George Fisher (Adam, Sebastian) was the fourth son of Adam and Christina Fisher of Hampshire County, Va., and the eldest of the three minor sons named in Adam’s will. He came of age about three years after his father’s death, and a court record shows that he received the portion of his inheritance on March 1, 1786. The tax list of 1787 gives his name with three in his family, with four slaves. It is traditional that he went to Germany to study medicine, but nothing to show it to have been a fact has been found.
George Fisher removed to Randolph County, in the Territory of Illinois about 1798, and became a prominent citizen of Kaskaskia. Moses “History of Illinois” states that he was sheriff of Randolph County in 1801. George IV, “Smith’s History of Illinois and her People”, says that he was a member of the Indiana legislature, and was a member of the first Territorial legislature of Illinois. Another authority states that the convention that framed the first Illinois Constitution was held at the home of George Fisher, and it is, of course, a fact that it met at Kaskaskia, in 1812, and George Fisher was chosen Speaker. He was Speaker of the House at the sessions of 1816-17 and of 1817-18.
Dr. George Fisher, according to another reliable History of Randolph County removed from the village in 1808 and bought a farm “at the ford of the bluff six miles above Kaskaskia on the Prairie du Roche road.” A short time after he moved to his farm, smallpox broke out in the vicinity of Kaskaskia. and Dr. Fisher built a hospital on his farm, and there the greater part of the French population passed through the dangerous malady under his skillful treatment. The American settlement escaped the epidemic due to the fact that guards were placed on the outskirts of all the villages, and that Dr. Fisher received and cared for all that were afflicted with the disease.
Dr. George Fisher served in the War of 1812 as surgeon in Stephenson’s Brigade. He was an active Mason and helped to organize a Lodge at Kaskaskia. He died in 1820. His estate was large, and litigation lasted for years. His son Jacob was Executor of his will.
So much confusion exists as to whether or not he was the George Fisher who married Elizabeth Conrad, and went first to Pendleton County, Va., that the compiler has decided to omit any attempt to name his children.
Source: Harding, Gertrude Fisher. Fisher Genealogical History, pp. 21-22. Self Published, 1942.
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