FISH, CHARLES O.

FISH, BALLOU, LEWIS, LEE, MAYNARD, HARE, PRATT, HANCHETT, FLEMING, MORGAN, RICHMOND, JUNKINS, LANNING, RANNEY, SMITH

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 4/12/2004 at 14:08:41

Biography reproduced from page 476 of the History of Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, Iowa published in 1884:

Charles O. Fish, son of Thomas J. and Lavina Fish, was born in Essex Co., N. Y., Nov. 16, 1840. In 1866 he went to Olmsted Co., Minn., where he remained six months. He then moved to Chicago, Ill., accepting the position of overseer on a farm sixteen miles out of Chicago. In 1868 he came to Kossuth Co., Iowa, taking a homestead of 160 acres on section 8, in Greenwood township. He has since purchased eighty additional acres on section 8, and eighty acres on section 16. When Mr. Fish moved on his farm he built a sod house. This was done by cutting timber with a crotch in the top for corner posts, then laying poles across and up and down from the cornice to the cones, for rafters. Covering this with willow brush and hay, then with alternate layers of clay and sod. The floors were made of boards and the walls plastered. This made a very warm and comfortable house. Mr. Fish was married in 1864, to Lucy M. Hare, of Essex Co., N. Y. They have seven children—Meldrid, Sarah and Sylvia, twins; Edith, Willie, Walter and Emma Isadore. Mr. Fish is a democrat, and has held the office of township trustee.
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Biography reproduced from page 234 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Charles O. Fish, deceased, was one of the enterprising and influential citizens of Kossuth county, where he was engaged in general farming during the active years of his life. He was born in Essex county, New York, November 16, 1840, and was a son of Thomas Jefferson and Lovina (Ballou) Fish, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Rhode Island. The founder of the Fish family in America was a native of Wales and came to the new world on the Mayflower, locating in New Hampshire in 1700. The founder of the Ballou family emigrated at an early day from France to America and was a coworker with Roger Williams, who was the colonial advocate of religious liberty at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636. A representative of this family was the mother of James A. Garfield.

Thomas Jefferson Fish and Lovina Ballou were married in New York and they continued to live in the house which he built and to which he took his bride until the time of their death. The father died in 1876 and the mother’s death occurred some years later. In their family were seven children: Augustus, deceased; James, who compiled a genealogy record of the Fish family and is now residing at Glens Falls, New York; Charles O., of this review; Elvira, the wife of Lanson Lewis, of Wattams, New York; Mary, deceased; Emmeline, who is the wife of C. P. Lee, and resides in Kansas; and Martha, the wife of Moses Maynard, of Keene, New Hampshire.

Charles O. Fish was reared in his parents’ home and received his early education in the district schools of New York state. In 1866 he removed to Minnesota and located near Rochester, where he remained for only a brief period, and then went to Chicago, where he spent two years. In September, 1868, he settled in Kossuth county, Iowa, on section 8, township 98, range 30, (Seneca township). On his homestead he first built a sod house with one room and a hay-thatched barn, but three years later he erected a small frame house and some years afterward he put up more suitable and convenient buildings. He further improved this property by planting a fine grove and orchard and later added to his original tract eighty acres adjoining his preemption claim of one hundred and sixty acres. Some years afterward he also purchased an additional tract of eighty acres located on the river, bought two hundred and forty acres in Kingsbury, South Dakota, and at the time of his death left a landed estate of five hundred and sixty acres. He was one of the stockholders of the Farmers Elevator at Fenton, Iowa, and one of the organizers and a director of the Seneca Township Creamery. In connection with his farming he made a specialty of butter-making and stock-raising.

In 1864 Mr. Fishh was united in marriage to Miss Lucy M. Hare, who was born in Lewis, New York, November 24, 1844, and is a daughter of J. W. and Sarah Jane (Pratt) Hare. Her father was born in Plattsburg, New York, and as a young man removed to Lewis, where he engaged in farming for many years. In 1864 he removed to Chicago, at which place he lived retired until the time of his death in 1902. His maternal grandfather was a native of England and while a soldier in the English army fighting the colonists in the war of the Revolution, was taken prisoner by the famous general, Ethan Allen, at his capture of Fort Ticonderoga. The paternal grandfather was a native of Holland and settled on the Mohawk river in New York. The mother of Mrs. Fish, who was of Scotch and Dutch extraction, died in 1902. Her grandfather was Captain Pratt, of Revolutionary fame. To Mr. and Mrs. Hare five children were born: Frances E., the wife of James Hanchett, a soldier in the Civil war, both of whom are now deceased; Lucy M., who married Charles O. Fish, of this review; Ellen M., who is the widow of Patrick Fleming, a veteran of the Civil war, and resides in Chicago; Emma L., the wife of J. T. Morgan, of Pentwater, Michigan; and William J., who died in Chicago in 1903.

Mrs. Fish was reared in her parents’ home and received her education in the district schools of Lewis, New York, later attending a select school at Elizabethtown, that state. Before her marriage she was engaged in school teaching for a number of years and after coming west she taught school in Illinois and Kossuth county, Iowa, for some years following her marriage. In 1910 she purchased a comfortable home in Algona, on Lucas street, where she now resides. To Mr. and Mrs. Fish eight children were born: Mildred L, the wife of W. C. Richmond, of Armstrong, Iowa; Sadie M., the wife of E. K. Junkins, of Bryant, South Dakota; Sylvia M., who is the widow of J. E. Lanning and resides with her mother; Edith E., the wife of J. W. Ranney, of Alamosa, Colorado; William T., residing near Burt, Iowa; Charles Walter, who lives on the home place; Isadora, the wife of Walter Smith, of Swea City; and Frances E., at home.

Mr. Fish died December 23, 1909. He was allied with the democratic party and for some time was a trustee of the township in which he lived. His religious affiliation was with the Universalist church, from which denomination he had received his religious instructions from childhood. He was a man highly esteemed by his acquaintances and was one of the influential citizens of the county in which he lived. His death removed from the community one of its most enterprising and highly respected citizens.