Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1908 — Laura Rathfon Fisher Here. [ARTICLE]

Laura Rathfon Fisher Here.

r? Among the home coming visitors is Mrs. Laura Rathfon Fisher, whose girlhood home was in Gillam township, and who will best be remembered in Rensselaer as the teacher of the 3d grade back in the eighties. Miss Rathfon went to Chicago in 1889, and taught school and was married in 1890 to Mr. Fisher, and is now the mother of three very delightful children. She has been making her headquarters during her visit with Mrs. Rebecca Porter, and accepting invitations to the homes of many other old friends. Some years ago Mrs. Fisher received considerable newspaper praise and fame by, being the leader in CM* cago in freeing the residence district in which she lived «>f saloons. It had been proposed to establish a beer garden in the neighborhood and Mrs. Fisher determined that it should never be, and with all the grit that a good and fearless woman could muster she set about to defeat the will of the brewer. It was no small task; the Chicago city Council does not often look upon the sentimental nor even the moral side of a question and the fight had to be made in the committee and then in the council itself. Mrs. Fisher enlisted the aid of other 'loyal women and after being defeated once by the council they took the matter up again and this time succeeded not only in defeating the beer garden movement but in providing that no saloon of any description could be conducted within the bounds of the residence section. Mrs. Fisher had never been a temperance worker before that time, but her work was a great accomplishment and was the initiatory step to the banishment of the saloons from the .residence sections all over the city.

Mrs. Fisher is now the president of the South Side Monday Club, which is a part of the Federated Women’s dubs of America, and which has among its members many prominent society women. In 1900 Mrs. Fisher completed a course in dramatic art, and it will be remembered that she was highly qualified as an elocutionist and reader when in Rensselaer. She is now planning to accompany another reader here some time during the coming winter for the purpose of giving an evening’s .entertainment. After the death of her father, David Rathfon, ol Gillam • township, the old home place of 80 acres was offered for sale, and Mrs. Fishr did not want it to be transferee! frem the family so she purchased it, and now proposes to make it one cf the most attractive farms in Jasper county. All the fence posts along the road are to be painted white and vines will be grown at each post. Mrs. Fisher called Bill N. Jones to assist her in naming the farm, and he suggested the name of “Keep Sake Farm,” which is quite likely to be adopted. It is a great pleasure to meet and converse with Laura Rathfon Fisher, and her old home most graciously welcomed her visit.