
embraced the first opportunity to follow their example. On January 4, 1864, four
weeks short of his sixteenth birthday, he enlisted in Company G of the
Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry and after a short period of drill joined his
regiment then in camp near Vicksburg. Soon afterward the command engaged in the
Georgia campaign, forming a part of the First Brigade, Third Division of the
Seventeenth Corps. Upon the fall of Atlanta a brief illness led to a furlough. A
few days after reaching home he learned of Sherman's intended march to the sea,
and waiving the remainder of his leave, hurried south, only to be stopped at
Chattanooga. Atlanta had been destroyed and the regiment was beyond reach on its
way to Savannah. Some three thousand officers and men in like situation were
formed into a provisional division of the army of the Tennessee and sent back to
Nashville, there to help in repelling Hood's threatened attack. In the ensuing
battle, fought on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864, the lad met his first
experience under fire. Thirty days of hard marching followed, in a futile
endeavor to overtake fragments of Hood's shattered army. The division was then
transferred by land and sea to the coast of North Carolina. "Wnile moving from
Newbern towards Goldsboro the column was attacked by a considerable force led by
Joe Johnston. This encounter, variously called the battle of Kinston, Southwest
Creek or Wise's Fork, resulted in a Confederate retreat which left open the way
to the intended junction with Sherman. It raged furiously for a few hours and
young Fish, acting as a sergeant in the improvised division, was the ranking
"officer" of his company, the captain assigned to it having become suddenly ill
before the fight came on. Most of his comrades, however, were veterans; there
was no occasion to assume command and he was well content to wield his musket.
The surrender of Lee and Johnston speedily followed. Sherman's army hurried to
Washington, a jubilant foot race between the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps
testing to the utmost their marching ability. After participating in the Grand
Review the brigade was moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and there mustered out on
the 12th of July, 1865. Benefited rather than harmed by his military service the
lad, still in the first half of his eighteenth year, turned to meet the demands
of civil life.
Some of his relatives having moved to Iowa, Daniel Fish spent the next five
years in that state. His first venture was in the direction of farming, but a
winter job as clerk in a bookstore diverted him to other pursuits. While
conducting a book and news business at Manchester, he entered upon the study of
the law, meanwhile striving diligently to improve his general education.
Disposing of his small stock in trade he served for a time as assistant
postmaster and in the winter of 1870-71 taught a country school. On the 19th of
the following April, under the very liberal practice of the time and place, he
was admitted to the Iowa bar at Anamosa. Within a month afterward he came to
Minnesota, his first visit to Minneapolis occurring on May 13, 1871. After a
season of prospecting to the westward, during which he earned a little money by
manual labor, he settled at Delano in Wright county. His first office was the
common room of the village hotel and his first fee was for assisting
Attorney-General Cornell in a prosecution for murder. On August 21, 1873, Mr.
Fish was married to Elizabeth Meigs Porter, daughter of the Rev. Giles M.
Porter, whose brother Noah later became president of Yale University. Five
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fish, all of whom survive: Annie, wife of the
Rev. Charles Graves of Hartford, Connecticut; Elizabeth and Florence, principal
and teacher in Minneapolis high schools; Horace, farm loan manager for The
Northwestern Trust Company of St. Paul; and Helen, whose husband is Dr. Edgar J.
Huenekens of Minneapolis. To his fortunate marriage, celebrated fifty years ago,
at the farm home of the bride's parents near Garnavillo, Iowa, and to the
congenial family life to which it led, Judge Fish attributes whatever of success
has fallen to his lot.
The youth was elected probate judge of Wright county for the years 1875-6 and at
the close of his term was drafted as a candidate for the office of county
attorney, and defeated. In 1880 he was an alternate delegate to the National
Republican convention which nominated General Garfield for the presidency. In
the fall of the same year, an opportunity being offered to dispose of his Wright
county property and business, he came to Minneapolis, where he has since
resided. His successive professional connections have been with the firms of
Fish & Ovitt, Fish, Ovitt & Odell, Fish & Holmes, Fish, Evans & Holmes, Young &
Fish, Young, Fish & Dickinson and Fish & McKenzie. At this writing he is of the
firm of Fish, Carleton, Cherry & Carleton, though much of his attention is given
to engagements not strictly professional.
He was the first attorney of the city board of park commissioners and as such
conducted the extensive litigation through which its jurisdiction and powers
were established. He was the attorney also of the State Park Commission which
secured the land surrounding Minnehaha Falls, now a part of the city park
system. During his term Loring Park was acquired, together with the Calhoun and
Harriet boulevards and many other valued accessions, and throughout its
existence he was the attorney of the Board of Court House and City Hall
Commissioners. He edited the final illustrated report of that body, a handsome
souvenir of its work. For two or three years he was counsel and trust officer of
the Minnesota Title Insurance and Trust Company, which inaugurated here the
business of title insurance. At various times during this period he was strongly
supported for election or appointment as district judge, a distinction to be
later awarded.
In April, 1901, while in Colorado on professional business, he was apprised of
his selection by the justices of the supreme court as one of three commissioners
to "simplify, harmonize and complete" the general laws of the state. Considering
the exacting nature of the duties thus imposed and the meager educational
advantages of his early years, this appointment was regarded as a very high
compliment. He gave to the service four years of intensive labor, the work of
the commissioners being adopted by the legislature and known as ''The Revised
Laws of 1905." Upon the death of his colleague, the late Hiram F. Stevens, Judge
Fish became chairman of the commission and as such drew up its final report.
Prior to this engagement Judge Fish had acted as receiver for insolvent
individuals and corporations, among them the Northern Trust Company, headed by
ex-Governor A. R. McGill. Resuming now the general practice, he was busily
occupied for about five years. At the beginning of 1911 he was chosen city
attorney of Minneapolis by the unanimous vote of its council and two years later
was reelected without opposition. Important and intricate litigation attended
his entire term. Clashes occurred with most of the public service corporations
and many unfounded claims against the city were successfully resisted. The power
of the council to forbid by ordinance the overcrowding of street cars was
judicially established, a hopeful attempt to overthrow the ordinance for the
lowering and bridging of the Hasting & Dakota Railway tracks was circumvented
and the right of the city under its contract * with the Gas Light Company to
regulate the prices which citizens must pay for gas was maintained. These
grueling tasks threatening to undermine his health, the Judge (already generally
known by that title) accepted an appointment tendered by Governor Eberhart to
the district bench. The city council unanimously adopted resolutions requesting
him to decline the appointment and upon his reluctant refusal presented him with
an engrossed vote of thanks for his conduct of the office in which he was
desired to continue. On May 20, 1914, he took his seat as judge of the district
and at the ensuing November election was chosen for a six-year term.
Many important cases came before him for trial, including a few which excited
great public interest, among them the conviction of Fred Price for the murder of
his wife, the unsavory Bragdon case and one involving the restraint of labor
unions in the use of the boycott. The manifold problems coming to a nisi prius
judge were met fearlessly and decided without evasion. Comparatively few of his
rulings were reversed on appeal. A reelection undoubtedly would have been
accorded, but, as the end of his term and his seventy-third birthday approached
together, he determined to retire from office. Such indeed was his purpose when
he entered upon it and nothing occurred to change his mind.
Aside from the public employments already noted Judge Fish, as always in the
past, takes a lively interest in community affairs. He has long been associated
with the Grand Army of the Republic, holding various positions therein,
including the office of adjutant-general to the commander-in-chief. He is a
director of the Legal Aid Bureau of the Associated Charities and a trustee of
the night law school maintained by the Young Men's Christian Association.
Several of the upper classes at the University Law College have heard his course
of lectures on "The Written Law." Now, as upon previous occasions, he is serving
as a member of the board of freeholders of his city, called the Charter
Commission. For forty years continuously he and his wife have been members of
the Monday Club, a social and study organization of congenial spirits. He is an
honorary member of the Six O'Clock Club, is active in the local and state bar
associations, and in many like relations contributes to the general welfare. His
church affiliations are with Park Avenue Congregational Society, of which his
wife and daughters are members.
The writings of a busy lawyer usually are buried in the files of the courts. A
few public addresses given by Judge Fish have been published in pamphlet form
and an occasional magazine article has appeared. He has long indulged the fad of
collecting and classifying the great array of books and pamphlets relating to
Abraham Lincoln. Many years ago, while serving as a member of the Minneapolis
Library Board, he published "Lincoln Literature," a list of such publications,
and in 1906 this was expanded into an extensive bibliography, which appeared in
connection with an elaborate edition of Lincoln's "Complete Works." He wrote by
request the Lincoln article for the latest edition of the Cyclopedia Americana
and his address before the American Bibliographical Society in 1908 on "Lincoln
Literature and Lincoln Collections" may be found in the annals of that body. His
own Lincoln collection is widely known and prized. A visit to Europe in 1905 was
largely inspired by the search for obscure publications of the character
indicated and his work in this field has brought him into pleasant relations
with Lincoln admirers and students in many quarters. He is not much inclined to
ordinary sports, but to this and similar diversions he ascribes continued health
and a zest for life too often sacrificed to professional demands.