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A reader contacted me soon after I wrote a column about how 19th- and early 20th-century histories overlooked achievements of York County women of that day.
How dare you criticize such important works on history? he asked.
One of my observations, in particular, caused my contact to fume.
I had counted the number of illustrations in one of those history books. The count was 55.
All of those shown were men.
I asked my inquirer about the fairness of that.
Well, he replied, maybe no woman accomplished anything to merit a portrait up to that point.
Well, let's consider Mary C. Fisher's accomplishments, just during the Civil War years:
April, 1861
Soon after the rebel firing on Fort Sumter, raw farm boys gathered in York.
By the thousands.
Where were these volunteers, the North's only fighting hope against those rebelling Southerners, going to stay?
The York Fairgrounds, then in southeast York, needed to be fitted into an army camp.
A particular unit of soldiers from Hanover approached Mary Fisher's house looking for quarters.
That brick house along East Market Street already bustled.
Mary's husband, Judge Robert Fisher, had four children from a first marriage.
The widower had married Mary Sophia Cadwell, a teacher in the female division of the York County Academy, in 1853. The couple had two children.
Still, Mary Fisher joined scores of other women in town in opening her house.
Her guests soon expressed their appreciation.
Hanover's M.F. Mulgrew attended a special session at the courthouse, resolving:
"That the Hon. R. J. Fisher and his accomplished lady are entitled to the gratitude and lasting remembrance of every soldier from Hanover for their hospitality at their own house, and their extreme kindness in procuring the best quarters in the county, for the soldiers of York and Adams."
As the war raged on, Mary Fisher helped form the foundation for soldier relief work in York.
She and other women wound bandages, prepared medical supplies and served as nurses at the large U.S. Army General Hospital that grew up on Penn Park.
June, 1863
A gray-clad sentry stood in front of Mary Fisher's house.
Not all houses had guards in rebel-occupied York.
She asked why the house was posted.
"I must obey orders," came the reply.
She offered him food and water.
"I thank you, madam, we are not allowed to accept anything," the guard said.
She later discovered that the sentinel stood guard against Dr. W.S. Roland's escape. The physician, guest of the Fishers, served as an Army surgeon and, thus, was a prisoner of war.
The men in gray were well-behaved, but people in town feared an outbreak at any time.
"We knew not how soon might come a signal to unleash the dogs of war in our midst," Fisher wrote, "and give your homes a prey to the invader."
The guard's vigil continued until the town filled requisitions for meat and flour.
Then the sentry departed for a warm meal.
July, 1863
Mary Fisher was aboard the first train of wagons loaded with medical supplies traveling from York to treat the battle wounded in Gettysburg.
By now, Fisher was a veteran nurse at York's military hospital.
When she reached a barn outside Gettysburg, she counted 400 men, and not one was a "whole individual."
"One poor wretch had both legs and his right arm torn off by a shell," she later wrote, "and one had lost both arms and one leg."
When she reached the battlefield, the scene was even worse.
In some woods, she observed 500 men lying on the bare ground.
Some were literally half buried in mud. They were starving and racked with pain.
"No imagination could paint the picture in that wood," she wrote, "I instinctively recoiled from the sight."
April, 1865
Rowdy and perhaps intoxicated convalescents from the Penn Park military hospital paraded York's streets after the Confederate surrender.
They demanded that the Stars and Stripes fly from every house.
The crowd - some viewed it as a mob - gravitated to the homes of suspected Southern sympathizers who weren't flying flags.
Remarkedly, the Fisher home received such a visit.
One report stated that the crowd threw stones at the Fisher residence or perhaps a round from a pistol passed through a window.
This brought the judge to the door.
Fly the flag, the crowd demanded.
No, the judge replied, I will not follow demands.
Disperse.
The crowd disbanded but not because of the judge's command.
Union officers stepped in.
And Mary Fisher appeared in a second-story window.
She put up a flag.
Women did not accomplish much in those days, huh?
James McClure is editor of the York Daily Record/Sunday News. He wrote "East of Gettysburg", a source for this column, and four other books on county history. To contact him, call 771-2000, or e-mail jem@ ydr.com
Another heroine
Columnist June Lloyd profiles the young Wrightsville woman who stared down a roomful of Confederates on page B2. Still, if a Web search is any indication, Lloyd writes, Mary Jane Magee Rewalt's primary claim to fame comes as grandmother of noted author Gore Vidal.
According to several Web sites, Vidal's father, Eugene Luther Vidal, was born in 1895 in Madison, S.D., to Felix Luther Vidal and Margaret Ann Rewalt (also known as Annie). She was the child listed in the Wrightsville 1880 census as Maggie A., age 10, daughter of Luther and Mary Jane Rewalt.
Gore Vidal's mother was Nina S. Gore, reportedly a distant cousin of Al Gore.
Walking tour
Robert and Mary Fisher's house stands today at 124 E. Market St. For information on this house and other York sites, see Scott D. Butcher's booklet, "Civil War Walking Tour," available at the York County Heritage Trust, 250 E. Market Street, or on the Web at http://www.yorkheritage.org.
