Charles B. Fish was born around 1845 in Manchester, New Hampshire, to John B. Fish and Mary H. Barrett. His father was an iron founder. The family lived in Lowell, Massachusetts, until the 1850s, when they returned to Manchester. Fish attended school there, and by 1865, he was working as a laborer. By the late 1800s, he was living in Pembroke, Massachusetts. He died of “chronic dementia” in Worcester, Massachusetts, on March 6, 1899.