Albert D. Fisher has practically retired from active business life and yet makes his home upon his farm a mile west of Granville. His former activity, enterprise and carefully directed labor brought to him a goodly measure of success and the competence which he acquired is sufficient to now supply him with the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.
A native of Indiana, he was born in the town of Richmond in Wayne county, January 24, 1835, his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth (Wiggins) Fisher. The father's birth occurred in Ohio, April 8, 1809, and he reached the venerable age of eighty-four years, passing away in Huntington county, Indiana. His wife, who was born in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1810, died in Indiana in 1844, when her son Albert was a little lad of nine years. Thomas Fisher was a nurseryman and farmer and for more than sixty years lived upon one farm, on which he took up his abode in~1834, when Huntington county was a frontier region. His political allegiance was first given to the whig party and later he became a freesoiler, while upon the organization of the republican party to prevent the further extension of slavery of which he was a strong opponent he joined its ranks and followed its banners until his death. His wife was reared in the faith of the Society of Friends or Quakers, but in later years she and her husband became members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They were people of the highest respectability, their good qualities of heart and mind gaining for them warm friendships and high regard. In their family were seven children, all of whom reached years of maturity, but only three are now living, one, Nancy E. Fisher, still remaining upon the old homestead in Indiana, while Daniel D. Fisher has for several years been circuit judge of St. Louis and is still upon the bench He studied law in Ottawa, Illinois, and practiced for several years in St. Louis, Missouri, before his election to the office which he is now filling.
Albert D. Fisher spent his boyhood days upon the home farm and attended the country schools. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for him in his youth. When he had largely mastered the branches of learning taught in the district schools he entered upon a scientific course at Wheaton (Illinois) College. He had no other thought nor desire than to become an agriculturist, being well content to devote his energies to the occupation to which he had been reared, and in this department of labor he has found ample opportunity for the exercise of his industry and enterprise his dominant characteristics. In 1861 he came to Putnam county and for a year, in partnership with Joseph B. Albert, leased land near Florid and engaged in farming. On the expiration of that period he purchased a farm of eighty acres in Granville township, to which he afterward added forty acres. With characteristic determination and energy he improved this farm, built a house thereon and made it his home for twenty years. In 1884 he purchased the farm upon which he now resides, comprising two hundred and forty acres of rich and productive land adjoining the village of Granville. He has built a commodious residence here and other good buildings. He no longer works the land, but rents it to a family who live upon the place and the income from his property is sufficient to bring him the comforts of life. For many years he successfully conducted a dairy business, milking cows and making butter, and he found it a profitable source of income.
On the 19th of March, 1863, Mr. Fisher wedded Miss Mary E. Skeel, a daughter of Linus B. Skeel, who was one of the early settlers of Putnam county. Further mention is made of the Skeel family in connection with the history of Lewis E. Skeel of Hennepin on another page of this work. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have been born five children, four of whom are yet living, but they lost their first born in infancy. The others are: Arthur L., Theresa V., at home ; Elmer A., who is in Britt, Iowa ; and Estella M., the wife of Dr. E. L. Fulton, a resident of Wichita, Kansas.
Mr. Fisher and his family are members of the Congregational church and take an active and helpful interest in its work, while to its support they are generous contributors. In 1904 Mr. and Mrs. Fisher attended the fourth world's Sunday school convention held at Jerusalem and while abroad visited the Madeira Islands, Egypt, Rome, Athens, Gibraltar and many other places of interest. While on the trip Mr. Fisher wrote letters to the Granville Echo, which were probably read by more people than anything ever published in that paper. He is a man of more than ordinary intelligence and education, has always been a broad reader and has kept in touch with the trend of modern thought.
In his political views he is a stalwart republican and, keeping well informed on the issues of the day, is always ready to support his position by intelligent argument. He has served as road commissioner and assessor and three times has been a delegate to the state convention of his party. In the summer of 1906 he was a delegate to the senatorial and representative convention and is recognized as one of the strong political workers of his district, desiring rather to secure political honors for others than to obtain office himself. His interest is that of a public-spirited citizen, who recognizes that it is the duty as well as the privilege of every American to thus uphold the principles in which he believes. He cast his first presidential ballot for John C. Fremont and has voted for each republican nominee at the head of the ticket since that time. Viewed in a personal light Mr. Fisher has made an excellent record as a man and citizen. In all of his business dealings he has been found thoroughly honorable and reliable, his probity standing as an unquestioned fact in his career. He has never knowingly wronged any man nor taken advantage of the necessities of another in a business transaction. His support has been given to many progressive public movements and the community recognizes in him a man of worth and value, whose influence is ever found on the side of right, truth, justice and improvement. Mr. Fisher is also a great temperance worker and is in hopes of the work coming to a completion some day soon.
Source: Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois authored by John Spencer Burt and W. E. Hawthorne in 1907, page 373.
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