Ellwood H. Fisher
History of Montana, Sanders, 1913

A residence covering a period of a quarter of a century in 
Bozeman, during which time he has been connected with some 
of the leading industries of the city, gives Ellwood H. 
Fisher, prestige among the leading business men of his 
locality and as secretary and treasurer of the Owenhouse 
Hardware Company he is known as one of the directing 
powers in an enterprise that has added prestige to the 
city's commercial importance.  Mr. Fisher was born in 
Bucks County Pennsylvania, June 26, 1855 and is a son 
of Manning Force and Harriet (Rittenhouse) Fisher, 
natives of Hunterdon County New Jersey.

Manning Force Fisher was born in 1824 and secured his 
education in the schools of New Jersey, from which state 
he removed as a young man to Bucks County Pa, and was 
there engaged in the coal business.  He subsequently 
followed the same line of endeavor in Jersey City, New 
Jersey and New York City and died in 1863, in the faith 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  He was a strong 
anti-slavery man and a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln 
and although his age and illness precluded the idea of 
his enlisting as a soldier during the first years of 
the Civil War he gave his moral and financial support 
to the Union cause. His wife, who was born in 1829, 
passed away in 1884, having been the mother of seven 
children, of whom three are now living: Charles, a 
resident of Newark, New Jersey; Ellwood H; and Manning 
L. of Cleveland Ohio.

The education of Ellwood H. Fisher was secured in the 
public schools of Jersey City and when still a lad 
began clerking in a store in New York City, having 
lost his father when he was only eight years old.  
The year 1885 marked his advent in Montana, and for 
two years there after he was identified with the 
sheep business at Big Timber, Sweetgrass County.  
In 1887 he came to Bozeman where he became 
bookkeeper for the Nelson Story Milling Company 
but in 1890 embarked in business on his own 
account as the proprietor of a grocery store.  
Three years later this was merged with the 
Genepe-Owenhouse Company, a general merchandise 
house and in 1905 Owenhouse and Fisher took over 
the business and incorporated it under the name 
of the Owenhouse Hardware Company, which has 
become one of the leading establishments of 
its kind in Bozeman.  Among the  articles 
handled by this firm are Buick automobiles, 
Parlin and Orensorff farm implements, Deering 
farm machinery, Adanve threshing machinery, 
Lightning hay presses, DeLaval separators, 
Monarch ranges, Cole's Air Tight heaters and 
Lincoln paints as well as a full line of 
carriages and harness, and a large stock of 
all kinds of light and heavy hardware.  
Since his earliest boyhood Mr. Fisher has 
displayed ability of a high order and a 
progressive spirit that refused to recognize 
any obstacle as insurmountable.

On October 4,1882, Mr. Fisher was married to Miss 
Clara V. Mecabe, who was born in Jersey City, 
daughter of Charles P. McCabe, born in Vineland 
New Jersey.  The mother was a native of Chestnut 
Hill, near Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Mrs. 
parents, who are now deceased, had seven children, 
of whom four are now living, she having been the 
third in order of birth.  Her father, a wholesale 
butter merchant for a number of years was a stanch 
Republican and a consistent member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church.  Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have four 
children: Clara, who died in 1907, at the age of 
twenty-three years; Charles B;Helen and Lillian, 
who died in infancy.

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