#30--Nathaniel Fisher--Do You Know What Time It Is?

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Abiathar Richards and his shoe company and in another blog about my grandmother’s and grandfather’s wedding.  In gathering information for both those blogs, the name Fisher came  up.  That got me interested in the Fishers, particularly who they were and how they fit into my family.  I knew that The Fishers, like the Richards, were an old Dedham Massachusetts family.  Further, Nathaniel Fisher was described as a cousin of Abiathar Richards.    Looking at my Richards’s tree, I discovered Abiathar Richards’s  father, Ebenezer Richards, and Nathaniel Fisher’s mother, Lavinia Richards Fisher,  were brother and sister.  In 1803 Lavinia married  Paul  Fisher.  Among their three children was Nathaniel Fisher, born in 1818.  Nathaniel married Mary Ann Woodruff in 1845 and with her had nine children.

Now that I had the relationships, it was time to find out more about Nathaniel Fisher and his family.  Ancestry.com and several web pages provided just what I wanted to know.  As I pulled the information together, this is what I learned. 

Nathaniel  Fisher  left Dedham,  moved to Buffalo, New York and worked for John W. Ayes in the shoe business.  In 1837 he started working in New York City, on Pearl Street in the shoe business of L. S. Bouton & Company as a junior partner.   Nathaniel then went into partnership with Baldwin and Studwell .  In 1869, his two partners left the business and Nathaniel C. Fisher & Company was formed. 

The company manufactured and sold ladies’ and misses’ boots and shoes.  Prior to Nathaniel Fisher’s death on December 9, 1880, he was joined in his company by two of his sons----Irving  Requa Fisher and Nathaniel Campbell Fisher. 

For many years the company was located at 146 Duane Street in New York.  Even though the building was badly damaged by fire in 1864, the iron façade  survived and the building was renovated. 

  While the façade is notable for its arches, its most striking feature is the large ornate clock.  I understand that in the Victorian era, such clocks were a common form of advertising.  If you look carefully at the clock, you can see the Nathl   Fisher & Co,  engraved on it.   

  

                   

Nathaniel Campbell Fisher died in 1923 and his brother, Irving Requa Fisher, in 1925.  Despite their deaths, the firm continued doing business at the same location until 1953.

Sources

Nath’l Fisher, 146 Duane Street,  New York 2004

The 1865 Nathaniel Fisher & Co. Bldg. -- No. 146 Duane Street