IRVING R. FISHER, filling the position of post office inspector at Denison, was born in Selins Grove, Pennsylvania, in 1852, a son of Dr. Chesselden and Jane (Wareham) Fisher. The Fisher family is of English lineage and was founded in America by four brothers, one of whom settled in Vermont, a second in Kentucky, while the other two went to the south. It is supposed that David Fisher of Vermont was the emigrant from England and it is definitely known that he was the progenitor of the family of which our subject is a representative. The father was born at Newfane, Vermont, in 1822, and was married in Pennsylvania to Miss Jane Wareham, whose birth occurred at Selins Grove, that state. After their marriage they removed westward to Illinois, where Dr. Fisher engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery. He was a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, and throughout his entire lief devoted his energies to practice. He entered the army as an army surgeon at Freeport, Illinois, and was at first attached to the Seventy-third Illinois Regiment, and afterwards was brigade surgeon of the brigade of which the Seventy-third was a part, with which he remained until the close of hostilities, rendering valuable aid to the sick and wounded among the Union soldiers and also to the Confederates who came under his care. When the war was over he went to Iowa and he came to Texas at the same time his son, Irving R. Fisher, took up his abode in this state. Dr. Fisher was a Mason and he belonged to the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion. He practiced his profession in both Stephens and Grayson counties and was a prominent and valuable representative of the medical fraternity in this part of the state. His death occurred in Denison in 1895, while his wife passed away three years before. They were the parents of two sons: Irving R., of this review; and K. S., who is chief deputy United States marshal at Paris, Texas. Thus both sons are in the government service.
Irving R. Fisher was but four years of age at the time of his parents’ removal to Illinois. He followed his public school course by an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis by Congressman John A. Logan, which he entered in 1869, and resigned in October, 1871, and then entered the law department of the Michigan University of Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated in 1874. He then practice law in Illinois and in Texas and going to Des Moines, Iowa, became a member of the bar of that city. In 1877 he removed to Texas, settling in Stephens county before the building of the railroad there. He remained in active practice at that point until 1885, when he came to Denison, which has since been his home and where he engaged in the practice of dentistry until 1890, when he received the appointment for the position of post office inspector for the Texas division with headquarters at Austin. When that division transferred to the St. Louis division and in 1894 was transferred to the New Orleans division. In politics he is a Republican and as a Federal official has given capable service, discharging the duties that devolve upon him with promptness and fidelity. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity and to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, his membership being with the lodges in Denison.
In 1875 Mr. Fisher was united in marriage in Geneva, New York, to Miss Jeanie C. Smith, who was born in Canton, Illinois, and is a daughter of Amos Smith.They have become the parents of two sons and two daughters. Dr. Stewart C. Fisher, a graduate of the Harvard University Dental College, married Hattie Lutewiler, of Denison, Texas, and is engaged in the practice of dentistry in St. Jo, Texas. He has one son, Jack. Cora L. Fisher is now the wife of Harvey E. Henry, of Mill Creek, Indian Territory, and has one child, Edna. Jennie Gertrude Fisher is at home. Merrill L. Fisher, who is a brakeman on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, married Maud Turner and has two children, Mildred L. and Irving R.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. I, pp. 593-594.