John Chamberlin Fish (1864 – 1909) was one of the most progressive citizens of Shelby, as an officer or director of every industrial plant started in Shelby.
In 1896, Fish recruited electrical engineer Prof. Adolfe Alexander Chaillet, of Paris, France, to bring his new lamp (light bulb) invention to Shelby. The venture became the Shelby Electric Company and Fish became president. A building was built to house the factory on the corner of Tucker and Mack avenues. Just three years later, the company filled an order from the U.S. Treasury department for about 40,000 incandescent lamps. By 1902, the complex included several large buildings and employed nearly 900 men and women. About 1903, the National Lamp Company purchased the Shelby Electric Company.
US Steel owned the seamless tube factory when a fire broke out in 1908, leveling most of the plant and leaving 800 men out of jobs. When rumors spread that the company would not rebuild, the original stockholders asked to rebuild it. Two weeks after the fire, attorney Thomas J. Green and Fish called a meeting. Fish talked for an hour about the possibilities of the steel industry, the benefit of being called the birthplace of steel tubing in America, and the highly trained workforce already available. Fish led the committee to raise money, which sold $171,000 in stock in three weeks. Fish was named president of the new steel mill. The new factory was finished in less than a year, although Fish never saw it run. He died three weeks before the first billet was pierced.