USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 85
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After an exceedingly active and successful business life covering a period of nearly fifty years, Mr. Fisher retired from cotton factor- age, to give his attention to his extensive real estate interests. He was reared in the Presbyterian Church, with which he retains connection, and he is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Royal Arcanum. He was married April 11, 1877, to Miss Isabella Kingsland, daughter of George Kingsland, one of the most prom- inent early manufacturers of St. Louis, and a citizen who was among the foremost in the commercial and industrial development of the city. Miss Kingsland was liberally edu- cated at Bonham Seminary, the leading young ladies' academy of its day. Of this marriage have been born three children; George Kingsland Fisher, a graduate of Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, is en- gaged in the stock and bond business, and is a member of the St. Louis Stock Exchange ; James Buckner Fisher is a graduate of the Washington University Manual Training School, and is engaged in mechanical manu- facturing; Helen Kingsland Fisher is com- pleting her education at the Mary Institute, St. Louis, and will graduate with the class of 1904.
Fisher, Hugh Francis Carney, oculist and aurist, was born February 8, 1863, in Lawrence, Kansas. His parents. were Rev. H. D. and Elizabeth Margaret (Acheson) Fisher. The father was born in 1824, and his birthplace, Steubenville, Ohio, was his home until he was twenty-four years old. John W. Fisher, the father of H. D. Fisher, owned the first rope ferryboat in that part of the country, and the operation of the boat ·was a daily task for the son, who after- ward learned the trade of the cooper and later studied for the ministry. He did this while working in the shop, reading a sen- tence and then committing it to memory while he toiled. He walked nearly one hun- dred miles in order to get to the college he desired to attend. Before he was eighteen years of age he was the superintendent of a Sunday school, and on Christmas day, 1846, was licensed to preach. He rode a circuit for a few years, held various charges and was finally sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kan- sas, where he arrived in 1858. He built the first Methodist Church in Leavenworth,
making several trips to Eastern points in order to raise the necessary funds. He lived in Lawrence, Kansas, from 1862 to 1868, having spent three and one-half years in the Fifth Kansas Cavalry, United States Volun- teers, as chaplain, and several years as pre- siding elder of a Kansas district. He was made superintendent of contrabands under General Halleck, and when General Grant was at Vicksburg he took several steamboat loads of contrabands from the camps to Kansas. Near Helena, Arkansas, he estab- lished the first free school for the education of negroes. In August, 1863, while Rev. Fisher was in Lawrence, Quantrell's men sacked and burned the town and made a long search for him. Not finding him they fired his house, leaving a guard to see that the flames were not extinguished. The guard was not stationed, however, until Mrs. Fisher, with an infant baby in her arms, had put out the fire, making it necessary for the raiders to ignite the flames a ·second time. After the house was past saving the guard left. The brave wife, by keeping the roof of the kitchen wet and other daring efforts, saved that part of the structure and, with the assistance of a neighbor woman, pulled her husband from the cellar, hidden under a carpet, and into the yard. It was observed that several members of the band were watching the proceeding, and in order to allay suspicions several chairs were pitched into the carpet and the chaplain-soldier was thus saved. The same afternoon he preached a funeral sermon over the remains of eighty- five dead. Afterward he was commissioned by President Lincoln to collect funds for the suffering contrabands. He was mustered out of the service in September, 1865. Bishop Merrill gave him a pastorate in Salt Lake City, and after serving there one year he was made superintendent of the American Bible Society's work in a district embracing Utah, Montana and Idaho. He held this position four years, preaching many times where Gentile had never before spoken in public. After his service with this society he removed to Topeka, Kansas, where he published and edited the "Kansas Methodist" for nearly four years. He again entered the active ministry, served three charges until 1895, and was in that year superannuated. He re- sided in Topeka, in 1900, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife, who was born
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in New York City, in 1826, was still his com- panion at that time, and the richest blessings have been apportioned them in their declin- ing years. The ancestry of the Fisher family is traced back to the eleventh century, and on the maternal side it extends into the past three hundred years. Johannes Christopher Fischer, with his brothers, William and Joseph, crossed the sea in 1780. They were captured and forced into the British service under Burgoyne. When the latter was de- feated at Cowpens, the brothers, really loyal to the Colonial cause, were captured by the American forces and readily enlisted for service against England. After the war they settled in Virginia. John William Fischer, heretofore mentioned, was born near Staun- ton, Virginia, and removed to Ohio, after he became of age, locating at Steubenville. Hugh Francis Fisher, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest of four children. He was educated in the primary and literary branches in the public schools of Kansas, Ohio and Nebraska and the Methodist Semi- nary at Salt Lake City. After two years spent in the seminary he began the study of medicine under the direction of his brother, Dr. Charles Edmund Fisher, at Corsicana, Texas. After six years of general practice in Austin, Texas, and Topeka, Kansas, he graduated from the New York Ophthalmic Hospital College, receiving the degree of Surgeon of the Eye and Ear. Since April, 1890, he has practiced the specialties of the eye, ear, nose and throat. When he was six months of age, at the time Quantrell and his men burned Lawrence, he was held in the arms of one of the members of the band, presumably Jesse James, while his mother went upstairs for the purpose of getting a lamp, which the raiders might use in search- ing the cellar for the father, who was in hid- ing there, but who was not found. In 1875 his father was sent to Mt. Union, Ohio, and the young man resided there with his parents several months, attending Mt. Union Col- lege. The same year there was another re- moval, to Cincinnati, and in 1876 the family went to Omaha, Nebraska, where the son began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Ellerton Welcome Aldrich. He per- formed the chore work in the office and re- ceived fifty cents a week for the service. He attended school at the same time. He also became janitor of the First Methodist
Church, of Omaha, receiving $10 per month, and carried a daily paper, his remuneration for that work being $3 a week. The money thus earned was saved, until the sum of $IIO was loaned to his parents without interest. The young man made numerous small in- vestments that proved profitable and, in- cidentally, learned the trade of the typesetter. This proved a source of considerable income, and other work in which he engaged made it possible, in the exercise of strict economy, to accumulate steadily. In 1881 he was made colporteur of the American Bible Society and his travels through a wild country, while engaged in that work, form a most interest- ing chapter in the history of an eventful life. In September, 1882, he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he attended medical lectures at the Hahnemann College, from which in- stitution he was graduated in 1884, having won the prize for the largest number of cor- rect prescriptions made during the last year of his attendance there. He then went to Austin, Texas, where he was employed by his brother, for sixteen months, to manage the Texas Homeopathic Pharmacy. After completing the course for special practice, which was accomplished in New York City April 6, 1890, he immediately went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he practiced two and a half years. In 1892 he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, and at the end of four years he · located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is one of the leading representatives of the profession. Dr. Fisher's military career was short, but none the less honorable. At the age of eleven he was captain of a boys' militia company in Cincinnati. He has held com- missions as medical examiner in the Ken- tucky Mutual Life Insurance Association, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and other organizations. While residing in Austin, Texas, he was physician to the Con- federate Home, located in that city. Polit- ically he is a Republican, but has never sought public preferment. He is a member of the Independence Avenue Methodist Epis- copal Church, of Kansas City, is active in the various departments of church work, and is a . member of the Epworth League. He was married April 25, 1889, to Miss Kittie Milby, of Austin, Texas. Mrs. Fisher's father was one of the five in the Western department of the Confederate service to receive a com- mission, as captain, in the quartermaster's
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department. Both her father and mother were owners of slaves before the war and came from old Southern stock. Her mother was a Searcey, of the Tennessee branch of the family, and a second cousin of the late Senator Harris, of that State. Her father was a native of Louisiana, very highly con- nected in family relations. Dr. Fisher stands high in the regard of the profession and of the community. His abilities are gen- erally recognized, a fact evidenced by his oc- cupancy of the chair of ophthalmology, otology, laryngology and rhinology in the College of Homeopathic Medicine and Sur- gery of the Kansas City University, and of the chair of Eye and Ear in the Eclectic Medical College of Kansas City.
Fisher, Sylvester J., was born on a farm near the bluffs and peaks of Rock River, in Park County, Indiana, March 1, 1842, just nine miles southeast of the "Shades of Death," arched by the "Devil's Backbone." These natural and wonderful formations at that day excited very little interest, but now are visited by thousands of tourists yearly. He was the Benjamin of five sons of Judge James M. and Elizabeth Fisher.
The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, and until the age of fifteen years at- tended the common district school, presided over by the typical "Hoosier" schoolmaster, who boarded around in his district. He be- came quite proficient in "spellin'," "readin'," "writin'," "cipherin'" and grammar. The teacher in "Possum Bottoms" (the classical name of this district), owing to the scarcity of coin and paper money, often received his pay in the products of the soil; he considered himself specially favored if some of the schol- ars paid for their "larnin' " in fowls, chickens, geese, etc.
At the age of sixteen years young Fisher was sent to Waveland Academy (ten miles distant) and remained there three years in search of "more knowledge"; he paid for his tuition in cutting cord wood at twenty-five cents per cord, building fires in the class rooms and ringing the academy bell. Dur -. ing his stay at the academy he, with three other boys, kept "bachelor's hall" and lived on the "fat" of his father's farm. At the close of these years his father sold his farm and moved to Mattoon, Illinois, to which place he soon followed, bidding farewell to the
"bluffs and peaks," the "hills and dales" of his native county and State. Still his "thirst" for wisdom had not abated, and in 1859 he attended Westminster College, at Fulton, Missouri. Entering the sophomore class, he was graduated in 1861 and returned to Mat- toon, where his parents lived. While at Ful- ton, Fisher was an ardent Republican and follower of "Abraham," the only one in Ful- ton, in the "Kingdom of Callaway." The presidential election took place in November, 1860; Lincoln, Douglas and Bell were candi- dates for the presidency. Young Fisher, al- though two years under age, attempted to vote, and was arrested by the city marshal and taken before a justice of the peace, who, after hearing the facts, said unto young Fisher, as King David said unto his servants who had suffered indignities at the hands of Hanun, "Tarry, young man, in the vales of Jericho until your beard be grown." "He still thirsted," and in 1862 and 1863 attended a law school in Chicago. In 1864, May 6th, he was admitted to the bar under exam- ination of Justice Sidney Breese, of the Illinois Supreme Court. The same year he was elected to the office of police magistrate in Mattoon, and served five years in that capacity. Resigning, he went to Kansas City, remained there five years, and then moved to St. Louis in November, 1874. In December of the same year he opened a real estate office at No. 714 Chestnut Street, under the name and style of Fisher & Co. In 1878 the Real Estate Savings Bank made an assign- ment, and he was appointed by the circuit court assignee and required to give bond in the sum of $400,000. He qualified and wound up the affairs of the bank in 1881, paying depositors seventy-nine cents on the dollar. He united with the Presbyterian Church while at Waveland, Indiana, in 1857, and has always been known as a Presbyterian.
Mr. Fisher married Miss Alice Symmes, June 7, 1865, at Mattoon, Illinois. Miss Symmes was a daughter of Dr. Harrison Symmes; granddaughter of Captain John Cleves Symmes, U. S. A., great-granddaugh- ter of John Cleves Symmes, a distinguished jurist, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1785, and for distinguished serv- ices during the Revolution was granted . by Congress a large tract of land on the Ohio and Miami Rivers, and was virtually the founder of North Bend, Indiana, and
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Cincinnati. He died in the latter city in 1814.
Fisher, William Henry, merchant, was born in Williams County, Ohio, Novem- ber II, 1857. His father, also named William Henry, a native of Pennsylvania, moved to Ohio when a young man and engaged in farming, becoming one of the six original settlers in the town in which our subject was born. He died in Williams County in 1887. Mr. Fisher's mother was before her marriage Mary Ann Flowers. She was born in Wil- liams County, Ohio, and was a daughter of Henry Flowers, one of the early settlers of that county. Her death occurred when she was but thirty-seven years of age. At the age of thirteen years, William H. Fisher, the son, left his home, having attended school there for about seven years, and went to Toledo, where two years more were spent in the public schools. Then, at the age of fifteen, he engaged in the lumber trade in Woods County, Ohio, remaining there until 1881, when he removed to Rich Hill, Mis- souri, then in its infancy. For eleven years he was employed by the M. S. Cowles Mer- cantile Company, five years as a clerk and six years as department manager and buyer. Having mastered the essential details of the business, he formed a partnership with H. V. Geiger and Frank M. Ayers, under the firm name of W. H. Fisher & Co., and since 1893 this firm has continued to conduct a general store, its business increasing year by year until it is now one of the largest establish- ments in Rich Hill. Mr. Fisher is a Royal Arch Mason. In the Presbyterian Church he fills the office of deacon. Though a firm believer in the principles of Republicanism, he has never sought a public office. He was one of the organizers of the Rich Hill Board of Trade, and during its career has been one of its heartiest supporters and a warm friend of progressive movements. He was married November II, 1885, to Mamie Eleanor Gil- bert, daughter of Artemas Gilbert, an early resident of Rich Hill. The latter named died in March, 1893.
Fisher's Cave .- A cave in Greene County, six miles southeast of Springfield, which is a mile in extent, and has several chambers with a stream of limpid water flow- ing from it.
Fish Hatchery, State .- Three miles south of St. Joseph, at the Brown Spring, on ten acres of ground donated by citizens of St. Joseph, the State Fish Hatchery is located. There is a two-story frame building, forty by twenty feet, with troughs and ap- paratus for hatching and taking care of the small fry. Great numbers of fish are hatched there and are used to replenish streams throughout the State with superior qualities of fish. The hatchery was started in August, 1880.
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1 Fish Law .- Seining and netting and the destruction of fish by explosives or poison are felonies under the fish and game laws of Missouri. It is a part of the duty of the State fish commissioners to look after the enforcement of this law.
Fishing River Fight .- After the massacre of Union soldiers by "Bill" Ander- son's guerrillas, at Centralia, in Boone County, on the 27th of September, 1864, fol- lowed the same day by the defeat of Major Johnson's command in the same vicinity by the same guerrillas, the band moved west through Boone, Randolph, Chariton and Carroll Counties into Ray, where they were encountered by Lieutenant Colonel S. P. Cox, of the Thirty-third Enrolled Missouri Militia. Colonel Cox had heard of their ap- pearance in the county and made a forced march from Richmond on the 27th of Sep- tember, to fight them. The guerrilla pickets were met and driven back upon the main body who were encamped in a wood. Col- onel Cox dismounted the main body of his men, and formed them in the shape of the letter "V," with the open end toward the guerrilla camp, and sent a small body of mounted men to make the attack, with in- structions to retreat upon the infantry. The guerrillas fell into the trap, driving the cavalry before them, until they were well between the lines of concealed infantry, who opened fire upon them from two sides. The guerrillas gave a battle yell and attempted to charge through the ambuscade, but only two of them succeeded, Bill Anderson, the leader, and a young man who was said to be the son of the Confederate general, James S. Rains. Rains escaped, but Anderson, riding like a demon, with a revolver in each hand and firing as he rode, was shot from his
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horse and killed, it was said, by Colonel Cox himself, after he had broken through the Union line. On the body of the dead guer- rilla chief were found six revolvers, $300 in gold, $150 in United States notes, and the photograph of a young woman. The other guerrillas, disheartened by the loss of their leader, fled in a rout, leaving several dead on the field, and one of their number, Clel Miller, a prisoner in the hands of the Union- ists. The band was broken up. Clel Miller, after the war joined the James and Younger gang of bank robbers, and was killed in the attempt on the Northfield, Minnesota, bank in September, 1876.
Fisk, Clinton Bowen, was born in Livingston County, New York, December 8, 1828, and died in New York City, July 9, 1890. His parents removed to Michigan in his infancy. After a successful career as mer- chant, miller and banker in Michigan he re- moved to St. Louis in 1859. Early in the Civil War he became colonel of the Thirty- third Missouri Infantry Regiment in the Union Army, was promoted to brigadier general in 1862 and brevetted major general of volunteers in 1865. After the war he was assistant commissioner under General O. O. Howard in the management of the Freed- men's Bureau in Kentucky and Tennessee. He aided in establishing Fisk University at Nashville, Tennessee, and the institution was named for him. From St. Louis he removed to New Jersey, and in later years he was especially prominent in educational and re- ligious work, and also in the temperance movement. He was the Prohibition candi- date for Governor of New Jersey in 1886, and Prohibition candidate for the presidency in 1888.
Fisse, John Henry, was born Septem- ber 3, 1831, in the town of Uffeln, Hanover, Germany, son of John H. Fisse. When the son was five years of age the family immi- grated to this country, reaching Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 6th of September, 1836. After remaining in that city two months they came to St. Louis. John H. Fisse attended what was then the only public school in St. Louis, taught by Colonel David H. Arni- strong, afterward a representative of Mis- souri in the United States Senate. He was a clerk and salesman in different stores until
the summer of 1851, when he established a business of his own. In 1874 he turned his attention to the business of conveyancing, the settlement and conservation of estates, the drafting of legal papers and kindred affairs, and has continued in that business up to the present time. Early in life he began taking an interest in public affairs, and in 1858 was elected a member of the City Council. While serving in that capacity he helped to establish the present paid fire de- partment of the city, and to inaugurate the fire alarm telegraph system. In 1860 he was prevailed upon to accept the nomination of judge of the county court, and was elected by a large majority over an exceedingly able and popular competitor. He served in that office until December of 1865, sharing the great responsibilities which rested upon the court during the war period. In 1871 a legislative enactment removed the judges of the county court, as it was then claimed, in the interest of reform. At the succeeding election Judge Fisse was elected a member of the reform court and served until 1872, bringing order out of confusion and render- ing services of great value to the county dur- ing that brief period. In 1881 the Supreme Court of Missouri designated Judge Fisse to act as a commissioner for the sale of three hundred and seventy thousand acres of Cairo & Fulton Railroad lands. This important trust he discharged with fidelity to the in- terests of the State and all concerned, win- ning the commendation of the public and of the high judicial tribunal from which he de- rived his authority. He has been identified in various capacities, official and otherwise, with banks, insurance companies and other large corporations, and in all the affairs of life has evinced sound judgment, breadth of view, and a comprehensive grasp of financial and economic problems.
Flad, Henry, a civil engineer, was born in Baden, Germany, July 30, 1824, and died in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1898. He received an academic education in Speyer, and in 1845 was graduated from the University of Munich with the highest honors. His first employment as an engi- neer was in the government service on the improvement of the River Rhine, where he remained for three years. In 1848, sym- pathizing with the German revolutionists, he
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commanded a company of engineers, and was engaged in the destruction of an important bridge across the Rhine, and also in several battles. Forced to flee from his native country, he went to France, and from there came to the United States, landing in New York City, in 1849. There he was employed as a draughtsman on the New York & Erie Railroad, and afterward at Buffalo as a con- structing engineer. In 1853 he took em- ployment as assistant engineer, and also in the construction of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad from Cincinnati to Vincennes, In- diana. Coming further west in 1854, he was resident engineer of the Iron Mountain Rail- road between St. Louis and Pilot Knob, with headquarters at Potosi. Three years later he moved to Arcadia, where he acted as land agent for that company. In 1861 he located in St. Louis, and on June 15th of that year he enlisted as a private in Company F of the Third Regiment United States Reserve Corps. On August 19th of that year Gen- eral John C. Fremont promoted him to be captain of engineers, and placed him in charge of the construction of the fortifica- tions at Cape Girardeau. In 1862 he was assigned as major in the Engineer Regiment of the West. Later he was promoted to colonel and afterward transferred as colonel to the First Regiment Engineers, Missouri Volunteers. At the close of the war he re- turned to St. Louis, and in 1867 was ap- pointed a member of the first board of water commissioners of St. Louis, in which body he served two terms and assisted in making the plans for the present system of waterworks, including the settling basins at Bissell's Point and the reservoir on Compton Hill. For about two years he had an office with Pro- fessor Charles Smith, of Washington Uni- versity, and Charles Pfeiffer, under the name of Flad & Pfeiffer, and continued in the private practice of his profession until ap- pointed chief engineer of Forest Park, the grounds of which he laid out and fitted for its permanent improvement. On the adoption of the Scheme and Charter Colonel Flad was elected the first president of the board of public improvements, which office he filled with noted ability for three terms, or until April, 1890, when he was appointed by the President a member of the Mississippi River Commission. The greatest professional task of his life was in connection with the con-
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