Anna Fish (1867 – 1939) was the wife of John Chamberlin Fish. She was born and lived in Shelby her entire life. Her father, Obadiah Roberts, was born in Richland County in 1829, and grandfather Richard Roberts, Jr. settled just east of town. The family is all buried in Oakland Cemetery.
After John died in 1909, Anna assumed his position on the board of directors in several of the companies he was involved in, notably the Ohio Seamless Tube Company and Autocall. Remember, this was in an era before women gained the right to vote. It was rare for a woman to hold any position in business.
By 1913, women were allowed to be elected to school board positions. Anna Fish ran for the Shelby School Board, but lost.
As a tribute to her husband, she founded and was Chairman of the board of the Shelby Metal Products Company in 1920. The company made hinges under the brand name Standard. The factory on Broadway was a thriving business well past her death, changing names in 1975 to Standard Products.
A newspaper article at her death said,
“In business Mrs. Fish, I think, foresaw years ago that which is now being realized by industry, and put her ideas into effect in the factory of which she was head. To her, industry was not just a matter of dollars and cents, cost accounts and yearly statements. It was a cooperative movement among a group of people, of employes and employers, whose best interests were served by a mutual trust and loyal cooperation. In this she stands not as an exception but at the forerunner of what industry is now undertaking. “Tribute to Mrs. Anna R. Fish, Dr. Young pastor of the First Lutheran Church.
Mrs. Fish donated two lots to the Girls Scouts to build the Girl Scout House, which still stands at the corner of East Maxwell Drive and Parkwood Drive.
She was killed in a car crash in Cleveland while visiting a friend. Grandson John Forbes Fish, 9, was asleep in the back seat and was slightly injured. It was thought she might have had a heart attack and had already died when the car crashed over a curb and stone retaining wall, against the stone steps of the West 29th Street Detroit Avenue police precinct station. The impact was so violent that the motor was driven back into the front seat and the car body was bent upward. The speedometer, which was smashed, pointed to 60 miles an hour.
The honorary pallbearers read like a who’s who of Shelby royalty – Hildebrant, Huber, Skiles, Sotzen, Sheets, Van Horn, Seltzer, Mansfield, Dowds and Kingsboro, among the names in the obituary.
Newspaper article at her death pointed to the love the community had for her –
“Bright, happy and cheerful, Mrs. Fish carried sunshine with her wherever she went, and always had a smile and pleasant word for all with whom she came in contact. She enjoyed to the utmost the respect of the community in which she had spent her entire life.” Shelby Daily Globe.