|
a.
|
Note: H00004
Note: 1900 CENSUS: BRANCH CO., MICHIGAN, Ovid Twp. p. 210. 1 June 1900. "Crydon M. Fenner" is 52 yrs., b. Sept. 1847, m. for 30 yrs., NY/NY/NY, a "farmer"; "Emma L." is 48 yrs., b. March 1852 with 4 children, 4 living; MI/NY/NY; "Jasper A." is 17 yrs., b. Dec. 1882, single and working at "farm labor"; "Rolland" is 14 yrs., b. June 1885, single and at school; "Louisa Buck," mother-in-law, is 78, widowed, b. Feb. 1822, 4 children, 3 living; NY/?/?(illegible).
1910 CENSUS: BRANCH CO., MI, Coldwater. Lodger "JASPER A. FENNER," 28, widowed, chemist/drug store, MI/NY/NY.
12 Sept 1918: Registered for U.S. draft in Yokohama, Japan.
1920 CENSUS: KING CO., WA, Seattle, Pct. 116, p. 263B. Head "JASPER FENNER," 37, MI/MI(sic)/MI/(sic), "Import/export."; Wife "ANNA M.," 25, PA/PA/CAN; Dau "JOANNE," 2 yrs., 7 mos, CA/MI/PA; Son "BRELLE," 4 yrs., 6 mos., JAPAN/MI/PA; Nurse "HELEN GOULD," 16, WA/SCOT/SCOT.
Jasper Alvester " Jay" Fenner was born and raised on the family farm in Branch County, Michigan, the third of four brothers. "He went to Teachers College in Marion, Indiana (later, Indiana Wesleyan) with four of his cousins and taught school in a one room school house at Bethel, Branch Co., MI in 1900 and 1901. (see Contract). He entered the University Of Michigan at Ann Arbor in September of 1903 and received his degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry with a specialty in Food Analysis in June, 1906. He was a registered pharmacist. Gertrude Blanche Conklin became his wife in 1906 and in 1908 his daughter, Priscilla, was born in Detroit, MI where he was a chemist for Park, Davis & Co. In 1909, when Priscilla was only 21 mos. old, Gertrude died of peritonitis following a surgery. In September, 1909 Jay left the child with her maternal grandparents in Kinderhook, Branch Co., MI and embarked with his friend, a Baptist minister, Rev. Frank Bachelor, on a round the world trip. Bachelor was under contract with the American News Syndicate for a column a week to be published throughout the Eastern United States. (See clippings) The travelers wrote of their journey through the Canadian Rockies to Seattle and of their stay in Honolulu. Travelling with them to Japan on the Nippon Maru and the Siberia was a Dr. Teussler, an Episcopal missionary and surgeon, who was in great need of a manager for St. Luke's Hospital Pharmacy and wholesale business in Tokyo. Upon arrival he " made Fenner an offer he couldn't resist," so Jay "jumped ship" and his friend continued without him. Over the years "business was good and grew until he owned three pharmacies including the splendid, new Hospital Pharmacy on the Ginza, a wholesale hospital supply house, a small glass bottle factory and a fairly large surgical instrument factory. He built an export trade, supplying the physicians of Chosen, Manchuria, China the Philippines and Siam with pharmaceuticals and hospital supplies." In 1910 (or 11 or 12) Fenner finally completed his world voyage travelling through Japan, China, Russia, Poland, Germany, France and England arriving in New York on the Kaiser Wilhelm II for a 5 month stay in the States. During those years he made frequent trips home. On one of those trips, at a Sunday School picnic while visiting relatives in upstate New York, he met 17 year old Anna Mildred Brill visiting from Sharpsburg, Allegheny Co., Pa. After a correspondence courtship and engagement the large, long planned wedding was cancelled because of the accidental death of her young nephew in a lumber yard accident that same week. On May 28, 1914 they were quietly married at home and left immediately for Coldwater, Branch Co., Mi, to visit his family, then Seattle, WA and the voyage to Tokyo, Japan. They were "at home" in the European enclave in Tokyo. Son, Brill, (Jasper Brill) was born in 1915 and his widowed mother-in-law, Sarah J. Brill visited and was probably there for the birth. During the First World War Jay was engaged as a buyer of supplies for the American Red Cross in Russia. He made more than twenty trips into Siberia and covered territory from Harborosk to China to supply the German and Austrian prisoners held captive. By this time, Jay spoke Japanese and had a working knowledge of Cantonese, Mandarin and Russian. Ann, however, was homesick, lonely and hated his constant travelling. In early 1917 the family returned to the States and settled temporarily in Berkeley, Ca where Joanne was born. Jay's intent was to spend part of each year in Japan to look after his many and lucretive business interests. In 1920 the family moved to Seattle, WA where the twins, Peggy and Jay, were born. At some point, the family moved to an imposing home and Jay co- founded the firm of Fenner, Ross & Brown, Inc., exporters and importers "organized for the purpose of carrying on a general trade with the Far East, Siberia and Russia." It was to market machinery, drugs and chemicals of American manufacture. All he had built in the past 13 years came to an abrupt and fiery end with the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923. Everything burned (including Fenner Family papers); the Seattle business failed as did an attempt at a retail pharmacy in a very competative market. In 1924 or 25 they were forced to rejoin the middle class. They sold their Seattle home and moved to Portland, Oregon where he was employed as a pharmaceutical representative by the H. K. Mulford Company of Philadelphia. In 1929 Mulford appointed him manager-at-large for their Orient Division in Bombay, India. In November of 1929, "the crash" not withstanding, the family sailed on the American Mail Line's President Lincoln for their new home where they would stay until January of 1931. Because of the unhealthy climate the children attended a British boarding school at Panchgani in the hills some distance from the city. (see letters.) The children were the only Americans in the school and were desperately homesick for their parents. The family returned to the States at the low point of the Depression and settled again in Berkeley, CA where Jay was employed as a representative for Wyeth Pharmaceuticles. In about 1933 he was transferred to Sacramento where they rented the much loved home on Stockton Blvd. and the children all attended and graduated from Fruitridge Elementary and Sacramento High Schools. His daughter Priscilla and her husband also came to live in Sacramento. Jay lived to see his children attend college, serve in the Armed Forces, marry and have children of their own. He continued to work for Wyeth until the day he died and was known by pharmacists and doctors throughout the Sacramento Valley as that portly, dapper old gentleman with the cigar, pearl stickpin and jade ring who spoke so many languages and was a veritable pharmacopoeia of information. (Barbara Hays Cook, his grand-daughter 9/01)
OBIT: Sacramento CA., Bee., abt. 2 June 1956. DEATH TAKES DRUGGIST WHO MADE, LOST FORTUNE IN JAPAN. Services will be held tomorrow for JASPER A. FENNER, 73, who made and lost a fortune in the drug business in Japan before establishing his home in Sacramento 25 years ago. Fenner, a native of Coldwater, MI, died Tuesday in his home at 1733 40th Street. WAS JOURNALIST - When he was a young man he made two trips around the world as a correspondent for a syndicate of newspapers in Michigan and other midwestern states. About 1912 Fenner established a drug store in Tokyo. The business prospered and he expanded the firm until he had......(illeg.) house in Japan's capital city and Yokohama. GONE IN AN HOUR - Fenner lost the entire business estimated to be worth $250,000, in an hour during an earthquake and fire in the 1920's. During World War 1 he made 16 trips into the Vladisvostok area of Siberia with Red Cross supplies for war prisoners. For two years before coming to Sacramento, Fenner was manager at large in Bombay, India, for the H.K. Mulford Company, a Philadelphia pharmaceutical concern. Since coming to Sacramento he has been a representative for the John Wyeth laboratories, another Philadelphia pharmaceutical firm. SURVIVORS NAMED - Surviving are his wife, Ann, children, Mrs. Spencer Perkins of Concord, Mrs. David Hays, J. Brill Fenner and J. A. Fenner, Jr., all of Sacramento, Mrs. Priscilla Gallatin of Fair Oaks, 12 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. in the East Lawn Cemetery Chapel. Cremation will follow.
|
