David G. Fisher, now living retired at Champaign, began farming in this county nearly half a century ago. He realizes as few men still living do the difficulties and the handicaps to which farming was subject in those early years, and he has also realized along with extensive experience financial independence and the success which is the object of all ambitious men.
Mr. Fisher was born in Fulton County, Illinois, December 3, 1839. His parents, Frederick and Sarah (Fouts) Fisher, were both born in Clark County, Indiana. When they went to Illinois in 1833 they passed through Champaign County, but sought what to them seemed a better location in Fulton County. There they lived prosperously the rest of their days as farmers and both of them died in that county. Their children were: Jacob, John, Henry, Cynthia, all now deceased; Mary, who still resides in Fulton County; Sarah, wife of Marion Kimberland, of Missouri; David G.; Clara, deceased; Isabel, living at Canton in Fulton County, widow of Jacob Fouts; Elizabeth, deceased; Ellen, wife of Thomas Beets, of Kokomo, Indiana; and Fred L., of Canton, Fulton County.
David G. Fisher was reared and educated in Fulton County. He left home at the age of twenty-four and bought a farm of 140 acres near Canton and was busy with its cultivation and management until ill health compelled him to give up his enterprise in the country and remove to town, where for three years he conducted a livery business. On selling out his interests in Fulton County Mr. Fisher came to Champaign County in the month of February, 1868. Land was then comparatively cheap and he bought a splendid place of 640 acres in Tolono Township. That was the scene of his efforts as a practical farmer and stockman and he continued to reside on his farm until 1900, when he sold and invested his capital chiefly in real estate property in Champaign. In 1907 Mr. Fisher built a fine two-story brick house at 1191/2 South Neil Street. He now gives his time to the management of his private affairs and is a citizen of whom the people of Champaign County think most highly. In politics he is a Republican and is a Knight Templar Mason.
Mr. Fisher was married May 23, 1863, to Mary Ellis, who died in 1906. She was the mother of the following children: Kate, Robert and Hattie, all now deceased; Fred, a farmer near Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Pearl and Myrtle. On July 28, 1911, Mr. Fisher married Serena (Hinds) Graves, a native of Champaign County. Her death occurred November 8, 1916. By her first husband she had two children: Gertrude, deceased; and Ethel, wife of Fred Becker of Champaign.