Draft:George Ray Fiske

George Ray Fiske (October 27, 1866 – May 5, 1937) was a Rhode Island farmer and politician who served in the state senate.

"At the age of eleven he went on a Rhode Island farm. Fiske, when nineteen, abandoned agriculture, and for several years was otherwise engaged. But early training asserted itself, and in 1895 he returned to the soil and has since operated his one hundred acre farm very successfully, confining himself principally to dairy farming.

George R. Fiske is a son of Albert Dana and Roxanna Spencer (Johnson) Fiske, and grandson of Isaac and Nabby (Henry) Fiske, a descendent of an ancient Rhode Island family, who acquired land in Coventry, and were substantial agriculturists in every generation. Isaac Fiske had two sons, Albert D., a well-to-do-farmer of Coventry, and John, a soldier of the Union, serving with Battery B, recruited in Providence. He was wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill, taken prisoner, and confined in Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., and in the stockade at Andersonville, Ga., being exchanged from the latter after great suffering. After his release from the hospital he returned to Rhode Island, and located in Anthony, badly crippled. Albert Dana Fiske married Roxanna Spencer Johnson, they are the parents of sons: George Ray and Charles A. Fiske, the last named making his home with his brother at Summit. Albert Dana Fiske died October 23, 1895, aged sixty-two, and Mrs. Fiske died December 3, 1888.

George Ray Fiske was born in Washington, R. I., October 27, 1866, and there was educated in the public schools. He remained at home his father's assistant until 1885, then he entered railroad employ, so continuing for eight years, being a section foreman at the time of his leaving the company. He then returned to the farm, and in 1895 purchased a farm of one hundred acres at Summit, R. I., since devoting himself to its operation as a dairy farm. He has a valuable property, well-managed, and is one of the substantial men of his town.

Always a Republican in politics, in June, 1896, he was elected a member of the Town Council, serving until 1901. In 1897 he was elected State Senator from West Greenwich, and through successive reelections served four terms, one, the last session, in the Old State House, and one, the first session, held in the New State Capital. In the Senate he served on the committee on State property, and was one of the working, valued members of that body. In June, 1907, he was elected town clerk, an office he still holds, and in 1914 he was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and is still holding that office through reelection. He is a member of the committee on labor legislation; in 1917, was appointed to fill the vacancy upon the town school committee of West Greenwich. He is a member and a past master of Ionic Lodge, No. 28, Free and Accepted Masons, of Greene, and interested in other organizations of the town, political, business and religious.

Senator Fiske married, May 17, 1891, Mary Ann Eliza Johnson, with whom he had the following children: Edith M., born Feb. 12, 1893, taught in the West Greenwich schools several years prior to her marriage to Clyde S. Fish, of West Greenwich;  Renie E., born Jan. 3, 1895, residing at home; Albert A., born April 18, 1897; George E., born March 14, 1899, died Aug. 31, 1917, by accidental drowning while serving as a fireman of the third class in the United States Navy, assigned to the battleship 'Wisconsin'; and Minnie V., born June 19, 1905, residing at home."