My Genealogy Hound

S. WILSON FISHER, son of Coleman and Mary (Wilson) Fisher, is a native of Philadelphia, where he was born September 21, 1853. In 1855 Coleman Fisher (father) purchased the Wertsner homestead of George Wertsner, containing twenty-eight acres of highly improved land, facing the Morris road, and known as Briar Hill. It adjoins the estates of Saunders Lewis, Edward Drayton and the Mercer Home for Superannuated Clergymen of the Presbyterian Church, in the eastern end of Whitpain township. Since the original purchase, there has been added thirty-eight acres of the Albert Wertsner farm, the land being rolling and consisting of field and forest. The house has also been greatly enlarged and improved. The lawn has also been greatly extended, and all the surroundings improved until Briar Hill is one of the most beautiful and desirable estates of Whitpain, a township noted for its lovely and substantial homes.

S. Wilson Fisher attended the preparatory school of Chase & Buckingham, at 1318 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, an institution well known and highly valued in its day. He also studied for a time at the Episcopal Academy, after which he entered the Department of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, at the fall term, in 1870. He graduated from that institution in the class of 1874, and began the study of law with Henry Wharton, a leading attorney of Philadelphia. He was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, but inclining to the natural sciences, and especially to astronomy, Mr. Fisher never entered actively upon the practice of law.

In 1888 Mr. Fisher married Clara Frances, daughter of James P. and Margaret (Wanamaker) Jones, of Newark, New Jersey. After his marriage he settled in the city of Philadelphia for a time, but soon made his home at Briar Hill. Their children: Clarence Wilson, born July 18, 1889; Gertrude Rosamonde, born February 12, 1896. Clarence W. Fisher is a student at the DeLancy School in Philadelphia. The Fisher family are members of St. Thomas’ Episcopal church, in Whitemarsh township, in which Mr. Fisher had served for several years as a vestryman.

In politics Mr. Fisher is a Republican, and, although he has never taken an active interest in party affairs beyond depositing his ballot, he is an earnest advocate of what Republicanism stands for in the policy of the national administration. Mr. Fisher’s principal occupation, aside from the supervision of his estate, is the pleasure and profit he derives from the study of the sciences, particularly that of astronomy. He has no inclination to enter public life, preferring the leisure and quiet enjoyment of his home.

Coleman Fisher, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born February 21, 1824, and died July 21, 1876. He was the son of William Wharton Fisher and Mary Fox. He attended private schools in Philadelphia, and also the University of Pennsylvania. He married, October 7, 1851, Mary, daughter of Samuel Wilson, M. D., and Elizabeth Paul, of Philadelphia. Their children: S. Wilson Fisher; Coleman Sidney, born October 22, 1855, died in 1887; Elizabeth Wilson, who resides at Briar Hill, and is unmarried.