Today is a good day to remember pioneer lady brewer Mary Fisher, who was born on a December day in 1854. She was raised and educated in Altoona in the mountains of Pennsylvania. She was married in 1873 to Charles Haid, a brewer by training, who the next year established the Union Brewery on 4th Avenue in that town. He ran that brewery for twelve years until he suddenly died at age 37 in 1886. At this point Mary, now named Mary Haid, took over the business and ran it alone as the Mountain City Brewery. Daniel Rittman was a German-born brewer in Cleveland who in 1886 was hired by Mrs. Haid to be foreman of her brewery. The arrangement worked out well enough that the two were married in November of 1889. But married life was not a peaceful one for the Rittmans. The Altoona Times described it as "a constant domestic warfare". A devastating brewery fire earlier in 1889 and its subsequent rebuilding had injected money troubles into the relationship. This was exacerbated by the challenges the insurance companies had made to the policies, which were issued only three days before the conflagration. In March Mary, now Mary Rittman, was compelled by her creditors to sell the brewery property at auction. A last-minute court decision allowed her to bid, and she retained her brewery at a bargain. But this was not the end of the troubles. In April Mary heard a rumor that Daniel had a second family living in Cleveland and she promised him an investigation. On the 24th of that month her husband, perhaps fearful of exposure, entered their bedroom at midnight with a gun. He fired four shots. Moments later Mary was hiding wounded in her daughters room and her husband was dead in the bedroom, a pool of blood surrounding his head and his gun laying on the floor nearby. Mary had gunshot wounds in her stomach and arm but she recovered. With the insurance from her husband's death she further invested in the brewery and soon she found new tenant brewers, Messrs Kimmel & Werner. Again the brewery was profitable. Despite an 1891 stable fire in which one former employee was killed all was well until 1896, when debts and circumstances once again brought Mary before the courts. The judge ruled that Mrs. Rittman could renew her license, but only under the condition that she sell her company and retire. The bank took possession of the property in November of 1896 and closed it down. Aside from her daughter-in-law suing her for slanderous remarks reflecting upon her chastity, Mary Rittman led a non newsworthy retirement. On November 22nd 1911 Rittman was stricken with a heart attack and died while waiting at a train station for her son. She was 56 years of age.

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