A "Fisching" Expedition

​A “Fisching” Expedition
Area D in Mount Olivet is an interestingly-shaped section towards the front of the garden cemetery, smack dab in the middle of areas A and H. The northern edge commands a beautiful vantage point of the Key Memorial Chapel, and is about as narrow as one of our cemetery sections can get, with two driveways on either side. Here, on this swath quite reminiscent of a little island, one will find the burial plot of an aptly named family (if my geographical description of an island holds true)—the Fischers.

Map of Mount Olivet Cemetery showing Area D

​An occupational surname denotes the country of origin of this family due to the German spelling, meaning fisherman. I was surprised to learn that the name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. In area D’s grave lot #3, one can find 15 decedents occupying the space, with 12 actually carrying the name through descendancy or by marriage.

I have come across the progenitor’s moniker in my distant past dealings of studying the history of Frederick. Adam Fischer has his name on the south facing side panel of the large monument on this lot. He was born October 25th, 1773 and died on October 2nd, 1835, nearly 20 years prior to Mount Olivet’s opening in 1854. Adam’s wife, Elizabeth Rowe (August 2nd, 1777-April 11th, 1860), is buried here next to her husband, with her name carved in stone under his on the stately, marble obelisk.

​There appears to be a bit of confusion regarding records for this Adam Fischer and his birth on the website Ancestry.com, or else his tombstone is wrong. A birth eight days earlier on October 17th is listed in records that claim Adam (born Johann Adam) was christened in Frederick’s German Reformed congregation on December 6th, 1773. This event would have most likely occurred at Trinity Chapel in the first block of West Church Street.

Apart from this fact, I would be at the beginning of a difficult journey to find anything substantial about this particular gentleman. On October 2nd, 1835, Frederick diarist Jacob Engelbrecht noted his death simply:

“Died this afternoon in the 62nd year of his age, Mr. Adam Fischer of our town. Buried on the German Reformed graveyard.”

This burial ground was on North Bentz and West Second streets, where Memorial Park sits today. Adam’s remains would later be moved to Mount Olivet on September 20th, 1855, a year after the “new cemetery” opened on 30 acres south of town.

​I have to be honest in saying that I was disappointed to find that this gravesite, and stately monument, was not that of another man of the same name. This would be Adam's father, Dr. Adam Fischer. To learn more about Mount Olivet’s Adam Fischer, I want to tell you about his industrious and respected paternal figure.

Dr. Adam Fischer (1736-1787) came to Frederick by way of Pennsylvania (likely Adams County) around the year 1767, and shortly after the arrival of Dr. Philip Thomas. These men represented the first, legitimate medical practitioners in town.

Maryland Chronicle and Baltimore Advertiser (May 16, 1787)

Maryland Chronicle and Universal Advertiser (Jan 25, 1786)

Dr. Fischer obtained a university education in his native Germany and was trained as a surgeon. He built an extensive practice here in Frederick and held important positions in the community during his lifetime. These included leadership roles during the American Revolution in which he served on Frederick County’s Committee of Observation (1776) and was deputy of the committee to recommend officers for the two German companies and lieutenants for a rifle company.

​Dr. Adam Fischer represented his county in the State Constitutional Convention of 1776 and as a delegate to the Lower House of the General Assembly from 1778-1779. He was later elected Frederick County Sheriff in 1782 and served from 1782-1785. In 1785, he became Frederick county’s collector of tax, a job he still possessed at the time of his death on August 16th, 1787. Tragically, Dr. Fischer died from a kick from his horse in Reisterstown, leaving son Adam and four siblings (1 brother (John) and 3 sisters) to be raised by wife Margaret (1739-1799).

Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser (Aug 31, 1787)

Multiple descendants of Dr. Adam Fischer would be known in medical and business circles in not only Frederick, but also Washington, DC and Baltimore. Of particular interest was the family profession of operating what we would call old fashion pharmacies eventually boasting a confectionery component and like the CVS and Walgreens of today, were purveyors of cosmetics and a variety of household goods and necessities. Two sons of our subject Adam were responsible for novel enterprises in town that you could best say reflect the spirit of Downtown Frederick’s most celebrated “First Saturday” event of “Fire in Ice.”
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I was interested in the real estate holdings and transactions of the family, hoping it would shed more light on the physician’s son Adam Fischer. I pressed my assistant Marilyn Veek for any info that could have told me where the family lived and worked. Here is what she came up with:

In 1767, Dr. Adam Fischer had bought a sizable parcel on the northwest corner of Market and Patrick streets, extending 78.5 feet along Market Street and 60 feet along Patrick Street. His widow Margaret was forced to sell the property in 1790 after his death, due to a “writ of fieri facias” against Dr. Adam Fischer for not performing the duties required of him as tax collector for Frederick County. The property was sold to Lawrence Brengle, John Cronise, Adam Keller, Henry Garnhart, Henry Zealer, Richard Butler, Peter Mosser, John Shower and Ludwick Ritter. In 1792, the members of this group executed a deed of trust to Lawrence Brengle so that the property could be sold. An agreement was made whereby Brengle sold the property to the physician’s eldest son, John Fischer, but this sale was not completed until 1801, after Brengle's death. A future commercial landmark would eventually arise here.

Looking northwest from the Square Corner (intersection of Market and Patrick streets) at the Frederick County National Bank (c. 1890)

​John Fischer immediately divided the property in half and sold the south half to George Baer and the north half to Daniel Hauer. George Baer sold his half to Frederick County Bank in 1818, and it remained bank property until 2002. Daniel Hauer's half was sold to George Hauer, who sold it to Abraham Shriver. It was eventually sold by his Shriver's heirs to the bank in 1909.

From what I have been able to find, John Fischer followed in his father’s profession as a physician. Brother Adam, our primary subject in this story and buried here in Mount Olivet’s Area D, is listed in our cemetery records as having a profession as “a hatter.” Unfortunately, I can’t substantiate this claim with census records because he died before the more extensive reporting found in 1850 and afterwards. I did see an article that mentioned Adam being a member of the Mechanical Sun Fire Company in 1823.

Republican Advertiser (May 2, 1806)

Bartgis Republican Gazette (March 22, 1823)

I found Adam in the census records living in Frederick, and I assumed he could have resided on East Patrick Street after finding his widow, Elizabeth, in the Williams’ Frederick Directory City Guide of 1859/60 living “on the north side of Patrick between Love Lane and Chapel Alley.” Now I’m sure you are familiar with Chapel Alley, but Love Lane was the original name of what we call East Street today. So, think of the Fischer home once standing on the site of today’s Frederick Post Office property.

I soon learned that this was likely never the home of our decedent Adam thanks to more investigation from my assistant Marilyn.

Elizabeth Fischer, wife of our subject Adam, bought part of Lot 163 (east side of what is now Ice Street) in 1810. Tracing the deeds is complicated, but it appears that the property that Elizabeth Fischer bought in 1810 is where she, Adam and their children lived during the following decades of the early 19th century. This is what is now 120-122-124-126 (formerly 100-104) Ice Street. This property was mortgaged to their son William Fischer in 1825. That same year, William Fischer leased property at the northeast corner of Ice and South Street from Elizabeth Hauer, for 15 years, during which time he was to build and operate an ice house utilizing nearby water from Carroll Creek to the north and a pond to the south.

Ice Street of today

​It can be theorized that Adam and Elizabeth Fischer lived here in this vicinity up until Adam’s death in 1835. The couple’s son, William, bought the house on East Patrick Street in 1830, and this was the same in which his mother could be found in the 1859 directory. She would move there in 1848.
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William Fischer (1797-1852) appeared regularly in the early Frederick newspapers and began operating a pharmacy in 1821 on West Patrick Street across from Talbott’s Tavern. This is in the vicinity of the Patrick Center on the south side of the street near the intersection with North Court Street. He took this over from his brother-in-law Dr. William Gunton (1791-1880) whom he credited for teaching him the ropes of the business.

Bartgis' Republican Gazette (Jan 6, 1821)

Bartgis' Republican Gazette (May 26, 1821)

Republican Citizen (July 4, 1828)

Bartgis Republican Gazette (April 21, 1821)

Frederick Town Herald (June 18, 1831)

​William would eventually leave Frederick for Washington, DC and enjoyed a successful career at that place. He is buried in Congressional Cemetery with his wife and former mentor, William Gunton who once ran a pharmacy in Frederick.

Graves of Dr. William and wife Harriott Fischer in Washington DC's Congressional Cemetery

​That brings us to William’s brother, George Jacob Fischer, another child of Adam and Elizabeth Fischer. George Jacob was born in Frederick on August 10th, 1809. He married the former Isabella Johnston of Washington County in February, 1835. Remember her name as it will come into play for another business venture.

George Jacob likely learned the pharmacy business from his older brother, and perhaps took over his Frederick operation upon the latter’s departure to the nation’s capital in the 1830s. I found advertisements galore for George Jacob Fischer’s “drug store” in an old edition of the Frederick Town Herald dated October 13th, 1837.

Frederick Town Herald (Oct 13, 1837)

​George Jacob Fischer would become known for something completely different, although totally illuminating on the eve of 1850. In November, 1849 he would kickoff construction of Frederick’s first gas street light system. George Jacob Fischer began laying down pipes through several of Frederick city’s principal public streets, starting with Patrick and Court streets. His crew’s hard work would supply town with “cheap, beautiful and desirable light.” This was the beginning of gas lighting in Frederick which made it possible to see on nights where moonlight was obscured by clouds. Mr. Fischer called his company the "Isabella Gas Works" after his wife, and 35 initial iron lamp posts would go on to make Frederick a pioneer among cities of its size in the realm of street lighting.

Isabella Gas Works receipt from 1883

George J. Fischer and family living in Frederick (likely Ice Street) in the 1850 Census

​All the while, Fischer appears to have continued the operation of his drugstore business. At the time of the gas works endeavor, his commercial location was at today’s 5 West Church Street in the first block of West Church Street (site of Sapporo II restaurant). I know this because he would sell this business to Dr. Fairfax Schley in 1855, at which time Fischer relocated to Baltimore. Fischer’s advertisements for the Baltimore location would appear in the Frederick Examiner in 1858. The Steiner family would have a long run into the 20th century at this location.

Maryland Union (Dec 27, 1855)

Frederick Examiner (Nov 17, 1858)

1860 Census showing George J. Fischer living in Baltimore

​George Jacob Fischer died on February 21st, 1866.

Baltimore Sun (Feb, 1866)

George Jacob Fischer’s body would be brought back to Frederick for burial on the plot that it appears he was responsible for purchasing back in 1855 to re-inter his father and two children who died as infants. His mother (Elizabeth) would be laid to rest here in 1860, and his wife Isabella in 1885. Also here are sons George Jacob Fischer, Jr. (1846-1931) and William C. Fisher (1842-1892) and a few grandchildren and great grandchildren.

What a “fisching expedition” as I learned little about Adam, son of the great physician, however his two sons William and George J. certainly kept Frederick pain free and in pharmaceuticals and household goods for a great part of the early 1800s. It’s amazing how one cemetery memorial can lead to so much personal, commercial and town history from our past. Thank you Fischer family!

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