Stella Britton Fisher (b. 1866 - d. 1897)

Stella Britton was born in 1866 and died in 1897, at the young age of 33. The stainglass window that honors her was most likely donated by her husband or family, as it does not appear that she played a very active role in the church's affairs, or at least the records do not show this to be true. Her father was Jonathan C. Britton, who had a local planning and spoke manufacturing business. Mr. Britton was born in 1835, in New Jersey, where his parents were also born. Mr. Britton's wife Mary C., whose maiden name is unknown at this time, was also from New Jersey. She was born in 1840. Together, Mr. & Mrs. Britton had at least two daughters, Stella, the subject of this study, and her sister Clara, who was born in 1867. At the time of the 1880 Census, both of the young girls were in school.

Jonathan C. Britton's planning business was on Girard Avenue. He was living in 1880, at 1046 E. Norris Street. With his family, Britton had five workmen enumerated with him in his household, as well as a servant. Previously, in the 1870 City Directory for Philadelphia, there was a Jonathan Britton that was listed as a spokemaker at 701 Girard Avenue, who lived at 1237 N 5th Street. Since two of the workmen that are enumerated with Jonathan C. Britton on the 1880 Census were listed as being a "spoke turner" and a "spoke polisher," it would appear that this 1870 Jonathan Britton is the same as the one on the 1880 Census.

There was another family of Brittons who lived in the area and who were probably related to this family of Brittons. They start to appear in the city directories as early as the 1850's, about a decade or more before Jonathan's family. The Britton family headed by Samuel, Josiah Q., and Wilson S., were all engineers and lived at 445 Richmond Street. This family also belonged to First Presbyterian Church of Kensington, as one of them, Wilson S. Britton, married Ann V. Seddinger at the church. Ms. Seddinger was the daughter of church elder William J. Seddinger. Seddinger is also honored at the church with one of the stainglass windows.

Stella Britton Fisher was first entered into the "roll of members" book for First Presbyterian Church of Kensington, on the 30th of March, in 1884, when she and her sister Clara joined the church. Stella was also baptized as an adult on this date. She was later listed as being dismissed from the church. Since she died in 1897 and she was married at the church in 1890, she must have been dismissed sometime between 1890 and 1897. She may have been dismissed because she simply moved away from the area. Records show that she is buried at Frenchtown Cemetery in Frenchtown, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. She had married Manning Force Fisher on May 21st, 1890. Since Manning Force Fisher was also from the Hunterdon County, NJ, area originally, it would appear that they might have moved to New Jersey after their wedding, especially since Manning Force Fisher does not appear in the city directories of Philadelphia for the 1890's.

However, on March 27th, 1898, Stella and Manning's son, Jonathan Britton Fisher, presumably named in honor of Stella's father, was baptized at First Presbyterian Church of Kensington. He was born in December of 1893, but since Stella Britton Fisher's death is listed in two different sources as being in 1897 (one source being the cemetery record and the other source being on the "Roll of Members" record), it would seem that either the date of his baptism is wrong, or that the son possibly stayed on in Philadelphia after his mother died with other family members since records show that his father may have went west for business reasons. This part of the Fisher family needs to be researched more fully.

Stella Britton Fisher's husband, Manning Force Fisher was born in 1864. He was the son of Manning F. Fisher and Harriet Rittenhouse. On his father's side, he descended from a family who were steeped in ministers that had settled in northern New Jersey, in the Hunterdon County area. He is probably related to the Rev. Manning Force and to the Rev. George Fisher, both ministers in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, area. Somewhere in the family tree, these two families intermarried and Manning's father was given the name of Manning Force Fisher, which he in turn passed on to his son. Manning's father had moved down from North Jersey to Pennsylvania and was in the coal business in Bucks County. Later, he moved to Jersey City, New Jersey to pursue this same business.

Manning Force Fisher's father died when he and his siblings were quite young. The children were forced to make a life on their own. Manning's brother Ellwood H. Fisher went to Montana in the early 1880's and established himself in Bozeman, MT, eventually becoming one of the leading businessmen in the city in the hardware and grocery business. In the foreword of a book on the history of Montana that was written by Ellwood Fisher, it is mentioned that his brother Manning, Stella's husband, was residing in Cleveland, Ohio.

Stella Britton's husband, Manning Force Fisher, is probably the Manning Fisher that is found in a newspaper story of 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Manning Fisher is reported to have opened a chain of food stores. For that time period, turn of the century America, he had a novel way of holding down food prices; he called it "cash and carry." He seems to have been in business with one, or more, of his brothers as the business was called Fisher Brothers. The first Fisher Brothers Company store opened at W. 47th St. and Lorain Ave., in Cleveland, Ohio, in February [of 1898] and nine years later, it had become a 48-store chain. The chain was among the first to open what it called "master markets," and, as Fisher Foods, it dominated the retail grocery business for much of the century. In 1965, it was acquired by the Fazio Chain and in 1987; its remaining markets were merged into the Rini-Rego Stop-N-Shop Stores. Manning Fisher did not always command such a high level of business. His father's death when he was only a year old meant that he had to start work early in life. In the 1880 Census he was found working in the hat business at the age of 16.

Somewhere along the way Stella Britton met Manning Force Fisher. They were married at First Presbyterian Church of Kensington in 1890. A quick check of the burial records for Frenchtown Cemetery, in Frenchtown, Hunterdon County, NJ, shows a number of Brittons, including our Stella Britton Fisher, buried there. Some of the Britton burials are as early as the 1860's. The index for the Hunterdon Gazette, a newspaper for Hunterdon County, shows that there were Brittons in Hunterdon County in the 1820's and 1830's, so it would appear that perhaps Stella Britton Fisher's family might have come from that area of New Jersey, before moving to Philadelphia. The fact that the 1880 Census shows that her father and mother were both from New Jersey, would appear to be more proof that Stella's origins were in the Garden State and probably in Hunterdon County where it is known that Manning Force Fisher's family also originated from. How Stella Britton Fisher came to be honored in this stainglass window is a piece of history that has escaped us. One can imagine since she died so young and that since it was at this church that she was married, it would appear that someone in the family, be it her husband or some other family member, wanted to honor her.