Census records show John FISCHER was born in Hesse Cassel, Germany in 1827 and that he arrived in America in 1849. His death record list his parents as George and Katherine Fischer. John's son Charles said his father John was in the German Navy. He said back in the days when they had duels, the military had very strict rules that no one was allowed to fight a duel with a superior officer because it would be too much temptation to try to improve ones position by eliminating the competition. John apparently broke this rule. To escape punishment, as the story goes, he "jumped ship" and ended up in America.
Other members of the family said that John was forced to leave Hesse because he was part of an unsuccessful revolution in the German states.
The story of how John got a financial start in America is that he found a large amount of whale ambergris which he was able to sell for a goodly sum.
John Fisher married Susan ADAMS of Little Egg Harbor on the 14th of July 1853 in Burlington County New Jersey. Susan ADAMS came from the most prominent family in the area. Her great great Grandfather "The Great John Mathis" is documented to have financed the revolutionary war as well as leaving estates of over 1,000 acres to each of his numerous sons. (It makes me think that John must have been an outstanding individual to marry so prominately after only being in America four short years.)
Susan ADAMS mother's family, the ROCKHILLs, were all in the shipping industry. Susan's four male ROCKHILL cousins were sea captains on the 1880 census. ( This corroborates the story their son Charles told of learning to walk aboard a sailing ship.) So John and Susan must have spent some time at sea. Charles once said something about "sailing around the horn" with his parents.
Charles also said he was given five dollars a week for allowance That was a man's wages in those days . What cost $5.00 in 1889 would cost $94.63 in 2001. So they were obviously well-to-do.
John and Susan had ten children, five of whom survived to adulthood.
In 1861 John purchased from his brothers-law Charles Adams and Caleb Adams, 5 acres and 27 acres in Little Egg Harbor. About ten years later he moved the family to Toms River in Ocean County, New Jersey.
John FISCHER joined Methodist Church of Toms River, NJ by certificate 1871.
In 1882 John bought two lots in Island Heights and doubled his money to days later when he sold the lots for twice the price. For a long time the family lived on Lien Street. The record of the Methodist Church at Tom's River lists Susans death in 1884 when her youngest living son Charles was 10 years old. After Susan died in 1884, John did not re-marry.
John Fischer died December 16, 1909
Interestingly, of their five children who live to adulthood, three children Martha Florence, Hope Arena, and William Henry remained single and at home with their father John on Lien Street "the second house on the south side".In 1897 John Fischer bought six lots and all the houses/buildings on the lots on Walton street. John and his grown children William, Hope and Martha moved in a house at number 11 Walton Street.
Martha Florence was very active in the methodist Church of Toms River. During her adult life she was almost continually President of the Relief Society and actively involved in the Sunday school.
William Henry became a prominent newspaperman. "A slim, white-haired fiery reform-minded Methodist editor and publisher of the weekly New Jersey Courier for 45 years. A bachelor who neither smoked nor drank, his editorial carried a high moral tone."
The oldest daughter Catherine A. Fisher married Joseph Grover son of James Grover and Cornelia Wainwright Dec 21, 1879 at the Methodist Church of Toms River, NJ. Catherine a.k.a. (Katie) was age 22, Joseph age 24. (Her husband Joseph GROVER was born 22 Dec 1855 and died 11 Oct. 1940)
The children of Joseph Grover and Katie A. Fischer:(You may have noticed I have spelled FISCHER without the C in this document. This was intentional. I wrote FISCHER the way it was spelled in the original records. My observation has been that the earlier the record is in New Jersey the less likely the C was in FISCHER.)
-biography written and researched by Linda Rawles ©2002 Linda Rawles
You can read the biography of Charles Fischer by clicking on his name on the table below
| Charles Fischer | David Adams |
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