Samuel and Lucretia Fisher

Samuel Fisher was the sixth of nine children born to Michael and Christenia Fisher. Samuel was the brother of my great-great grandmother, Louisa (Fisher) Phend, she was the oldest child in the family.

Samuel was born February 24, 1840 probably in Stark County, Ohio where the family was living at that time. When Samuel was just five years old, his father passed away, cause of death unknown. On August 16, 1847 Robert Reed was appointed guardian for Samuel and his minor siblings. For some reason there were no earlier records of guardianship and I found no record of Mr. Reed being released from his duties. However, by the time of the 1850 census, Christenia Fisher was found with five of her children, including Samuel, in Scott Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana (page 311). Two daughters were married and the two younger children were living with their married siblings.

It is not known when or why Samuel moved to Kansas but on May 28, 1863 he enlisted as a Private in Company A of the 9th Kansas Cavalry and served with that unit until his discharge on July 17, 1865 at DeVall's Bluff, Arkansas. Two and a half years later, on November 25, 1867 Samuel was married to Lucretia Davis in Douglas County, Kansas (book 2 page 33). He was 27 years old and she was 22.

Federal Census records of 1870, 1880 and 1900 as well as Kansas State Census records of 1875 and 1895 show that Samuel and his family resided in Marion Township. In each of those records it states that Samuel was born in Ohio and where it gives the nativity of his parents, it shows that they were either foreign born or born in Germany. The 1895 census also states that he came to Kansas from Indiana. In 1910, the widowed Samuel is living with his daughters Rachel and Myrtle Ruth (both trained private nurses) on Connecticut Street in Lawrence, Kansas. His wife, Lucretia, had passed away on November 11, 1909.

On July 24, 1913 Samuel Fisher attended the Phend-Fisher Family Reunion held at McNaughton Park in Elkhart, Indiana. His address was listed as “621 Conne St Lawrence Kan”. Samuel passed away six weeks later, on September 7, 1913. Samuel and Lucretia are both buried at Colyer Cemetery in Marion Township, Douglas County, Kansas.

On a visit to the library in Lawrence, Kansas in September 2009 I was unable to locate an obituary for either Samuel or Lucretia. However, I did locate obituaries for several of their seven children. Additional information on the children will be included in a future post.

1. Mary Ellen Fisher (1868-1944) married Norval Elmer Stevenson.
2. Rachel Catherine Fisher (1870-1943) married Louis Flory.
3. Dewitt Caswell Fisher (1872-1941)
4. Walter Milton Fisher (1874-????)
5. John Clayton Fisher (1877-????)
6. Arthur Garfield Fisher (1881-????)
7. Myrtle Ruth Fisher (1884-1955) married Robert Seamans.