LEWIS HENRY CLAY FLETCHER (1839-1927)MARTHA ELLEN ROWE (1840-1896)
Picture courtesy of Martha O'Reilly Alexander
Lewis Henry Clay Fletcher (he later dropped the "Clay") was born in Leitersburg, Washington County, Maryland, on April 24,1839. He was one of seven children born to Charles Fletcher and his wife, Elizabeth Ziegler Fletcher. Lewis was the fifth child, although his oldest two siblings died when they were very young, seven years before he was born (and within two months of each other, so possibly during an epidemic). Lewis was just a little boy (6 years old) when his father died in 1845. Sometime after his father's death, his mother moved with him, his brother, and sisters, across the state line, about 10 miles, to Greencastle in Franklin County, Pennsylvania where her brother had moved earlier and established himself. Lewis entered the employ of this maternal uncle, George W. Ziegler, who was a merchant. He married Martha Ellen Rowe in Greencastle on June 5, 1861, when he was 22. He worked with his uncle until the First National Bank of Greencastle was organized, whereupon he accepted the post as first cashier. Later, he served as a clerk in the Auditor's office of the Cumberland Valley Railroad and in 1902, he was elected treasurer of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was a deeply religious man and was Superintendent of the Greencastle Sunday School for over 60 years and a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church of Greencastle. According to the "Fletcher book", "Integrity being the distinguishing quality of his character he was revered by everyone." Throughout his life, he was a "consistent Republican". He died at age 87 on March 9, 1927 (and thereby lived to see two great-granddaughters, Emily and Missy Carl, children of Pitt F. Carl, Jr. and Elizabeth Ross, among others) in Greencastle, and is buried in the Fletcher mausoleum in Cedar Hill Cemetery. Pictures of "Grandfather Fletcher", tall with a white beard and whiskers are extant and in the possession of both of the afore-mentioned great-granddaughters.
He was County Treasurer for a while.
Martha Ellen Rowe was born on June 22, 1840 in Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the third child (out of eight) of John Rowe, Jr. and Elizabeth Watson Prather Rowe. She was called "Mattie". She married Lewis Henry Fletcher on June 5, 1861, a few weeks before her 21st birthday, in Greencastle. Her brother, D. Watson Rowe (the Civil War officer and judge) married her husband's sister, Annie Fletcher, the next year. She gave birth to ten children, nine of whom lived to adulthood -- the formidable and popular Fletcher clan!
I wanted to give Mattie, my great-great-grandmother, her own page, but like many of our ancestors on the distaff side, we know so little about her. She died on March 9, 1896, at just 55 years old. She did live long enough to meet seven grandchildren, but all very young when she died. (Interestingly, she died on the same day as her husband, 31 years apart, and March 9 was also my mother's birthday.) Luckily, a few photographs of her have survived.
Grandfather Fletcher with two great-grandchildren, Sammy Slaymaker and Emily Carl (my mother), ca. 1925