Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - Benjamin Fisher

BENJAMIN FISHER

<>    Benjamin Fisher, now a resident of Richwood in his seventy-fifth year , in April, 1836, removed from near Mount Vernon, Ohio, to a farm one and a fourth miles west of Richwood. He had come the fall before with five or six men and built a cabin on the place.  His brother-in-law, Atticus Neil, took immediate possession of it.  Mr. Fisher occupied it during the spring of his removal until he had constructed a hewed-log house.  At this time there were no settlers living between his farm and the village.  He purchased 160 acres, paying for it $2.50 per acre.  The York road was opened about the time he came.  There had previously been a trail to the Miller settlement in York Township.  His father, Larkin Fisher, came a few years later, but resided most of the time in Richwood.

BENJAMIN S. FISHER

    Benjamin S. Fisher, a retired farmer, was born in Fayette County, Penn., October 4, 1808, and was a son of Enoch and Elizabeth (Stevens) Fisher, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Pennsylvania.  His father was a farmer and teamster by occupation and came to the Northwest Territory in 1800, settling at Mount Vernon.  He was under Gen. Anthony Wayne three years in the Indian war, and lived to the remarkable old age of one hundred and one years.  Our subject was raised on the farm in the wilderness of early Ohio and never had an opportunity of receiving any education.  His father being in poor circumstances, he started out in life with nothing and entirely dependent on his own exertion for his success in life.  He has been a life-long farmer and has cleared three farms in Claibourne Township where he has resided since 1836, and where he accumulated a handsome fortune, the greater part of which he has already placed in the hands of his posterity.  He began farming for himself at the age of twenty and retired at the age of sixty, having spent forty years to a day in tilling the soil.  In 1829, he married Catharine Cramer, by whom he had eleven children, viz.: Larkins D., a farmer in this township; Sarah J., deceased wife of J. J. Thompson ; Elizabeth Ellen, wife of R. Farrier; Sisson S., wife of James Merriott; William ; Margaret, wife of Morris Hill, of Richwood ; Michael, deceased ; Mary. wife of John S. Phillips; George O.; Malissa, wife of Frank Gill; and Viola, wife of W. W. Brokaw.  Mr. Fisher has given his children $18,000 to start them in life.  He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he has filled the office of trustee in the Church at Richwood.  He is a Democrat in politics.  Mrs Fisher was born April 30, 1812 ; she had two brothers in the war of that year.

**The History of Union County gives two accounts for Benjamin Fisher.**