A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769 to 1885, Including More Than 
800 Biographical Sketches, J. H. Spencer, Manuscript Revised and 
Corrected by Mrs. Burilla B. Spencer, In Two Volumes.  Printed For the 
Author.  1886.  Republished By Church History Research & Archives 1976 
Lafayette, Tennessee. Vol. 2, pp 70-72.  [Montgomery County]

THOMAS JEFFERSON FISHER was never long a resident of any one place; but 
he probably spent more time within the ancient bounds of Salem 
Association, than in any other locality.  His father, John Boyln Fisher 
was of German extraction, and was a native of Pennsylvania.  He came to 
Kentucky when a young man, and raised five daughters and eight sons on 
its soil.  He died in Hardin County, about 1868, at the age of about 106 
years. 
	Thomas J. Fisher, the fourth of thirteen children of his parents, 
was born in Mt. Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky, April 9, 1812.  
He professed conversion at the age of sixteen years, and united with the 
Presbyterian church at Paris, Kentucky.  A year later he was baptized by 
Jeremiah Vardeman, and united with the Baptist church at Davids Fork, in 
Fayette County.  His parents being very poor, he had enjoyed few 
educational advantages.  But having a great desire for learning, and 
having acquired the trade of a tailor, he resolved to educate himself.  
Accordingly, in his eighteenth year, he went to Middletown, 
Pennsylvania, where he entered the academy of a Mr. Sloan, a 
Presbyterian minister, and remained till March, 1831, when he went to 
Pittsburg in the same State, and placed himself under the instruction of 
S. Williams, pastor of the Baptist church in that city.  During his 
second year at Pittsburg, he was licensed to preach, by the church of 
which his instructor was pastor.  Returning to Kentucky, he was ordained 
to the pastorate of the church at Lawrenceburg, in 1834.  The following 
February (1835) he took the pastoral care of Mill Creek church, near 
Bardstown.  But it was soon apparent that he was unsuited to the pastoral 
office.  He resigned his pastoral charges and gave himself to the work 
of an evangelist.  He was pastor for brief periods, of several other 
churches, during his ministry, but never succeeded well in that office.
	The gifts of Mr. Fisher were very extraordinary.  His oratory was 
of a style peculiarly his own, and was inimitable.  It is probable that 
no other man on this continent ever exercised such entire control over 
an audience.  One illustration will suffice to show the power of his 
oratory.
	Returning on horse-back from the South, where he had spent the 
winter in protracted meetings, he stopped on a Saturday night, at 
Bowling Green.  The Methodists were holding a protracted meeting in the 
village, and invited him to preach on the next day.  He declined on the 
plea that he was fatigued by his journey, and needed to rest over the 
Sabbath; but agreed to preach on Monday morning.  "I went to the meeting 
early," said Mr. Wilkins, "and took a seat by the side of the pulpit 
where I could observe the audience.  The house was crowded.  Mr. Fisher 
arose, read his text and started off happily.  The audience was at once 
enchained, and, within forty minutes, the orator had lifted them all to 
their feet.  Every individual in the house, as far as I could see, was 
standing up and leaning forward, with mouth open, towards the speaker, 
apparently oblivious of all his surroundings, and so stood until the 
discourse was finished."
	Mr. Fisher spent the thirty-four years of his ministry in holding 
protracted meetings in the southern States, giving a majority of his 
labors to Kentucky. His success was extraordinary.  In a funeral 
discourse, delivered previous to the burial of the great orator, Dr. 
Lorrimer estimated that not less than 12,000 people had professed 
conversion under Mr. Fisher's ministry.  He died from the effect of a 
wound on the back of his head, inflicted by an unknown assassin, on 
Eighth Street, in Louisville, January 11, 1866. 

Fisher Vardeman Sloan Williams Lorrimer
=
PA Hardin-KY Paris-Bourbon-KY Fayette-KY Bardstown-Nelson-KY 
Bowling_Green-Warren-KY Louisville-Jefferson-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/montgomery/fisher.tj.txt