W. G. Fisher

W. G. FISHER, M. D.

Prominent among the successful medical men who from time to time have practiced their profession in the county of Saline, Dr. W. G. Fisher, late of Jonesboro and Marshall, held worthy prestige. He was born in the former place in February, 1845, after obtaining his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of the town, for some time attended the Kemper Military School at Boonville, where he laid the intellectual foundation for his subsequent professional career. After a course of reading in the office of a local physician, he entered the Medical College of St. Louis, and following his graduation from that institution, in 1866, he opened an office in his native town and in due time built up a very extensive and lucrative practice.

Doctor Fisher's professional career was successful from the beginning and within a comparatively brief period he forged to the front among the leading physicians and surgeons of the county and achieved a reputation much more than l(Kal. Disposing of his interests at Joncsbon in 1896. he found a larger and more favorable field for the exercise of his talents in the city of Marshall, to which he removed that year and where he continued the noble and humane work of alleviating the suffering, until October, 1901. when death put an end to his usefulness. He was a pronounced Democrat in politic, kept in close touch with the leading questions of the times and. though never an aspirant for official honors, was a prominent worker in his party and an influential factor in public affairs, both local and general. In his young manhood he united with the Presbyterian church, of which he continued a faithful and consistent member to the end of his Hfe, and for many years served as rung elder in the local society with which he was identified.

Doctor Fisher was a son of J. B. and Mary (Gooch) Fisher, both descended from old families of Virginia, and highly esteemed in their respective places of residence. Mrs. Mary Fisher was the daughter of William Gooch, who migrated to Ohio in an early day and about 1842 came to Cooper county. Missouri, thence to Saline county, where his death occurred in 1854. The family to which he belonged was a prominent one and figured much in public affairs, several of its members filling positions of honor and trust in their state and in the service of the government. Of the five children born to J. B. and Mary Fisher, the Doctor was the third. He inherited to a marked degree the amiable qualities and sturdy attributes of his antecedents, and exemplified the same in his life of fifty-six years devoted to the good of his fellow men.

The domestic life of Doctor Fisher began in 1870, when he entered the marriage relation with Mary Field, who presided over his home with the grace and dignity becoming a true wife and helpmeet, and nobly seconded all of his endeavors professionally and otherwise. She bore him children as follows: William, Mabel and Nadine, all members of the home circle and, with their mother, belongingto the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Fisher was born in Saline county and is a daughter of Joseph and Susan (Brown) Field, both natives of Virginia and representatives of the old aristocracy of that state. Her maternal grandparents, Edmund and Theodosia (Michie) Brown, moved to Saline county, Missouri, about 1835, and settled at Arrow Rock, where Mr. Brown purchased a large tract of land which, with the assistance of slaves brought from Virginia, he improved and in due time became one of the most extensive farmers and stock raisers in his part of the country. A man among men, he made his influence felt in the politics of the county, filled a large place in public esteem and will long be remembered as one of the founders of Saline county as well as one of its leading citizens.

Joseph Field became a resident of Saline county about 1835, and after his marriage engaged in agriculture and stock raising, which proved so successful that he. too, in the course of a few years, rose to a prominent position among the substantial and well-to-do men of the community in which he lived. He was a sympathizer with the South during the Civil war and as a result suffered much from the self-constituted authorities of the country A Democrat of the old school, he was fearless in the expression of his opinions and upheld the soundness of his convictions, regardless of those who might differ

As printed in Past and present of Saline County, Missouri (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.