George Jabez Fisher

Quick Facts

Significance:

Boston merchant, Vigilance Committee member, and First Corps of Cadets in Civil War

Place of Birth:

Boston, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

February 21, 1828

Place of Death:

Milton, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

October 28, 1907

Place of Burial:

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Forest Hills Cemetery

Boston merchant George Jabez Fisher served on the Boston Vigilance Committee and later in the Civil War. 

Born in 1828, George Jabez Fisher grew up in Boston and attended several select private schools. When he completed his education, he became a merchant in the city. Eventually, he joined with his father and brothers at Fishers & Chapin which dealt in produce and provisions. In 1851, he married Cornelia Wally Curtis, with abolitionist Reverend Theodore Parker as the officiant. Together, they had seven children.¹

Around this time, he also became involved in the antislavery movement. For example, Fisher donated to abolitionist campaigns and participated in the Republican party, which dedicated itself to stopping the spread of slavery.²

With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Fisher and other Bostonians called for a meeting at Faneuil Hall to discuss their response. At this meeting, participants created the third and final Boston Vigilance Committee to assist freedom seekers escaping to Boston on the Underground Railroad. Fisher joined this committee, and records indicate at least one financial donation to support its work. Further evidence of his contributions to the organization, however, remain unknown.³

During the Civil War, Fisher served as Second Lieutenant in the First Corps of Cadets "as part of the garrison at Fort Warren." His group performed guard duty over Confederate prisoners held at this fort on Georges Island in Boston Harbor. They served from May to July 1862.⁴

When his family business closed in 1875, Fisher turned his attention to the railroad industry. He served as purchasing agent for the Eastern, Fitchburg, and later Boston and Maine Railroads. He retired in 1898.⁵

Fisher passed away in 1907 in Milton, Massachusetts. His remains are buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.⁶

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Footnotes

1. Fisher's address is recorded as his business' 1850 address at 19 South Market Street. "George Jabez Fisher" Find a Grave, George Jabez Fisher (1828-1907) - Find a Grave Memorial, “Marriages,” New England Farmer, November 8, 1851, 2; George Adams, Boston City Directory, 1850-1851, p. 155, “Recent Deaths,”; Boston Evening Transcript, October 28, 1907, 5.
2. “Subscriptions,” Liberator, February 18, 1859, 2; “Affairs About Home,” Boston Herald, May 23, 1856, 2.
3. “Rocking the Old Cradle of Liberty,” Liberator, October 18, 1850, 166; "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society; Francis Jackson, Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston, 45, 75; Dr. Irving H. Bartlett collection, 1830-1880, W. B. Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives, Archive.org. Jackson’s account book indicates one donation in June 1855 by “George F. Fisher” and one donation in November 1851 by “George Fisher”, which may or may not be the same person.
4. Phillip A. Fisher, The Fisher Genealogy: A Record of the Descendants of Joshua, Anthony, and Cornelius Fisher, (Everett: Massachusetts Publishing Company, 1898), 324, Archive.org. 
5. “Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, October 28, 1907, 5.
6. "George Jabez Fisher" Find a Grave, George Jabez Fisher (1828-1907) - Find a Grave Memorial.