Mother Visited Soldier's Brother In Cameron; Soldier, KIA, Never Lived There
Presented by Linda Cunningham Fluharty.
HOWARD M. FISHER, U. S. Army Private, Company E 313th Infantry, is listed in some publications as being from CAMERON, Marshall County. He was definitely NOT. His emergency contact was his MOTHER, Augusta Fisher, and SHE was in Cameron in 1918, away from her own home in Baltimore, Maryland. She was in Cameron VISITING her other son, a Presbyterian minister.
Howard Mervin Fisher, the soldier, lived in Baltimore and had a wife and child.
Maryland Men, 1917-1918 names Howard Mervin Fisher: "Howard Mervin Fisher, Ind 5/24/18 pvt, 9 Bn 154 Dep Brig; Co E 313 Inf 6/13/18, Overseas 7/8/18 to death, Avocourt Sector; Meuse-Argonne, Killed in action September 28, 1918."
U. S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 for the ship, "Leviathan," name Howard M. Fisher's MOTHER as "Mrs. Augusta M. Fisher, Cameron, West Virginia." SHE was in Cameron, which is where her other son, James M. Fisher, was a Presbyterian minister.
Rev. James M. Fisher is found in the 1920 census of Cameron with his wife, and two children. The younger, James McIntire Fisher, Jr., was born in August 1918, the month before the death of Howard Mervin Fisher.
The 1910 Federal Census of Baltimore finds the Fishers on Appleton Street: Howard M. Fisher, 23, born in Maryland; mother, Augusta M., 50, born in Maryland, and a brother, James M., 22, born in Maryland. There is also an aunt, Margaret McIntire, 72, who was the sister of Augusta's father, Dr. James McIntire. Howard was a clerk in a powder [as written] company. The whereabouts of the father, Howrd M. Fisher, not known, but Augusta stated she was married for 27 years and had given birth to 3 children, two of whom were living. A death notice in 1886 indicates a daughter, Augusta Stuart Fisher, age 3, had died of Diptheria.
An article in The Baltimore Sun, August 20, 1911, states that "Mr. H. Mervin Fisher of Park Heights avenue, has returned from a two weeks' stay at Grafton, W. Va." - He must have been known as "Mervin."
On June 18, 1912, in Grafton, Taylor County, West Virginia, Howard Mervin Fisher, 25, born in Baltimore and a resident of Baltimore, married Ashby Rhea Heironimus, born in, and residing in, Taylor County. They lived in Baltimore following the marriage.
When Howard registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, in Baltimore County, he stated that he born in Baltimore on October 26, 1887, and he resided in Arlington, Maryland, which is in Northwest Baltimore. He said he had a wife and child, as well as a dependent mother. He was employed at Consolidated Gas, Electric Light and Power Company; it mentions Monuments and Construction.
Baltimore Sun, October 15, 1921: "Services for Private Howard Mervin Fisher, 30 years old, son of Mrs. Augustus [sic] Fisher, 1002 Bennett Place , will be held from the funeral parlors of J. J. Fields, 1200 West Lombard street, Monday at 2:30 p.m. Rev. Dr. DeWitt M. Benham will officiate. Private Fisher was a member of Company E, 313th Infantry, and was killed at Montfaucon, France, September 18, 1918. Burial will take place in Greenmount Cemetery."
Augusta is listed as widow in the 1920 census at the Bennett Place address.
[NO idea why the wife and son are not mentioned.]
Howard Mervin Fisher's widow, "Rea H. Fisher" was living with her parents in Grafton, Taylor County, in 1920. She had a son, William D. Fisher, age 6, born in Maryland. Rhea Fisher was a school teacher and never remarried. She died in 1968 and is buried at Bluemont Cemetery, Grafton. She left the bulk of her estate to her son, William Dotson Fisher, who was born in Baltimore on August 11, 1913. He died in 2003.
Howard's mother, Augusta McIntire Fisher, was the daughter of Dr. James McIntire and Elizabeth Dunn. She died in 1923 in Lancaster County, Penna. Rev. James M. Fisher gave the information for her death record, and her marital status is "married." Augusta Fisher is also buried at Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore.