Another cool Fisher Stove ad

[Todd67]

I hope this link works, it's from a December 1977 Missouri ad, show the inner workings of the bear series. I tried to add this to the "Everything Fisher" thread but it's full, maybe these ads can have their own thread, as interesting as they are...
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZGofAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GtUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5289,5319110&dq=fisher stoves&hl=en

Here's one from a gun shop in a Fredricksburg, VA paper
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAIBAJ&pg=2496,2989835&dq=fisher-stoves&hl=en

Nov 17, 1974, don't know if Coaly already posted this one
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAIBAJ&pg=6389,4256694&dq=fisher-stoves&hl=en

Coaly or Camfan, did Cal Cotton build stoves in Newburgh, NY? Here's an ad from January 1977
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAIBAJ&pg=2551,4658589&dq=fisher-stoves&hl=en

Here's an XL ad from the Salt Lake City area March 1978. I've seen Mama Bears listed from 370 pounds up to 410 pounds. Wonder if it's the weight of the bricks or the type of steel used...?
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAIBAJ&pg=5690,6628722&dq=fisher-stoves&hl=en

Here's a good November 1980 article from Canada, gives good numbers of Fisher Stoves at around 30,000 just in British Columbia!
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAIBAJ&pg=2903,3563399&dq=fisher-stoves&hl=en

This article gives good insight into the IL and ICBO testing in September 1983. It even gives a chart type guide to firewood species, drying time, etc..
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAIBAJ&pg=5554,3683449&dq=fisher-stoves&hl=en

 

[coaly]

I know Calvin Cotton was first in Boise Idaho and hired a manger to run his western fabrication shop, then moved to NY. I've never found the address where the New York stoves were made. Newburgh is not too far from the Factoryville PA shop, so I'm not sure if that was a dealer or his NY shop. By 1977 there were dealers advertising, and some ads from the fabricator listed all their dealers. That list grew so fast and large, it's impossible to tell how many they had in later years.
Then a distribution network started so people didn't have to travel so far to get one. Plumbing supply, hardwares stores, sports outfitters, anyone wanting to add a product line to their sales for slow times was able to have them trucked to their retail store. Many didn't have any on the floor, but had a poster on the wall, and you could order out of the sales book. I remember counter help telling customers they had to wait for a stove since they had a minimum order for shipping cost reduction. I was one of them that couldn't wait, so drove the hour plus north to Factoryville to buy direct. Not all fabrication shops made every model, so depending on which one you wanted, you would have to come back for it in a week or two to give them time to get one from the nearest fabricator with that model. A discount was given if you picked it up yourself. The PA Factory Showroom included delivery in stove price.

That ad from 1974 is one of the originals Bob started with. I think I posted it somewhere, since it's the oldest one I found out of the 53 I have. I only gave a sampling in the Everything Fisher thread. If there's enough interest in them, I'll post away.

I count 13 patents in my patent file.

I have about 60 news articles, and quite a file on personal stuff from workers, dealers, and family.

Here was the most difficult article to find; Bob Fisher's birth announcement. I tried a ton of search criteria until I came up with it ! (agreed, I have too much free time) Bob himself may not even have this from his birth.
Highlighted at top right is, FISHER - At the Sacred Heart general hospital, August 9 1941, to Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Fisher, Route 2, Springfield, a son.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...3392,309007&dq=mr-and-mrs-baxter-fisher&hl=en


Most XL ads are from the Deseret News in Utah. The stainless tag on the inside of left rear leg on my XL starts with UT, and the door has a casting mark of Utah state profile inside. So it appears to be a local thing, and other dealers that needed one for a customer probably had to get one from there. All fabricators would be sent prints and updated prints, but didn't have to produce each stove model unless they had enough need in their area for it.

The Canadian article from 1980 is a stove dealer still in business called Northwest Stoves. Wayne Rourke retired last year. Their old newsletters are on-line, but no longer produced ;
http://www.northweststoves.ca/pdf/newsletters/02-0910.pdf

 

[Todd67]

I was hoping to get an idea of where my stove was made and or sold. My wife hasn't had time to look for foundry marks in the door or other markings on the stove. I am also guilty of having too much time on my hands (at times), and I am a research-a-holic with things that I have a passion for. I looked at the Newburgh address from that ad and it doesn't look like anything is still there at 15 Powder Mill Rd. I also didn't come up with anything when I searched for the Village Shop at the Mid Valley Mall. It might have been a strip mall that has been converted into office space or torn down for another expansion project. Not a big deal, it's still fun doing the research.

I noticed one of those ads for a GM Bear, they called it a mama bear and listed the weight as 370 pounds. So it appears that even some of the stove dealers were using the wrong stove names in their ads.

My wife is an artist, and I would love for her to paint some of the old Fisher Stove signs on the inside walls of our mud room where our baby bear will be installed this fall. Would you be able to email me any pictures of some old Fisher Stoves sign you have "stumbled" upon in your research? If so I can send you my email address in a PM. The only ones I have seen are the ones you posted on the forum, but I'm not sure how long it would take for me to find them again .

 

[coaly]

The early New York stoves I've had have been stamped on the back, at the top right looking at the back.


More noticeable when sanded. Early PA stoves have written weld on the bottom with PA and the stove number.
Door markings don't mean much, only where the door was cast. Fabricators bought the doors from Fisher, and were not allowed to have their own cast locally.

Sometimes the pictures used in ads were not correct. You will find later ads with old pictures of stoves with ball feet and ball handles long after the balls were gone, and springs were being used.
Some ads used the shipping weight from factory, others used the actual stove weight only. Usually with an "approximate" added. I've weighed most models with two bathroom scales, and found the lighter of the weights given is actual, so the higher weight must have been with wood bottom, packing and box.
Mama is 370 lbs with brick, 410 lbs. as shipped.

I can send some pictures to paint reproductions and give you the original sizes of what I have.