J. C. FISHER’S ancestors were from North Carolina. His father, George W. Fisher, was born in August, 1812, and was brought to Tennessee by his parents when only four years old. George W. Fisher married Elizabeth Helm who was born in North Carolina, in 1814, and died in Tennessee in 1846.
Our subject was born in Marshall County, Tenn., January 16, 1838, and is the third of seven children and of Irish descent. At the age of twenty years he began clerking for W. S. Hurst, at Hurst’s Cross Roads, Murray County, continuing two years. When the war broke out he joined the Confederate Army, Company D, Fourth Tennessee Calvary, but after serving faithfully for some time was compelled to abandon the service to some extent. For about two years after the war he farmed and stock traded and then engaged in the merchandise business in Verona and followed that business four years with good results, the style of the firm being Fisher & Robinson. In 1871 he sold his interest and moved to Fayetteville where he was a partner of W. S. Hurst in the merchandise business two years. The firm then divided their stock, and for three years longer Mr. Fisher followed that occupation in that place and in 1877 moved to Shelbyville. Since 1875 he has been exclusively engaged in farming. May 1, 1873, he wedded Mattie Bell (Daughter of G. W. and E. Bell), who has borne him six children: Oscar B., Stella (deceased), Elbert H., James D., Hugh C. and George B. Mr. Fisher has accumulated his property by his own exertions and is perhaps the most thoroughly self-made man in this section of the county. The greater part of his education has been acquired through self exertion. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church Sough, and his wife of the Christian Church. Politically his is a Democrat.
Transcribed by Kathryn Hopkins
Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminescences [Sic], Observations, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1988.