Home > United States of America > Florida > Baker County > Baxter > North Prong Cemetery > George Dewey Fish Sr.

George Dewey Fish Sr.

Birth	:	15 Jun 1899
Death	:	5 Jan 1981
Burial	:	North Prong Cemetery, Baxter, Baker County, USA
Coordinate	:	30.4577100, -82.2089800
Description	:	George Dewey Fish Of Taylor, Baxter, and Glen St. Mary Florida ca 1980 Among the first pioneer settlers in the Taylor area of Baker County were James Benjamin Fish and his wife Kizzie. During the last half of the 19th century, they sold their homestead property over in Charlton County Georgia and bought "a little place with just improvements" south of Baxter. Improvements meant buildings of some sort, such as a smoke house or barn, said their eighth son, George Dewey Fish. "I felt like my parents were the greatest people there was," he said from his retirement home in... Read More	George Dewey Fish Of Taylor, Baxter, and Glen St. Mary Florida ca 1980 Among the first pioneer settlers in the Taylor area of Baker County were James Benjamin Fish and his wife Kizzie. During the last half of the 19th century, they sold their homestead property over in Charlton County Georgia and bought "a little place with just improvements" south of Baxter. Improvements meant buildings of some sort, such as a smoke house or barn, said their eighth son, George Dewey Fish. "I felt like my parents were the greatest people there was," he said from his retirement home in Glen St. Mary. "My dad farmed with oxen before I was born, driving them to Jacksonville to sell produce from his garden. That was about 1880. Later on he used mules. "Boys wore knicker pants, there were no radios, telephones, cars, ice cream or candy. If you were lucky, once a year when you made your annual trip to Macclenny you might get a piece of candy. "There were only four or five stores in Macclenny and all the streets were dirt or clay when I made my first trip to town in 1907. My folks would buy what they needed for a year, usually denim material by the bolt for ten to fifteen cents a yard, and chambray for shirts and underwear. "Our school was a one room shanty at a deserted sawmill that had been destroyed when a terrible storm hit in 1896. All us kids studied out of the same books, had the same lessons. We didn't have no report cards. When school closed, we'd mark our book where we stopped and when the next teacher came we'd show 'em where we left off. I figured I finished 'bout the sixth grade. We attended church once a month. Main thing I went for then was to see the other boys and girls. It was really a meeting place, to gather up and see our friends. Over the settlement it was known as North Prong, but in the minutes it's listed as Mt. Zion Primitive Baptist. "We didn't do too much for recreation. Sometimes we'd have dances, and our parents would let us go if we so desired. I never did care much about it, it was too much fatigue in it for the little bit I did get out of it. "Our parents taught us there was no harm in dancing if we behaved ourselves, and that's what I told my own children when they were growing up. "After the sawmill came to Moniac we soon got a train. I had four older brothers and there was 18 years difference between me and the oldest one. it was a pretty big thing to get up enough money ahead to travel to Jacksonville, but sometimes they would. People would leave books and magazines on the train and my brothers would bring them home. My mother didn't want us reading all the things they'd bring in. Once such book she disapproved of was Peck's Bad Boy, and one I remember that was OK was Slow Train Through Arkansas." In 1913, Benjamin Fish died, leaving Kizzie with four young children still to raise in their four-room hewed log house with a chimney made of sticks, clay and moss. On December 19, 1918, Dewey married Lottie Rhoden, who died with pneumonia in a little less than a year, December 6, 1919. Two years later, November 10, 1921, he married Lottie's cousin, Vertie Rhoden, and soon after moved into the old home place. The next year he bought it from the heirs. He reared his family of eight children, four boys and four girls there. "I started in the Chicken business in 1929," he said. "Disease hit the chickens and Hoover Prices hit the eggs. The most you could get if you were lucky, was 10 cents a dozen." He tried the cattle business next. "It was just about as bad," he said. "Screwworms, cow rustling and no re-forest took its toll." (Re-forest meant if the woods were not burned off to allow new grass to grow the cattle would not prosper. Old grass would get tough and dead pine straw would cover the grass if there was no re-forest). "The cattle would go wild, so I had to get out of that business too," he said. "I grew tobacco, had my own timber and made turpentine on the approximate 660 acres." Dewey Fish united with the Primitive Baptist faith. It was the opinion of the church, he said, that he had a special gift to preach, so he accepted, and says they "have never turned me a loose." "A lot of churches sprung up, some went independent of the association, but I have stayed with the original by-laws and still preach the original way today," he said, explaining the particular church he pastors is a small country church over in Georgia with 16 dedicated members. They meet once a month. As a staunch pioneer of the Taylor community, he served as a trustee in the first group of trustees for Taylor High School. He helped select the very first group of teachers in 1936. He served on the Baccalaureate services 1944-1952, and at one time had two of his children graduate the same year. He remembers that one year a flag was draped in the chair for one son who was in the service at graduation time. He served as the first mayor of Glen St. Mary, helping to organize it as a city, paying for the charter with five other citizens, Freddie Roberts, Claude Rhoden, Philip Taylor and Claude Dinkins. The first meeting was held in his Glen St. Mary home. One of his sons, Morris, was the first deputy sheriff to be killed in the line of duty in Baker County. He was 36 years old. "I was taking inventory the other day and I could only count about five of us that are still living from my generation ... I don't see well or hear well anymore myself. I've spent all my life right here in Baker County," he said, "and if there was ever a better place to go I'd have tried to go there. But there was never a better place." Footnote: Dewey Fish and his wife Verdie are buried in North Prong Cemetery north of Sanderson. Once Upon A Lifetime in and near Baker County, Florida, Volume No. 1 By La Viece (Moore-Fraser) Smallwood Copyright 1993 Permission has been granted by the author for posting to this page. Thank You, Mrs. LaViece!

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is George Dewey Fish Sr.'s memorial?
George Dewey Fish Sr.'s memorial is located at: North Prong Cemetery, Baxter, Baker County, USA.
When did George Dewey Fish Sr. death?
George Dewey Fish Sr. death on 5 Jan 1981 in
Where are the coordinates of the George Dewey Fish Sr.'s memorial?
Latitude: 30.4577100
Longitude: -82.2089800

Family Members:

Parent

James Benjamin “Ben” Fish

(1856 - 1913)

Julia Keziah “Kizzie” Smith Fish

(1859 - 1935)

Spouse

Lottie Rhoden Fish

(1900 - 1919)

Verdie Rhoden Fish

(1902 - 1989)

Siblings

Noah Walter Fish

(1880 - 1957)

Gabriel Mark Fish

(1882 - 1929)

Levan Lamar “Lee” Fish

(1883 - 1964)

Infant Daughter Fish

(1884 - 1884)

William Furney Fish

(1886 - 1918)

Katie Idela Fish Raulerson

(1889 - 1952)

Swatie Irene Fish Keen

(1892 - 1989)

Benjamin Gay Foy Fish

(1894 - 1939)

John Sterling Fish

(1902 - 1992)

Children

Myrle Fish Wiggins

(1926 - 1988)

Gabriel Morris Fish

(1929 - 1966)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. North Prong Cemetery
Baxter, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4577100, -82.2089800

2. Magnolia-Knabb Cemetery
Sanderson, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4301045, -82.2131155

3. Canaday Cemetery
Moniac, Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4915240, -82.1982260

4. Moniac Cemetery
Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.5102997, -82.2249985

5. Pleasant Grove Primitive Baptist Cemetery
Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4381590, -82.2693210

6. Taylor Cemetery
Taylor, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4357370, -82.2915009

7. Veterans Cemetery
Macclenny, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4656972, -82.2951361

8. Unidentified Cemetery
Sanderson, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4653397, -82.2954659

9. Sands-Thrift Cemetery
Moniac, Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3861710, -82.1763350

10. Crews Cemetery
Baxter, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.5350900, -82.2418390

11. Family Tree Cemetery
Saint George, Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3598360, -82.1614380

12. John D. Williams Cemetery
Sanderson, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3916874, -82.3178101

13. Oak Grove Cemetery
Macclenny, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3529540, -82.1527520

14. Turner Cemetery
Glen Saint Mary, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3369007, -82.2300034

15. Macedonia Cemetery
Macclenny, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3347893, -82.1435165

16. Stokesville Family Cemetery
Saint George, Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3849747, -82.0715511

17. Pringle Cemetery
Nassau County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4458008, -82.0269012

18. Motes Cemetery
Nassau County, USA
Coordinate: 30.3946991, -82.0382996

19. Emmaus Church Cemetery
Saint George, Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4841995, -82.0211029

20. Powers Family Cemetery
Glen Saint Mary, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.2934543, -82.1588233

21. Saint George Cemetery
Saint George, Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.5293999, -82.0280991

22. Boones Creek Cemetery
Charlton County, USA
Coordinate: 30.5699997, -82.0543976

23. Norton Cemetery
Bryceville, Nassau County, USA
Coordinate: 30.4566994, -82.0018997

24. Cedar Creek Cemetery
Sanderson, Baker County, USA
Coordinate: 30.2894001, -82.2791977