George M. Fisher

GEORGE M. FISHER, formerly actively engaged in business at Columbus, but now retired, is one of the self-made and substantial men of Cherokee County, and owns a fine farm of 320 acres in Crawford township. He was born in Huron County, Ohio, November 12, 1838, and is the only son of Benjamin and Jane (Curran) Fisher, natives of New York and Massachusetts, respectively. The parents of Mr. Fisher died in Ohio in 1889, the mother, in January, and the father, in October. They had two daughters, one of whom is deceased, and the other, Charlotte, is Mrs. Edward Lincoln, of Sandusky, Ohio.

George M. Fisher received a good, common-school education. He left home at the age of 18 years to seek his fortune, not wishing to learn his father's trade of stone cutting and bridge contracting. After working for the American Express Company for a short time at Richmond, Indiana, he went to Xenia, Ohio, to work for the same company, and later was located at Lafayette and Fort Wayne, Indiana. He spent seven years as express messenger on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. After leaving the express business, he continued in railroad work, spending four years with The Pullman Company, and four years with The Central Transportation Company, on the sleeping car line, running first from Crestline, Ohio, to Altoona, Pennsylvania, and then from Crestline to Chicago; he was later transferred to the run between New York and Chicago. Following this service, he became a freight conductor on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad and remained with this company until he went into business at Collins, Ohio. There, with his brother-in-law, he conducted a general store until 1884, when he came to Cherokee County, Kansas.

On coming to this county, Mr. Fisher first engaged in a meat business at Columbus, which he sold when he was employed by Special Disbursing agent A. T. Lea, of Columbus, to assist in enumerating all the Indians concerned in the listing of the land sales of 1888-89, in Dakota. The list included 20,578 Indians, and Mr. Fisher inscribed all the names in both the English and Indian languages,—a task that required for its completion a period of two years and four months. Mr. Fisher returned to Columbus when the work was accomplished, in January, 1892.

Mr. Fisher was married at Galion, Crawford County, Ohio, to Jennie Neff, who was born at Bucyrus, but reared at Galion. She is a daughter of Henry and Isabelle (Buckingham) Neff. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, and died in Ohio, in 1884, and her mother was born in Maryland, and died in 1882. Mrs. Fisher was one of eight children and is the only survivor, except a brother, James L. Neff, who is now one of the best paid and most efficient engineers on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, with which he has been connected for 35 years, his home being at Galion, Ohio. James L. Neff enlisted in the Civil War at the age of 19 and served through the whole struggle.

Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have three daughters and two sons, namely: Carrie, Benjamin H., Georgia, Frederick and Kathryn. Carrie, who resides in Kansas City, Missouri, with her two children, Georgia and Louise, is the widow of Sherry W. Marshall, who was receiving teller of the National Bank of Commerce of Kansas City, Missouri, at the time he was accidentally killed by the cars, on December 8, 1901, at La Cygne, Kansas. Benjamin H. Fisher, who is a graduate dentist, has lived during recent years in Portland, Oregon, but is now with a party en route to Alaska on a prospecting tour. Georgia married Asa Lea, and has one child,—Sherry E.; they reside in Kansas City, Missouri, where Mr. Lea is manager of the Ancient Order of Pyramids, of that city. Frederick, who was a member of an Oregon battery in the Spanish-American War, lives in Columbus, Kansas, where he is a machinist and general mechanic. Kathryn lives at home with her parents. Mrs. Fisher is a member of the Presbyterian Church, to which Mr. Fisher gives a liberal support. Politically, he is a Republican, while his social connection is with the Order of the Triple Tie, at Columbus, of which his wife is also a member.

History of Cherokee County Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. & comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904, transcribed by students from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, 1/17/97.