Page 51 - Family History

Family Stories

Kermit became a terrible alcoholic. When he had a stroke and medical personnel

were finally able to contact Joan to try to get him some family support he was
totally helpless. Kermit’s thoughts and memories were clear, but he was a
quadriplegic and couldn’t speak. He communicated by wiggling his toes. In
those few times he visited his sister in earlier years, Jared’s memories of him were
pleasant.

Charles H. Fisher was a member of the firm of Fisher and Mann. He was also
corporation counsel for the city of Elgin, Illinois. He was regarded as a logical
reasoner, a man of sound judgment, one of the ablest lawyers practicing at the
Kane County bar, and one of the best jury advocates in Elgin. He won an

enviable reputation as a successful lawyer, and most creditably served as city
attorney for two terms. The firm of Fisher and Mann owned considerable real
estate in Elgin and vicinity, and, as attorneys, did a large and profitable
business.

Charles was about four years old at the time of the removal of his parents to
Newcastle, Pennsylvania. After working in the machine shops at Titusville,

Pennsylvania, for a time, he went to Elgin in the Spring of 1883. Upon his
arrival at Elgin, he was employed at the Elgin post office, and for some years
after that he was engaged as a railway mail clerk operating between Chicago
and Minneapolis on the Milwaukee Railroad. It was his practice at that time to

work as a railway mail clerk for one week and to study law during the
alternate week. He studied under Attorney Robert M. Ireland and under Judge
William Wing, studying and working in the offices of these Attorneys and
was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1887.

Charles had been engaged in the practice of law since 1887 until the time of his
illness in 1925, when he retired. He was the senior member of the law firm of

Fisher and Mann, formed in 1888, a firm which later was known as Fisher,
Mann and Perce. In his earlier years he was keenly and actively interested in
the Larkin Home for Children, and as a young Attorney had donated his
services to the home organization. Charles was a member of Bethel

Commandery, Knights Templar, and of other branches of Masonry and of the
Odd Fellows fraternal Organization.

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