Fisher family has built a long Skagit County history

The Fisher family name is synonymous with home, commercial and industrial construction in Skagit County.

Frieschknecht is a less familiar name, but one that remains vital to bridging the county’s rich history and its present status as a model for balancing economic opportunity with environmental preservation.

The Frieschknecht legacy, in fact, is a key chapter in the Fisher family story, which will be shared as part of the 115th annual Skagit County Pioneer Picnic in La Conner Thursday.

Their story begins with Albert and Anna Widmer

Friescheschknecht, each of whom left Switzerland for Skagit County more than a century ago.

Albert arrived before the turn of the 20th century, settling in Ehrlich, near the southeast end of Big Lake. Anna followed in 1901 to wed Albert.

The couple set about to clear by hand their land for buildings, gardens, and sunlight. They acquired milk cows and horses and embraced life as pioneer Skagit County farmers. But that’s not all. Besides farming, Albert owned and operated a saloon near Ehrlich from about 1908 to 1920.

That business could be as daunting as farming.

Family members still recount the story of when Albert dueled it out with a gun-toting robber. Albert shot at the man, but the bullet lodged in a door jamb. The robber shot back and missed.

In time, Albert changed the family name to Fisher.

“He did so,” says Chad Fisher, Albert’s great-grandson, “because he had often been called “fish neck” and he also wanted to have a more conventional American name.”

Albert and Anna had five children, one of whom, Bill Fisher, took up farming after having worked in the woods. He was also in demand as a pile driver.

In addition, he gained great notoriety for having a high pain threshold.

Bill Fisher was part of the crew hired in 1934 to build the North Fork Bridge near La Conner. While on that job, his glove got caught in the pile driver cabling, severing his hand.

“In those days,” Chad Fisher says, “there was no ambulance, so he wrapped his hand in a tourniquet and took off on foot for the hospital in Mount Vernon. On the way he was picked up a bread truck that rushed him to the hospital to receive care.”

Bill Fisher and Clara “Ruth” Nordal were married in 1927 at Fir, a union that produced four children, the oldest being Robert “Bob” Fisher, now 90, and . the family’s patriarch today.

Bob Fisher was born at the old Rowley Hospital in Mount Vernon and attended primary grades at Riverside and Avon. He was 11 in 1940 when the family sold its land to the Sakumas and moved onto 40 acres along Worline Road, where Bob milked cows and went to Burlington area schools. He was an eighth grader at Edison when its principal was the legendary Jim Costanti.

After graduating from Burlington-Edison High in 1947, Bob Fisher attended refrigeration school in Portland and had an opportunity to display his inherent talent for carpentry, which he first tapped as a kid.

“While he was at refrigeration school,” says Chad Fisher, “he worked at repairing flood-damaged barracks at Vanport Military Base. A colonel there took note of his carpentry skills.”

That encouraged Bob Fisher to further fine tune that ability. He returned to Skagit Valley to work as a carpenter for Iver Swanson. His early job sites were the Burlington Lutheran Church and a bridge at Baker Lake.

In 1950, he married high school sweetheart Joanna Busha, a descendant of the Watkinson family instrumental in the early development of Edison, Allen and Bow, and daughter of Joy Busha, a Skagit County commissioner.

After working in Lake City and on the refineries at March Point, Bob Fisher began building homes in Skagit County. He and Charlie Reisdorf formed Fisher-Reisdorf formed. It became a truly cutting edge construction business partnership in the 1960s.

“They began to prefabricate and streamline the building operation by prefabricating walls, which was a new concept in Skagit County,” Chad Fisher says. “At one time they were building 30-plus homes a year along with a few commercial projects.”

Bob Fisher later branched off to start Fisher Construction, concentrating on construction of custom homes. He built many homes around Skagit Golf and Country Club in Burlington and elsewhere in Skagit County.

In the mid 1970s, Bob Fisher’s older sons Jerome and Chad returned home from Washington State University and together with their dad launched Fisher and Sons Construction, specializing in commercial and industrial projects.

They eventually acquired two other firms and began to concentrate on food processing and cold storage construction jobs, extending into other states and Canada.

Bob, Jerome and Chad have all left that business and it continues under the ownership of its employees and Todd Fisher, Bob’s youngest son.

Chad Fisher now has his own company, Chad Fisher Construction, with his sons, who are third generation contractors and fifth generation Skagit County residents.

Chad Fisher’s sister, Veonne, has been part of the Skagit County business scene for many years, engaged in the insurance field in Anacortes and Mount Vernon.

As for Bob Fisher, who also enjoyed a long tenure as a Skagit River fishing guide, boating remains a favorite pastime.

Fittingly, he and his family are sure to be greeted by a high tide of enthusiasm at this year’s Pioneer Picnic.