BIOS: Charles H. FISHER, Somerset, Somerset County, PA

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History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania; Bedford County by E. 
Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; v.3, Pub. The Lewis 
Publishing Company, New York/Chicago 1906, ppg. 164-166

Charles H. FISHER.

Charles H. Fisher, wholesale dealer in books, stationery, etc., at Somerset, 
Pennsylvania, is a native of Edinburg, Johnson county, Indiana, born November 
17, 1845, the son of Benjamin Franklin and Amanda M. (Schell) Fisher.  Though a 
Hoosier by nativity, Mr. Fisher is in blood and brain and nerve of good old 
Pennsylvania stock.
Benjamin Franklin Fisher, father, was born in York, Pennsylvania, and was of 
Holland ancestry.  He married in 1844, in Somerset, Pennsylvania, Amanda M. 
Schell, a member of the old and highly esteemed Schell family, of Bedford and 
Somerset counties, Pennsylvania.  On the maternal side Mr. Fisher comes from the 
Schneider family, who were the original settlers at, and who laid out, the town 
of Somerset.  Immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Fisher moved to 
Akron, Ohio, thence to Edinburg, Indiana.  A few months after settling in the 
latter place Mr. Fisher died.  His wife and son, Charles H., returned at once to 
Somerset, whre the boy was reared from the age of eighteen months to early 
manhood.
Charles H. Fisher received a common school education, and had the benefit of 
special home and normal training under one of the most efficient and eminent 
educators of the state, Professor Joseph J. Stutzman.  At the age of fifteen Mr. 
Fisher was a teacher in the common schools and an assistant in the normal 
schools of the county.  September 12, 1861, when still lacking two months of 
being sixteen years of age, he enlisted at Pittsburg in the Union army, in 
Captain W. L. Foulke's company of infantry, and a few days later was mustered 
into the service at Harrisburg as a member of Company B, Forty-sixth Regiment of 
Pennsylvania Volunteers.  The regiment at once went to the front, its first 
smell of powder being at the battle of Ball's Bluff.  His regiment was in 
constant active service and participated in the battles of Cedar Creek, 
Winchester, Cedar Mountain, second battle of Bull Run, Chantilly, South 
Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Lookout Mountain, and 
marched through Georgia to the sea with Sherman.  May 2, 1863, in the second 
day's fighting at the battle of Chancellorsville, Private Fisher was left lying 
on the field of carnage with a wound through both thighs, made by an ounce 
musket ball.  The bone of the right thigh was broken entirely apart and badly 
shattered.  A year in the hospitals of Washington and Philadelphia resulted, 
when his three-year term of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out of 
the service.  May 20, 1865, he left Somerset for the then boundless West, and 
for over twelve years followed the varying fortunes of a prospector, gold miner, 
and restless, adventurous traveler.  During this time he traversed the country 
from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, and from the British line to 
the Isthumus of Panama.  Those were the days before the Union Pacific Railroad 
was built; millions of buffaloes roamed the great plains, and the Indians were 
numerous and hostile.  The gold and silver mining camps of the Rocky mountains 
were filled with a restless, aggressive and hardy class of men, and amid such 
surroundings, embracing many exciting and dangerous experiences, Mr. Fisher's 
early character was formed.  He spent six months among the Mormons of Utah in 
the palmy days of Brigham Young, when polygamy flourished at its height, and in 
fact went to Utah to study the peculiar tenets of Mormonism.  During his six 
years' residence in California he filled several official positions of trust and 
responsibility, for which his superior abilities qualified him, and which 
abilities naturally attracted public attention.  At this time of life his mind 
was much of a literary bent, and his contributions to newspapers were 
extensively copied and favorably commented upon.  In 1878, taking steamer at San 
Francisco, he returned east by way of Panama, and has since uninterruptedly 
resided in Somerset, Pennsylvania.  April 1, 1880, he engaged in the book, 
stationery and news business, since which time he has been conducting an 
extensive wholesale store, his trade extending into the surrounding counties and 
states.
In his political relations Mr. Fisher accords allegiance to the Democratic 
party, and has ever taken an active interest in party affairs.  He has served 
four terms as chairman of the Democratic committee, and has been the party's 
representative at the state conventions numerous times.  During his incumbency 
as county chairman, through his efficiency in the presidential campaign of 1880, 
his party cast in the county the largest vote it had ever attained, and which 
has never since been equalled.  A patriotic, public-spirited citizen, Mr. Fisher 
has at all times been willing and ready to lend his assistance to all 
enterprises tending to advance the interests of the community.  He helped 
organize the First National Bank of Somerset, and was elected one of the first 
directors; he was one of the prime movers in establishing the Electric Light 
Company, of which he is treasurer and director.  He is also largely interested 
in the opera house, and in fact is always to the front when public improvements 
and interests are concerned.
He married, October 3, 1882, Emlie Coffroth, daughter of William B. Coffroth. 
Two children have blessed this union: Helen C., born September 3, 1883, and 
Chauncey Mitchell, March 8, 1885.  The standing, socially, of Mr. Fisher and his 
family is with the best citizens of Somerset county, as well as other parts of 
the state, their antecedents as well as their natural merits securing for them 
the highest esteem.