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| WWI photo of Charles Brewer (C.B.) Fiscus and brother Adam Edward Fiscus |
The Quaker story confused our mother when she was trying to find our father's ancestors until she decided to research grandpa's story. Low and behold, grandpa's mother, Emma Jewell Lamb, was descended from a whole slew of birthright Quakers!
Grandpa died when I was 10-years-old, and our visits to Los Angeles were infrequent, so I don't remember talking or listening to him. I remember that he visited Logan when we lived in Dahle's duplex on 5th North while he was overseeing the beginning construction of our new home. He wore a plaid shirt, suspenders, and a hat and had the smell of pipe smoke. My other strong memory is of visiting him in the Veteran's Hospital in L.A. after his lower leg was removed because of diabetes.
A short history of Charles Brewer Fiscus written by his son William James Fiscus
Born in a cabin northwest of North Salem, Indiana. cabin had a dirt floor. Was an average student until the 11 grade at which time showed a talent for math. His teacher did not know or had not the training to teach the higher math so C. B. took it upon himself to teach what he knew. This was to follow him throughout his life up to and including the last trip to the Veterans Hospital in 1959.
He put himself through Central Normal School in Danville, Indiana by cutting meat in his own butcher shop at night and his father sold it while C. B. was attending school during the day.
During his youth he wanted to learn the violin but could not afford one so he made one using a cherry bedside and carving the fiddle with a sharpened spoon. He made six violins in his life time, three are in the possession of his older son. He played well enough to play at barn dances and was always asked to play when he moved to the Dakotas and Montana where he taught school after graduating from C. N. C.
He and his sister Marie went to North Dakota and taught school during the period of 1913 - 1919.
During the year of 1915 a younger brother joined them and the three (C. B., Adam, & Marie) went to Montana and homesteaded in Fergus County. C. B. and Marie taught school while Adam worked the ranch. In 1917 the boys went in to the army. Adam was in the Field Artillery and C. B. was in the Signal Corps. He became a sergeant gunner flying De Havellin 4's .
The DH-4, a two-seat bomber that first flew in August 1916. Highly manoeuvrable and with a top speed of 143 miles per hour (230 km per hour), it could outfly most fighters. In 1917, when the United States entered the war, officials in Washington selected it for production and built nearly 5,000 of them.
An accident caused him to be grounded because of an injury to his left leg and a plate in his forehead. He was discharged with a shorter leg and a built up shoe. The leg later grew out to normal length.
Adam was injured in France and carried a pinched nerve in his shoulder all the rest of his life. Both men returned to the ranch but could not work it. Adam married Grace Pearson and move to Bozeman using the G. I. Bill for school and became a Mechanical Engineer in 1922.
C. B. stayed on at the ranch and taught school. He married Hilda Marie Davidson from North Salem on Dec. 5, 1920 and tried to live on the ranch during the year 1921. A summer hail storm convinced them that they would also go to school in Bozeman. He became a Civil Engineer in 1923. and got a Electrical Engineering degree in 1925.
C. B. worked for the City of Los Angeles in street design work as a civil Engineer and the job of Associate Engineer at retirement on 1954. He was a structural adviser on the Hoover Dam during it's construction. In 1933 he became a Doctor of Civil Engineering eared at Montana State College. Also that year he began teaching Adult Education for the City of Los Angeles, teaching math three nights a week.
Added by Robin
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