Solomon Fisher, of Rock Grove Township, was born July 24, 1812, in Centre County, Pa. He is the son of Jacob Fisher, whose father, John Fisher, went to Berks County, Pa., when quite young, and took a land claim comprising a large area, about 210 acres of which was good, tillable land, the balance being mountain and timber. Thje grandfather lived there all his life, and died at the good old age of eighty-six years. He was married three times.
The father of Solomon Fisher was born in Berks County, Pa., Jan. 30, 1774. He lived with his parents until he was thirty-two years of age, and then married. During the time he resided at home he plied the vocation of blacksmithing. His father gave him seventy acres of cleared land, and apiece of timber, which he farmed, and also worked at his trade. In 1809 he went to Centre County, Pa., and purchased 170 acres of land there. After disposing of his Berks County property he removed to this farm in 1809, where he spent the rest of his life, dying there on the 9th of March, 1829. Mr. Fisher's mother was Susan Haberacker, Her people were all farmers. The mother was born March 21, 1779, and died April 29, 1862, at her home in Centre County, Pa. They had a family of eight children, three of whom died when quite young.
The subject of this sketch lived at home until his father died. At the age of seventeen he went to work for his brother in summer, and attended school in winter. At the age of eighteen he concluded to try to learn the milling trade, but soon gave it up. His people prevailed upon him to engage in pottery making, and he followed that business for seven years, going then onto his father's estate, where he remained two years, at the end of which time he came West and settled on the farm where he now lives in Rock Grove Township. He and his brother laid a claim of 600 acres, but in entering the land the subject of this sketch only secured 311 acres, forty of which were broken, 100 timber, and the balance prairie and brush. In 1843 he erected on this land a log cabin. When Mr. Fisher first arrived in Illinois farming was in its infancy and markets remote. For many years the only market accessible was either Chicago or the lead mines around Galena. The farmers had to haul their grain from fifteen to twenty miles to have it ground into flour or meal, and if they were fortunate enough to have a surplus of bread-stuff they would peddle it within a radius of fifty miles.
Mr. Fisher was married, April 30, 1848, to Miss Barbara Bolender, daughter of John Bolender, of Union County. Pa. She was born Feb. 17, 1821. Her grand father was born Sept. 20, 1776, and died Jan. 6, 1837. Her father died Aug. 28, 1868, at the age of seventy-two years, six months and two days. He died from injuries received from being thrown from a buggy. Her grand mother, Anna C. Miller, was born Jan. 3, 1767, and died at tlic age of sixty-five years, eleven months and eighteen days. Solomon Fisher and wife have had nine children: Catherine, Mrs. J. S. Walker, born April 15, 1844; Henry, born Sept. 5, 1845, and married to Miss H. L. Potthast; Matilda, born March 12, 1847; William, born May 12, 1849, and married to Miss Carrie M. Bottorf, now deceased; Susan and Polly, twins, born Aug. 3, 1850; the latter became Mrs. Samuel Askey, and died Oct. 1, 1873, leaving one child, a son. Susan at home; Barbara, born May 23, 1854, and died Jan. 12, 1881; Samuel, born Sept. 2, 1858, died when sixteen days old.
The house in which Mr. Fisher and family now reside was erected in 1863, and is the successor of the cabin built in 1842. Mr. Fisher organized the first Town Board of Rock Grove, and was Town Clerk for three years. He has held the offices of Trustee and Treasurer for twenty years. Although a Democrat and an office-holder, he is in no sense a politician. Mr. Fisher in religion is an agnostic. Handsome lithographic portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher are shown on another page of this work.
Contributed by Karen Hammer
Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Illinois Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1888 p. 477
