Champaign County IL Archives Biographies.....Fisher, Robert
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Celia Snyder cgsnyder@uiuc.edu September 1999

Biography of Robert FISHER, Champaign County, Illinois

From:  "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

ROBERT FISHER

One of the old residents of the county, formerly residing in Mahomet
township but now living in Newcomb, was born in Madison county, Ohio, on
the 22d of August, 1829. On his father's side, his ancestors came from
Virginia, and on his mother's, from Maryland. His father, James W. FISHER,
was born in Virginia in the year 1806. He was four years of age when he
came to Ohio with his father in the year 1810. The family first settled in
Ross county, one of the oldest settled parts of the state, and the date at
which they arrived entitled them to the distinction of being among the
pioneer settlers of Ohio. James W. Fisher afterward removed to Defiance
county, Ohio. He married Sarah G. MORTIMORE, who was a native of the state
of Maryland; she afterward lived in Kentucky, from which state her father
moved to Ohio. Robert FISHER, the subject of this biography, was the second
of three children.

He was raised in Defiance county, Ohio. In his boyhood that was a new
country, particularly the neighborhood where his father had located; wild
animals were the most numerous neighbors, and the family was surrounded
with few immediate signs of civilization. A country school, held in a log
school-house, furnished him with advantages for obtaining an education
equal to those which the boys of Ohio generally enjoyed at that day.

In the year 1848 his father moved with the family to Illinois. They
remained three months in Piatt county, and then came to Champaign county,
settling in Mahomet township, a mile and a half east of Mahomet. Their
location was on the edge of the timber, to which all the settlements at
that time were confined, the prairie lying wild and uncultivated. James W.
Fisher died on this farm in the year 1869. Mr. Fisher was farming in,
Mahomet township, in connection with his father, till the latter's death.
He and his father had become owners of one thousand acres of land in
Newcomb township, and Mr. Fisher disposed of the farm in Mahomet township,
and in the year 1871 moved to section 1 of Newcomb township, where he has
since resided. He is the possessor of fourteen hundred acres of land lying
in Newcomb and Condit townships, and has been largely engaged carrying on
farming operations, giving his attention to general farming and stock
raising.

His marriage occurred on the 11th of September, 1851, to Miss S. A. HAM
daughter of Bartholomew B. HAM of Champaign county. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher
were married in Piatt county. Of the six children, the oldest son, James F.
FISHER, is now farming on his own account in Condit township; the eldest
daughter, Lucinda J. is the wife of E. A. LYON, of Fisher; the remaining
children, George A., Wiley D., Charles H. and Minnie A. are living at home.

Mr. Fisher is a man of more than ordinary enterprise and energy, one who
believes in building up and developing a country by judicious investments
in undertakings calculated to prove productive of general good to the
community. He has not hesitated to aid with both influence and money any
enterprise intended to promote the interests of his part of the county.
When the project of building the Havana, Rantoul and Eastern railroad first
had its inception, Mr. Fisher lent his earliest and most earnest support to
the enterprise. He saw that such a road would develop the north-western
part of the county, bring to the farmers a nearer market, increase the
conveniences of living and enhance the value of farm property. He was
prominent in advocating the plan for the new road, and when the project
assumed actual shape, he was one of the seven men who furnished the capital
and energy to build the first fifty-two miles, and is now one of its
principal owners. He took hold in earnest of the matter from the start, and
was influential in pushing the undertaking forward to the successful
beginning which has now been made. He has been a member of the board of
directors from its first organization.

He is the contractor for grading and bridging the Leroy narrow gauge road,
extending twenty-two miles and a half, from Fisher to Leroy, which on its
completion is to form part of the Havana, Rantoul and eastern railroad, and
constitute a link in the chain of narrow gauge road which is soon to
stretch across the state from the Indiana border to the Mississippi river.
In the Leroy Narrow Gauge road he is the largest stockholder.

Mr. Fisher, when he became old enough to have notions of his own in regard
to politics, united with the Old Line Whigs, and in 1852 cast his first
vote for president for General Winfield Scott. A few years after the
Republican party was organized, and he gave it his earnest support and
sympathy, and has continued a Republican from that time to the present.
Both he and his wife for the last twenty years have been members of the
Methodist Episcopal church. He is a man of generous feelings and liberal
impulses, and his support has always been relied upon in aid of every
religious and moral undertaking. The town of Fisher was laid out on his
land and named in his honor. He has studied to advance the interests of the
town in every possible manner, and largely to him is due the prosperous
growth which so far has marked its progress.


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