The biographical encyclopœdia of Ohio of the nineteenth century:

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPA2EDIA.
general studies and habits of thought. No man could ever
listell to Dr. Fisher when engaged upon those great themes
with which his soul was filled, without a persuasion that he
spoke from absolute conviction of the truth and an over whelming sense of the importance of the message he bore
as an embassador of Christ and a "legate of the skies."
IHis ordinary discourses were full of thought as well as of
feeling. Those who heard the course of sermons onl the
"Epistle to the Hebrews," and on the " Life of Christ,"
need not be told that a more remarkable series of discourses
has seldom been heard from an American pulpit. There
were-public occasions also when he discussed great topics
with a futlness and a power that left nothing more to be
said, and with results of conviction in the minds of his auditors that nothing could shake, nothing even disturb.
There are several discourses of Dr. Fisher that would alone
make a distinguished reputation for any man, and that are
to be ranked among the highest efforts of the pulpit of his
day. But not in the pulpit only did he shine. So unusually is marked excellence as a preacher combined with an
equal excellence as a pastor, that it would not have been
strange if Dr. Fisher had proved comparatively inefficient in
pastoral work. Nevertheless he did prove to be an exceptioniably good pastor. He gave living demonstration that
one man may be both great preacher and good pastor. In
all the families that made up his congregation, his name was
a household word. Carrying everywhere an atmosphere of
cheerfulness and sunshine, no one ever met him in social
life without feeling the charm of his manners and conversation. Slow to condemn and quick to sympathize, shrinking
instinctively firom wounding the feelings of any, and prompt
in all offices of kindness and love, hle won the hearts of his
people to a most singular degree. Never was any pastor more
universally beloved. The minister most covetous of the love
of his people might well be satisfied with the measure of
affection accorded to Dr. Fisher. A prince he was, not by
virtue of any patent of nobility bestowed by an earthly monarch, but by the direct gift of IHeaven, with the royal signet
of the giver legibly impressed thereon; a prince in intellect,
a prince in large and liberal culture, but o e- and above all,
a prince in active sympathies, warm affections, and a great
human heart going out impulsively toward all that pertained
to man, however lowly, or sin-stained, or despised, and devoting his best powers and faculties to the good of the
world and the glory of God. It was in the practical and
persistent consecration of the gifts and graces with which he
was endowed to these large and beneficent ends, that he
earned the title, secured the honors and obtained the rewards of a prince and a great man in Israel. Such, most
imperfectly, and in the merest outline sketched, was Dr.
Samuel Ware Fisher up to the day and hour when, at the
flood-tide of his influence, and apparently in the meridian
fulness of his intellectual and moral powers, he was, by the
mysterious stroke of an unseen hand, suddenly struck down,
leaving him with the bounding pulse of life faintly flutter
CHENCK, JAMES F., Rear Admiral United
States Navy, son of William C. and Elizabeth
(Rodgers) Schenck, was born in Warren county,
Ohio, January I Ith, I807. Upon the'death of
his father in I82I, he was appointed to the United
States Military School at West Point by his
guardian and namesake, General James Findley, then memI)er of Congress from Cincinnati. There was no naval
academy at that time, but having a disposition for sea service, his guardian procured him an appointment as midshipman ill I 825. March Ist of that year he sailed in the
"Hornet," on his first cruise, and continued in the service
till retired on the superannuated list, January IIth, I869.
He passed successively through all the grades up to that of
Rear Admiral. During the Mexican war he served in the
Pacific squadron on the staff of Commodore Stockton, and
did military duty in common with the whole naval force in
seizing California. After the conclusion of that struggle
and the discovery of gold, the government subsidized a private line of steamers to carry the mails via the Isthmus of
Panama, upon the condition of appointing the commanders
from the officers of the navy, and Mr. Schenck was detailed
Captain of one of the vessels of the line, a position he held
till 1855. The breaking out of the great Rebellion found
Mr. Schenck in China, Commander of the " Saginaw." As
soon as he could be called home, which was not until i862,
he was promoted to Captain and ordered to the western
Gulf squadron, on the frigate " St. Lawrence." Here his
duty was simply blockading, and he saw no very active service. In I864 he was promoted to Commodore, and in the
two attacks on Fort Fisher commanded the third division of
the fleet, consisting of seventeen vessels, the " Powhatan"
being his flag-ship. In both engagements he was in the
hottest of the fight, and lost a third of his men and four
officers of a party of one hundred with whom he landed, but
escaped untouched himself. His son, Caspar Schenck, paymaster at the time on the "Juniata," was wounded on the
opening of the first engagement, and afterwards promoted
for the gallantry he displayed in the battle. After the close
5S
ing, the bright eye dimmed, the eloquent tongue iiiute or
incoherent.. Ilis half-executed plans, his high expectations,
his large purposes arrested, nothing remained for him but
with childlike trust and sweet patience to await the final
summons, which, January i8th, 1874, at Cincinnati, Ohio,
came in kindness to' call him home. The temporary torpor
of his faculties was at once dispelled, the clouds and the
shadows that gathered about his setting sun have all been
dissipated, the darkness has passed and light perennial and
eternal beams on him, for, in his own beautiful words,
"Another Teacher, infinitely wise and good, is now leading
him up the heights of knowledge, and in a momen, he has
learned more than men on earth can ever know."