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John FISHER is the earliest Fisher of our line whom we have any written record. Tradition says he emigrated from Saxony, Germany.
He obtained a deed from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for three hundred and twenty acres of land on the Susquehanna River in 1769. (Ref. a map on the wall of the courthouse at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, showing the earliest settlers of Union County.) Union County was originally a part of Northumberland County. It was formed in 1820.
The earliest records of the Fisher family are in the courthouse at Sunbury Northumberland County, Pa
The Town of West Milton is partly built on this three hundred and twenty acre tract.
Next we learn of John Fisher being located in White Deer Township, Buffalo Valley, in 1778. John Fisher's children were Henry, Paul, John, Michael and George, and also three daughters whose names are not given. However, it is stated that they married Thomas Perry, Jacob Wirtz and Philip Haines.
"John Fisher died in 1794 and is buried in the corner of the field above Esq. John Datisman's store, where the valley road strikes the river." From the Annals of Buffalo Valley of John Blair Linn.> (See page 293.)
John Fisher's two older sons, Henry and Paul, were Revolutionary soldiers.
Henry Fisher's war record from data at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, viz. Private in Col. Samuel Miles' Rifle Regiment, in Captain Henry Christ's Company, 2nd Battalion, served to the end of the war and died at Calcutta, Ohio, May 1st, 1826.
According to tradition Henry Fisher was a mighty man of valor. He took part in many friendly fights as the champion of his regiment and later he represented his sections in personal combats with champions from other sections of the newly settled Ohio and western Pennsylvania In these personal contests of strength and endurance tradition says that Henry was never defeated.
On the eve of the battle of Brandywine, Henry, representing his regiment, had a fight with a man by the name of Shearer, the champion of another regiment. Henry won the fight.
In the battle the next day the colonists were compelled to yield ground.
A Nan was noticed by the wayside badly wounded and piteously begging for
help. Henry Fisher went to his assistance and at once recognized
his antagonist of the evening before. He picked him up and carried him
on his shoulders for more than a mile, keeping up with the regiment. He
was left in a place of safety where he received attention. Shearer to show
his appreciation gave Henry his
pocket book, his only possession. This blood stained pocket book
was the means in after )'ears of securing a pension for Henry.
Our ancestor, Paul Fisher's Revolutionary record, vis, private in a company commanded by Peter Groves, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, militia, date of enlistment, April 16th. 1871. (See page 683, Vol. 8, Pennsylvania Archives, 5th Series.).
The following is a Revolutionary war story from the "Annals of Buffalo Valley."
Paul Fisher of Slier tells me that at the time Baahor was killed his grandfather, John Fisher, lived at Esq. Datisman's.. The Indians burned Peter Swartz's house and killed a man named Ayers near White Deer Creek.
His grandfather and two sisters concealed themselves in the straw in their barn and expected every minute to be burned, but the Indians went into Hoffman's house just above and carried out a good many articles, and among the rest a clock. They seated themselves to examine the clock when Aaron Noncross and John Fisher, Jr.1 and others who had gathered hallowed and startled the Indians who left their plunder. This old clock is still in the possession of Jacob Hoffman, living up near the Muncy Hills
Tradition says that Paul was eighteen years old when the war began, and that he ran off to enlist in the war. It is also related that he picked up an Indian scalping awl on the scene of an Indian massacre.
This relic of a pioneer age was for many years in the possession of Jefferson Fisher, now deceased, of Crafton. Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
Paul Fisher emigrated from the Buffalo Valley, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, and located at Calcutta' Ohio, in 1810. (Ref. "The Yankee Conscript," written by George A. Fisher in 1864. See' page 11.)
It was Paul's intention to go as far west as Canton but he was persuaded by his brother Henry, who had preceded him to Ohio, to stop at Calcutta. Also there had been an Indian outbreak near Canton, which likely helped to decide the matter. The first cabin was built by a spring in the meadow near Calcutta, Ohio. This farm has always belonged to some members of the family. It has been related that soon after Paul Fisher settled at Calcutta, one night the out side door was slowly opened and an Indian face looked in. After carefully surveying the room the door closed again and nothing was molested. The occurrence has always remained a mystery.*
For a number of years Paul Fisher kept tavern, being on the well known Georgetown Road over which the stage coach made regular trips, and the tide of emigration , flowed westward.
Paul Fisher was married to Catherine Kister. They had eleven children: Catherine, Paul, John, Michael, Mary Peter, Elizabeth, Samuel, Henry, George and Susan. Of this number Michael, Peter and Henry married sisters by the name of Dawson. Three of the above number, including our grandfather, John Fisher, had families of eleven children.
All of the children, except George and Susan, were born
before coming to Ohio.
Paul Fisher died at Calc Calcutta in 1828. It seems no monument had
been erected to his memory, at least none could be located.
At the Centennial Reunion of the Fisher family, held at Long's Run Church, August 27th, 1914, it was decided to erect a suitable monument to his memory. The heirs of John Fisher donated the obelisk stone that stood on his lot in Spring Grove Cemetery.
John Fisher was born March 15th, 1798 He died April 10th, 1870; His
wife, Elizabeth Hill, was born January 30th and died April 27th,
1875. Their remains were transferred to Riverview Cemetery by Mrs. M. 0.
Fisher where
a suitable monument erected by her marks their last resting place.
John Fisher and Elizabeth Hill were married October 28th, 1828, in the Roger Hill home, which is still standing at this date (1928) on East Fourth Street, East Liverpool; Ohio opposite the High School.
For a period of some five or six years they lived on the Paul Fisher farm at Calcutta. Their oldest children, Susan and Levi, were born there.
It is related that during this period John Fisher took his team to Pittsburgh, where he secured work hauling stone for one of the river bridges. On one occasion he had a very narrow escape from serious injury or death as a
*The writer going to New Jersey on a business trip in 1908 stopped ver a few days in the upper Susquehanna alley to acquire some items of early fami\ly history.
Beginning at Sunbury he interviewed quite a number of people by the name of Fisher. The name being very common in that section, but they all belonged to other lines. Most of them were of Bavarian ancestry.
One notable case was Mrs. Amellia Fisher, ninety-five years old. She passed the century mark as her picture and hilstoryu were in the daily press later.
Aftre some days of failure in scouting around several cities the writer
becomming a bit despondent called on Attorneyh Linn. He refered to
a copy of the "annals of Buffalo Vallely," compiled by his uncle, Hohn
Blair Linn., and he at once found some interesting data. The writer
would assume by the several references that the family bore a rather prominent
part in the local affairs of that early day.