SOURCE: Commemorative biographical record of the west shore of Green Bay, Wisconsin 
Microfilm of original published: Chicago : J.H. Beers, 1896. 718 p. : ports.
LDS Microfilm #0924759     Pages 555-556 

H. D. FISHER, the founder of the city of Florence, came to this locality from Menasha, Wis., on a prospecting tour, in 1871.  He traveled all through the Menominee range, and located the Florence mine in 1873, and discovered the Commonwealth mine in 1876.  He began active mining operations in the Florence mine about the time of the building of the Chicago & North Western railroad, which made its survey in 1879, and completed the building of the road to what is now the city of Florence, October I4, 1880.  On first coming to the place, Mr. Fisher took up 480 acres of government land, mining property, and on the lake 240 acres more. Later he located twenty thousand acres of mining and timber land, between the years 1873 and 1876.  From the first he has located in all about fifty thousand acres.  In the spring of 1880 he and Menominee Mining Co. had surveyed and platted the present city of Florence, and on March 16,
of that year, had the lots put on the market.  The village was named in honor of the wife of Dr. N. P. Hulst.  Mr. Fisher, it may be said, located permanently in this place in 1880, and owned a half interest in the fee of the mine, which he leased to the Menominee Mining Co. Since coming here he has built extensively, and some of the best buildings in the place have been erected by him, including the bank building, and Masonic Block, which were erected in 1889.

Mr. Fisher is a native of Vermont, born in Vergennes, August 27, 1832, and is a son of Hiram and Hannah (Champion) Fisher, who were also natives of the "Green Mountain State."  The father died in Vermont, in January, 1879, in his seventy-seventh year; his wife passed away in 1882, in her seventy-third year. They were the parents of four children: H. D., our subject; Cyrus (drowned in 1873, off Halifax), who was admitted to the bar in the high courts of London, and was a prominent member of the Cobden Club, and an attorney of some note in London; Laura (now Mrs. Silas E. Wright), of Rutland. Vt., and George P., who resides on the old farm in Vermont.

The subject of this sketch was reared in Vermont, and spent his boyhood and youth on the home farm.  He was educated in the common schools of that State, in early life learned the carpenter trade.  At the age of twenty-one he came west to Oshkosh, Wis., but soon afterward went to Menasha, where he was engaged in general merchandise business for some years.  In 1861 he sold out his store, and commenced in the insurance business, in which he continued for a time, or until coming to Florence.  While in Oshkosh, however, he was engaged as clerk in the old Winnebago Hotel, winters, and as clerk on a boat on the Fox and Wolf rivers, during the summer season.  While residing in Menasha, on January 31, 1861, Mr. Fisher was united in marriage with Miss Emily O. Keyes, who was born in Wisconsin, daughter of Capt. Joseph and Olive (Williams) Keyes, who were natives of Northfield, Vt., and who, in 1837, came to Wisconsin and located at Lake Mills, where Mr. Keyes built a saw and grist mill, laid out the town, and made it his home until 1853 when he moved to Menasha, built a sawmill, and made that his home until his death about the year 1875.  To Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have been born four children: Olive (now Mrs. Oliver Evans), of Iron Mountain; Katie (widow of E. J. Ingram), also of Iron Mountain; Nellie (wife of A. M. Pinto), of Omaha, Nebr.; and Laura, at home.

Fraternally, Mr.: Fisher is a member of Fisher Lodge, No. 222, F. & A. M.; of Marinette Chapter, No. 57, R. A. M.; and of the United Workmen and Royal Arcanum.  In the Masonic Lodge he passed all the chairs, and was senior warden of the Grand Lodge in 1894-5.  In politics he is a Republican, and served as postmaster at Florence from 1880 to 1887. Mr. Fisher is one of the best posted men of the northwest country, and there is hardly a foot of land in all the territory of this section of the country with which he is not familiar.  In addition to locating the mines of Florence and Commonwealth, he also discovered the Armenia Iron Mine, east of Crystal Falls, Mich.   His business interests have been very extensive, and, in connection with real estate, he is interested in the bank at Florence, and Commercial Bank of Iron Mountain, Mich. In the development of this section he has certainly been a very active man, and the credit for its prosperity is largely due to his efforts.