Jasper M. Fish

Regions:  Albany and Greene Co., NY; Walworth Co., WI

From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, Publ. 1912 - Page 816-818 JASPER M. FISH. A venerable and highly respected citizen of Geneva township, Walworth county, is Jasper M. FISH, a man who has lived a quiet, useful and successful life and has taken part in the development of this locality, laboring unselfishly for the improvement of the same along all lines, and it is to such worthy citizens as he that the present generation can enjoy so fully the blessings of the finely improved country which we of the younger generation find awaiting our pleasure. Mr. FISH was born in Honey Hollow, Greene county, New York, January 31, 1836, and is one of eight children born to the union of Silas and Betsey (RAYMOND) FISH. The paternal grandfather, Silas FISH, who lived to an advanced age, dying on the old homestead, was a native of Albany county, New York, where he followed farming for a number of years, his family being early settlers in the Empire state. He was three times married and he reared a family by each wife, but the father of the subject was the only son of the second union to grow to manhood. The daughters by that marriage were, Susan, who married Nathaniel THOMPKINS, of Albany county, New York; Mary, who married John TOWNSEND, of Philadelphia; Sarah, who married Isaac KING, of Albany county, New York; and Amy, who married Daniel FROST, also of that county. The maternal grandfather, Elias RAYMOND, was a native of Athens, New York. During his early years he followed the cooper's trade, but later engaged in merchandising. He married Hannah SCOTT, and they reared a family of six children. In 1857 they came to Wisconsin and in the spring of 1868 came from Sauk county to Walworth county. He died in November 1878, at the age of ninety-one years. He was a member of the Methodist church, and he lived a temperate, honorable and upright life. Silas FISH was also born in the state of New York, his birth occurring on April 19, 1806, and there he followed farming and lumbering. In April 1855, he emigrated to Winfield township, Sauk county, Wisconsin, locating near Reedsburg, where he purchased a farm of two hundred and four acres, of partly improved land, and thereon made his home until his death, February 20, 1882, a month before his eighty-sixth birthday. He and his wife were Quakers. Eight children were born to them, namely: Elizabeth, who married Thomas POWELL, of Sauk county; Elias R. lives in Monroe county, this state; Spencer C. lives at Reedsburg; Lewis N., and Emma Jane, who married Charles E. KELLY, both lived in Sauk county; Lucius lives at Reedsburg, and Elbert W. lives in Sauk county, also. When nineteen years old Jasper M. FISH, of this sketch, accompanied his parents to this state having been reared in New York and educated in the common schools. He remained with his parents until attaining his majority, and in 1859 he settled on forty acres in Sauk county which his father gave him. He had met Temperance HAND in Walworth county while on a visit here the previous winter, and on October 29, 1859, they were married. She was a daughter of Jared and Mary J. (RAYMOND) HAND, and was one of five children who grew to maturity, the others being, Hannah A., deceased, who married John GREENWOOD, of Sauk county; Raymond J., a contractor and builder of San Antonio, Texas, who married Harriet COLES, of Lyons, this county; Helen M. married J. W. MOORE, an attorney of Dallas, Texas; and Milton J., who has a milk and dairy supply business in Kansas City, and who married Adaline WISCHHUSEN. Mrs. FISH came to Wisconsin with her parents when she was six years old. Her union with Mr. FISH was blessed with seven children, namely: Lorenzo J.; Mary E., William R., Silas B., Elizabeth M., Charles R., and Grace T. For some time Mr. FISH was a Democrat and he voted for Cleveland in 1884, but since then he has been a Prohibitionist. He lived about eight years on his farm in Sauk county, and in 1866 purchased one hundred and sixty-one acres in Walworth county, in section 12, Geneva township; in 1874 he bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 11 and afterwards added sixty acres more in section 11, adjoining the other two tracts, also owned forty acres in section 2, and thirty acres in section 1, his fine farm being known as "The FISH Stock Ranch." In the winter of 1891 Mr. FISH took a prominent part in organization of the Walworth County Printing Company, together with other leading Prohibitionists, of which company he was president. They established the Blade, a Prohibition paper, and for some time Mr. FISH devoted his attention and energy to its publication, it becoming a powerful factor for the cause in this part of the state. Mr. FISH and his wife now reside on the northeaster quarter of section 11 and they rent their farms to their sons. Lorenzo J. married Lucy JOHNSON and has a farm of his own in the north part of Geneva township; Mary E. died unmarried in April 1906; Silas B. is farming the one hundred and sixty acres where the subject and wife reside; Elizabeth married Howard Lamereaux and lives at Winesap, Washington; Grace married Bert VANT, now deceased, and she lives with her parents, and has one son, Arthur VANT. Silas B. and Charles B. FISH are both told of at some length under separate headings herein. Submitted by Carol