Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-07-19

- ERAINE&NIbLEy Su1gaO low L
We are furnished the following summary,
Of the documents and testimony in the
case Of Rev 1. o. Fisher, through the court
ssy9of Z a. AnaersOn. Esq Of TJarnes-
town. New York, one of the counse for the
Defence who has from the first lsbored
earnestly and persistentiy3 to elicit an ths
facts which could have any possible bear
ing on the e&se. ~,
TIE FISHER CASE - |
F, ne charge, specifications ahAaeiOn Of
the COMMITTEES appear in the body of the
report Of to-dsy's proceedings, The case IN
brief is Is follows: In last November Rev.
Ell. L. Baker, Presiding Elder of the Enc
Dictriet, was taken in and went to his home
in West6eld, New York. While he was
living sick at home, Bishop o. c.. Blker re-
eefved a letter at Concord, N. H, purpOrt-
ing TO be dictated by E-J. L. Baker, and
writer By $50 G. Clifford, stewzrd,'which
stated that E. ]. L. Baker was very Danger
ously i'll, and even in case the sickness was
not unto death, would not be able to resume
his duties in the District. and requested the
appointment of Rev. I. @. Fisher, then IN
charge of the church ct Ashhbula, to the
Ptssidins Eldership The letter was dated
bat Wcstfeldf the home of Baker, but post
marked at Ashtabuls, the home of Fisher.
Bishop Bakersent a reply to E. i'll Baker,
| aad letter to Fisher, notifying him OF his
i ADMINISTRATION to the eharge of the Dis
trict by E. i'll. Baker. On the reception Of
/ the Bishops letter, ELL Baker, wig had
recovered from his sickness, wrote for an
explanation. Fisher replied to the Bishops
ncte4n 3 SIX page letter, giving his plan
for the management of the District should
the Bishop zee fit to appoint him, and ask
ing the Bishopy in a line at the close tosend
him the letter Of E. ]. L. Baker which
/ Commended him 10 the post. The hand
writing of the letter Of Recommendation,
(which is called in the evidence the "Baker
Letter 3 vas strikingly like that Of the
replE 70 The note, and as soon as the Bishop
received the reply from Baker, his suspi-
cions fastened at once upon Fisher, and a
further correspondence made it necessary
TO prefer charges and bold the preliminary
trial which, as is we'll known, resulted in
his being called before this Conference for
trial by the Conference Committee.
Asthefaets Of the case became known some
cumstances in the previous career of Mr..
Fisher were recalled. Among them was
his appointment 10 the charge of the North
East Station seven years ago. While the
Conference was in session, in B~roVkville,
FRA, in 1853, d letter was received BY Bishop
Simpson presiding, purpOrtlng to be from
Mr.. Harper, Recording Steward at North
East. written in behalf of the Official Board
of that Charge, and requesting that Mr..
Fisher be appointed over them. The ap-
pointment was made, although another
preacher had been selected The people
wondered somewhat at this action, but Mr..
Fisher served very aeceptably and was
much beloved. The investigation of the
Baker Letter" led to suspicious, and Bishop
Simpson found among his papers the orig
inal letter pnrpertng to be from Mr.. Har-
per, which, when compared with the rBaker
letter. and letters known to be in Fishers
handwriting, were found to bear uumis-
taxable marks of the same hand. Nh. Har-
per and the church at North East were, Of
course, entirely ignorant Ofthe existence OF
sucha paper.
The third and last letter admitted as eyi-
denee is the most peculiar and mysterious
of all It was enclosed and sealed in a let
/ ter written in a fine, back hand TO Rev. DR..
rr-n III No. a.. l.. G1r TLz,u
burn, and stated that the enclosed letter
contained a confession OF the crimes un.
Justly charged against Fisher. c
It contsined also & paper which certified
that the writer and three others had formed
a Mining Company, and were then in some
place in Kansas on their way to the mines
That sEghter Smith, the writer of the en-
closed letter was dying Of hydrophobis
, and had requested his comrades to forward
the letter to Dr.. Hill of the Erie Confer
ence, in order to save a deeply wronged
: man. This certificate was signed by three
names and a mark, all evidently written by
: the same person, with gu effort at disguise
The enclosed letter covers eight pages o
note paper, and strongly resembles the 'Ba
kerr and "North5eastg letters, in style O
penmanship. It is signed by "Slightel
Smith, really and truly, R. Anderson anC
a confesses to a series Of prosecutions cover
ing many years. and acknowledges TIN
writing Of the "Baker" and "North east
letters as we'll as several others. The wri
e ter says that he he has cherished a desigr
e to ruin Fisher ever since his bOyhood, il
K revenge for an ~indignity he had offered t
his sister on a certain occasion. In add
e ton to this he says that he made a solemn
e pledge to ayenge the wrongs of a schoo
master, who was g turned OUT at the in
stance Of Fisher, for a Consideration.
s The first act was the destruction of som
T books, and an attempt to FIRE a school house
i and was followed by aseries of petty an
noyances. Not exceeding in these he stud
led the customs Of the Methodist church
and copied two or three letters he had re
? csiYed from Fisher, to learnsfhe pechliari
ties of his hand, SO as to attack him in hi
church relations. The "North- east" lette
yves zritten sEor a double purpose," to f;
: the authorship Of the letter upon him il
a case the forgery was discovered, or 70 ruiz
A him by placing him in a position be wa
4 incompetent to I'LL. if the appointment wa
A made. This failed as did several others
written with like intent. The Bake" wa
more successful, but when the writer sav
how much trouble he had brought upon Al
e innocent man, his conscience had givel
! him no, rest, and he had started for tn
mines. Now, at the point Of death, h
U made this confession, in the hope that b,
, might be forgiven. B At the close he state
4 that he has written in the hand of Fishe
J so much that it has become his own. Tn,
letter was post marked R~ogersvilIe, ant
enclosed two so compcund interest notes.
The evidence was mostly in reference {
the writing of these "lettcrs.r seYera
members of the, Conference, who had LON
been familiar, by correspondence, with tn,
peculiarly of Fishers handwriting, testifeS
positively that they had no doubt th
" Baker, Northeast" and " Kansas" let
tors were written by him, and, in thei
, opinion, could. not have been written b,
!. any other person. Others were quite as posi
: tive that the documents were only clos
limitations, and pointed out peculiaritie
> which they thoughtprecluded the idea tia
thew were written by Fisher. Tests which