Hermine Stella Christiane Fisher

From the front page of the Lyons Daily News, April 26, 1928, clipping from the Steve Tudor Charles Collection:

MRS FISHER PASSES

As Wife Of Pioneer Physician She Had Lead An Interesting Life

Mrs. Hermine Reichenau Fisher, widow of the late Dr. E. C. Fisher, died at her home on East Commercial Street at 5:30 o'clock this morning from a complication of troubles that developed over several months and reached a critical stage about two weeks ago since which time she gradually sank into her final, peaceful slumber. She was almost 77 years of age.

Mrs. Fisher was a woman of remarkable talents and enjoyed an interesting life. She was born at Wiesbaden in Germany. She was the daughter of an educator of German and Russian extraction and early received a splendid education in languages, music, and art. She spoke German, French, and English fluently. Her greatest talent outside of music and art lay in her fingers. With needles, large and small, thread, yarn, or beads, she could duplicate any piece of knitted or embroidered work laid before her. Until a few weeks ago her fingers were constantly busy. At work and in conversation she always chose a straight chair, sitting erect as she was taught to sit as a girl.

As a young woman Hermine Reichenau went to England as governess and tutor for a family of wealth. In England she met Edward Combie Fisher who had come from Ohio to study medicine at Edinbugh. The acquaintance quickly ripened into love and marriage and she was brought to America as a bride, locating for a short while in Ohio and then coming to Lyons which was just blossoming into a little city of the prairie. The met the abrupt change from her cultural environment in Europe to the raw, pioneer life of Kansas with grace and fortitude. For some years she was out on a farm near Lyons and learned to raise chickens, make butter, and do the multitudinous things a farm wife has to do. Now and then came a new baby and she reared a large family, all of them being given the same educational advantages she and her mate had enjoyed.

Dr. E. C. Fisher, and the second son Dr. Wilhelm Fisher, passed away while the world war was in progress. The surviving children are Dr. Chas. E. Fisher of Lyons, Mrs. Florence Needham of Lyons, Mrs. Thekla Jones of Lyons, Mrs. Elsie Hartronft of Lyons, and Mrs. Nancy Stewart of Chicago. She also leaves a sister, Mrs. Thekla Lea of St. Louis, and a brother, Dr. Wilhelm Reichenau of Berne, Switzerland.

Mrs. Fisher was a member of the Methodist Church, the Eastern Star, and a member of social and literary clubs. She was socially inclined and had many friends over Rice County. She also loved travel and make several trips back to Europe, the last soon after the world war. Her family, being in the educational class, always was opposed to military agression.