San Francisco County
Biographies
GEORGE WILLIAM FISHER
GEORGE WILLIAM FISHER, manager of the Oakland branch of the
Puget Sound Lumber Company, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, March 28,
1841, a son of Captain Nehemiah Coy and Susan C. (Folger)
Fisher. The father, a sea captain for thirty-five years, chiefly in the line of
whaling, died at the age of fifty-four, about 1866. The mother survived to
1888, dying in Oakland aged
seventy-four. Grandfather Fisher, a farmer at Martha’s Vineyard,
lived to the age of ninety-two. The first American Fisher is thought to have
settled in Providence Plantations, Rhode Island, where
there is still a place known as Fisher’s Plantation.
George W. was a cabin boy on board his father’s ship Coper
at the age of ten, the father being part owner as well as Captain. They went on
a whaling voyage to the Arctic ocean in 1851, going
and returning by way of Cape Horn, the round trip with
the accessary (sic) fishing expeditions taking three
and a half years. After the return home George W. was sent to school at Foxcraft, Maine, where
he studied four years, and was graduated at the Foxcraft Academy,
at the age of eighteen. He received a certificate as a qualified teacher, but
did not follow that career, having a preference for mercantile life. He entered
the service of Sackett, Davis & Co., manufacturing jewelers in Providence, Rhode
Island, in 1859, and their Boston
house in 1861, retaining his connection with the firm about four years, chiefly
as salesman. In 1863 he went into business at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, being
interested in general merchandise with his father, and having charge of the
store, under the style of N. C. Fisher & Son. In 1864 he sold out in
Bridgewater, and after about a year spent with the army before Richmond, just
before the close of the civil war, he returned to his home in Massachusetts,
and was variously engaged for a couple of years. In 1868 he came to California
by way of Panama,
February 28, and engaged in real-estate transactions for some years. About 1872
he became interested in mines and mining property in Virginia City,
Candelaria and at other points in that section, and
followed that vocation with considerable success for about ten years. He was
then appointed to a position in the United Stated Sub-Treasury in San
Francisco, under N. W. Spaulding of this city,
remaining so engaged about eighteen months, being at that time also a School
Director of Oakland. In 1885, when the Puget Sound Lumber Company established a
branch in this city, buying out the Merritt lumber yard, Mr. Fisher being so well
and favorably known as an active and shrewd business man, was appointed as
manager, with full charge of the Oakland interests, this being the receiving
point for the vast business of the company, which is among the most extensive
on the Pacific coast. The wharf is situated at the foot of Washington street,
is 650 feet long, with a width and frontage of 700 feet, carrying a stock of
6,000,000 feet of lumber, which is kept constantly supplied from their mills on
Puget Sound and from Humboldt county and Eureka. He usually employs from forty
to eighty hands in the Oakland
branch. Mr. Fisher is a member of Oakland Lodge, No. 188, F. & A.M., and of
the Masonic Veteran Association of the Pacific coast.
He
was married in Foxcraft,
Maine, January 5, 1862, to Miss Abbie B. Holmes, a daughter of Captain Salmon Holmes, a
prominent citizen of Foxcraft. They have had two
sons: one son, Frank Holmes Fisher, now living, was born July 6, 1868. After
graduating from the Oakland Academy,
F. H. Fisher studied the science and practice of dentistry in the College
of Dentistry of the University
of California, receiving his diploma June 10,
1890, and is now following that profession, having an office in San
Francisco.
Transcribed 1-25-06 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 289-290, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library