This family history traces the lineage of members of the Fischer family who originated with Christopher Fischer, a German immigrant to Perth County in 1832. He arrived with his wife and two sons, Henry and August and established a farm in Fullarton Township. This is fact. Lore tells us that he also arrived with daughters.

Christopher and his family emigrated from the village of Elfershausen, in the Prussian state of Hanover. The 1851 census of Fullarton records the following members of the Fischer family living on the homestead and their ages: Christopher (55), Hanna (51), Henry (23), and August (8). All are listed as Lutherans and having been born in Germany. This last point is hard to resolve, given that Christopher first settled the Fullarton property in 1832. Listing August as 8 years old in 1851 and having been born in Germany is puzzling. Christopher is listed as a farmer, Henry as a labourer. The English authorities conducting the census anglicized the name in the records to Fisher.

The 1861 census shows the following members at the homestead: Henry (31,married in 1852); his wife Wilmenia (30); Annie (60, widow, presumably Hanna); August (17); Caroline (7); Henry (3); Mary (1). The latter three additions are all listed as having been born in Upper Canada, and are Henry’s children. Henry is now listed as a farmer and August a labourer.

The discrepancy of ages would be due to the timing of the census. The 1851 census was not completed until the spring of 1852. This being the case, we can presume Christopher died between 1852-1861. There is no record of his burial at this time. Hannah (Annie) did not appear in the 1871 census living with Henry, so she either died during this period or was living with August. There is no record of her burial either.

For organization purposes, the descendents of Henry and August have been written up as two families. Henry Fischer and his descendants are referred to as the Fullarton family. August Fischer and his descendants are referred to as the Logan family, even though he and his second wife and their children later moved to Grey Township. The descendants of that second marriage tend to have remained in Grey and Morris Townships of Huron County, whereas the descendants of his first marriage have remained in the Logan, Mitchell and Stratford areas.

We know the Fischers were not the only Germans to establish in the area. German settlers in the county originated from over-populated farming areas of small European countries in what we now know as Germany. Typically, they were the younger sons of families with long traditions as independent farm proprietors.

In the 1800s, Germany offered little new land for aspiring farmers, especially if you were not fortunate enough to be the first-born son in a large family. This, and political upheavals in Europe at the time, convinced many young farmers to uproot themselves and make the trans-Atlantic crossing to the New World. The first concessions of the township of Logan were settled by British pioneers, perhaps accounting for why the Fischers chose more western and northern reaches of the township for their homesteads.

Both Harold M. Fischer and Elfrieda Kreis Fischer state that the Fischers came to Canada at the same time as the Eickmeyer brothers who settled in Fullarton Township. The Illustrated History of Perth County 1982 describes the means by which the Eickmeyers came to Canada. Daniel Eickmeyer (1791-1881) was a native of Elfershausen, Hanover, as were Henry and August Fischer. Eickmeyer (who had been decorated for bravery at the Battle of Waterloo) operated a lumber business in Elfershausen. He traveled by wagon to Le Havre, France where he boarded a vessel bound for New York with his wife, seven children and four grandchildren. After a six week voyage at sea they arrived and moved on to settle a section of land at lot 8, concession 4 of Fullarton Township in 1846, close to Henry Fischer's section which was granted in the same year. Eickmeyer's daughter Wilhelmina eventually married Henry's son Henry Jr. Research is underway to investigate the passenger lists of those departing from Le Havre and arriving in New York in 1845-46. Previously, it was suspected that the Fischers would have left Europe from the port of Hamburg, which was in the state of Hanover. For some reason, many German people seem to have made the voyage to Le Havre, perhaps to avoid the necessity of a stop or transfer in England and the accompanying higher cost that would entail.

Trying to unearth much information about the families and the German communities they were part of is difficult. German settlers continued to speak their own language. They published their own newspapers, which were not widely circulated outside of their own area. Their activities are rarely mentioned in the English language papers that sprung up to serve the Mitchell and Stratford areas.

The land which Christopher Fischer settled on in Fullarton Township remained in family hands until the mid 1990s. The Junior Farmers Association of Ontario documented the titleholders of the original Fischer farm in 1967, as part of their Century Farm project. This documentation certified the property at R.R. 2 Mitchell, lot 10 of concession 5, Fullarton Township, as a Century Farm.

Notes at the farm held by the last family owner, Harold M. Fischer, suggest the land was obtained from the Canada Company as early as 1836, although this is not authenticated. Harold's certificate of recognition states that the property was leased to the family in 1846. This is more likely, being supported by the Patron's Directory of the Historical Atlas of Perth County (1979). This latter document lists Henry Fischer as having 225 acres in Fullarton on three different plots committed to grain and stock farming, having moved there in 1846 from Germany. He would have been eighteen at this time. It was deeded to him in 1856. This would fit in with Canada Company practices of not issuing deeds until lands had been paid for in full. In 1869 the property was turned over to Daniel Eickmeyer, who had married Elizabeth Fischer, and then back to Henry Fischer Sr. in 1875 (as mentioned earlier, the Eickmeyer brothers apparently came to Fullarton at the same time as the Fischers, according to notes retained by Harold M. Fischer). Sons Henry Jr. and Andrew jointly took possession of it in 1884. In 1892, another son, William, became the owner. Henry Fischer Jr. resumed the title in 1898. From then on, it passed from father to son, with Milton acquiring it in 1916, who passed it to his son Harold, the last Fischer owner, in 1957.

Lot 8, concession 4 of Fullarton was also a Fischer farm from March 1875, when Henry Sr. bought it from Adam Steinacker for $5,500. It passed from Henry Sr. to Henry Jr. and Andrew on January 3, 1884, and then back to Henry Sr. on March 7 of the same year. Four years later, on March 7, 1888, Henry Jr. again took possession. He kept it until May 13, 1929, when he passed it on to his son Harvey Fischer for $6,000. It was finally passed from Harvey to his nephew Harold M. Fischer in 1965, who later disposed of it outside the family.

One early inhabitant of the property offers some insight into the homestead in the latter part of the last century:

The Sebringville United Church held records for all previous churches on the Fullarton side roads, including the Evangelical United Brethren church, which the family seems to have adhered to while that church existed. Some of these records remain in the Perth archives while others have been passed on to archives in Toronto. The Evangelical Lutheran Church Fullarton Cemetery is located on Fullarton Sideroad Five, two concessions south of Highway 8, and contains many Fischer stones. Interestingly enough, Henry Fischer and his wife were buried in the Zion Evangelical United Brethren Cemetery, lot 2, concession 8, McKillop Township. As we learn soon, this church was more closely associated with August Fischer and his family.

As mentioned earlier, many facts are hard to ascertain about the German settlers in Perth County, due to their own tendency to keep to themselves. Evidence of their ethnocentricity can be found by examining the records related to an 1858 crop failure experienced in Logan Township. Applications for assistance were filed by 167 different parties, few of which were Germans and none of them Fischers. We can speculate that the German farmers were lucky in avoiding the catastrophe, but would probably be more honest in supposing that they opted to lean on each other for support rather than apply for government assistance.

Nevertheless, the German community in Logan was an impressive size. In 1871, 30.7% or 983 of the township's residents claimed German origin. It was a relatively homogeneous group, with most originating in the Prussian state of Hanover. A full 27.7% of the township residents were Lutherans. Of these, 13.7% or 438 had been born in Germany. The German settlement extended from the fourth to the tenth concession of the township.

James McCallum's study of the township notes that the village of Brodhagen served as the centre of the German Community. Near it was a school known as the Hennicke school, a name that would figure prominently among the early generation of Fischers. The Rock and Benneweis families, both of which would marry with the descendants of August Fischer, were present in the initial days of the community, and not only engaged in farming but lumbering as well. The latter pursuit is easier to understand when one remembers that most of what we call Southern Ontario was under a canopy of trees until it was cleared by these first settlers for farming. Original settlers on any tract of land would have a sizable amount of lumber to dispose of. Early accounts of travelers through this part of the Huron Tract, as the area was called, talk of riding along the single twelve-foot-wide trail through the forest and finding only three clearings on the whole route from Guelph to Goderich. One was at the Fryfogel Inn east of what is now Shakespeare, another was at the site of the present Huron Street bridge in Stratford, and the last was at the Seebach Inn west of where Sebringville now stands.

The area sold off by the Canada Company had been known as the Queen's Bush. A number of immigrants arrived as squatters, occupying land and registering later, hoping to pay the price for their land before the registry office gave it to someone else. Settlers worked digging ditches, making roads, and in the sawmills to pay off the price of their farms. Much of the local building was done by workbees with groups of men working together, and traveling from one farm to another throughout the neighbourhood until all of the work was done. Most farms were 100 acres, but some opted for only fifty or twenty-five acres. Some took only five-acre lots and worked for others. For many it was a great change from the German states where most had worked on large farms that had many families working on them. Now these people had 100 acres of their own. It is no wonder that the prospect of owning such a vast size of land attracted settlers from the crowded continent of Europe, even if the voyage across the Atlantic was fraught with danger, and conditions in the New World primitive.

McCallum cites just how closely the German community in Logan kept to its traditions:

August Fisher (sic) is reported to have lived at concession 8, lot 34 and concession 9, lot 34, west of Brodhagen in 1879. August's property included fifty acres on either side of the Brodhagen Road, with the church being built on the south side. In fact, Canada Company papers show August Fischer obtained a seven year lease of lot 34, concession 10 on May 22, 1866. The 100-acre parcel was received for $200 down and annual payments of twelve dollars a year for seven years, after which point the deed was issued in January of 1873. (Ontario Archives document, Canada Company Books). The oldest son, Henry, leased E 1/2 lot 28, concession 12 in 1887, receiving the deed a year later. This twenty-five acres of the fifty-acre lot commanded a down payment of $112 and annual rent of $5.12. William Fischer (presumably another son, Franz Wilhelm) took W 1/2 of E 1/2 lot 28, paying $162 for his 25 acres and annual rent of $8.26. A third son, Carl August (christened Charles) leased W 1/2 lot 26, concession 9 in 1885 and was granted the deed on December 31, 1891.

One settler who figured prominently in the community, and who was August Fischer's neighbour, was Charles Rock, who took lot 28, concession 8 from the Canada Company in 1846. Another neighbour Frederick Ahrens, who took up lot 30, concession 8, is credited as being the first permanent settler in the area. Much of the hamlet is built on the original Ahrens farm. Both of these pioneers came from Germany, as did the majority of their neighbours in the Brodhagen district.

The church was a focal point for community life and German settlers in the area had three churches to choose from. A congregation of the Evangelical Association existed in Logan as early as the 1860s. One source notes that an Evangelical United Brethren congregation was founded in 1870 at lot 34, concession 8. This was August Fischer's property according to the Census of 1871 and the Historical Atlas of 1879. However, the first church building was not erected until 1872, and was promptly destroyed by fire in 1875. A new church was built on two acres, consisting of the east half of lot 34, concession 8, purchased in 1875 by the trustees of the association from Dietrich Dippel, who by then seems to have been the property owner, for $30. (The census of 1871 shows that this plot was owned by August Fischer at the time the census was conducted.) The church was known as Emmanuel Church, being served by a minister from Listowel, Sebringville or Zurich. In 1888 the congregation purchased land on lot 2, concession 8, McKillop Township, where a new church was built and those buried on the previous property were moved to the new land. The two-acre lot where it once stood was sold in 1890. Interestingly enough, Henry Fischer Sr., August’s brother, is buried in this cemetery.

The relocated church in McKillop was known as Zion Evangelical United Brethren, with the last service being held in 1971. The building was moved to the Family Paradise Park where it is used for social functions.

The second and third churches in the area had a common beginning. Two years after organizing St. John's Lutheran Church at Seebach's Hill in 1856, Reverend John Adam Hengerer traveled west and met with the German settlers on concession 6-7 and 8-9. On November 8, 1858 it was decided to form one congregation of the settlers on these adjacent roads. Since there were too many members for any one building, the congregation met in two separate schoolhouses. The Brodhagen group soon found the schoolhouse too small and the issue of where to establish the church was raised. Each group wanted the building on its own concession road. After much discussion in 1866 it was finally decided to establish the church in Brodhagen on an acre of land bought from Karl Rock. The two groups quarreled over land ownership, the congregational name, worship and protocol books and synodical affiliation. Finally, early in 1867, the terms for a congregational split were reached. One congregation chose the name First Lutheran of Logan, and opted to sever its connection with the Canada Synod and join the Missouri Synod, a relationship it has retained to this day. The Brodhagen church took in the small congregation of St. Peter's Church in McKillop and the name with it, maintaining an affiliation with the Canada Synod. Both congregations continued to be served by the same pastor and became known as the front and back church, located north and south respectively.

While this was going on, the schoolhouse in Brodhagen was destroyed by fire in 1867. A new church was constructed which served the community until it gave way to a new building across the road in 1921. This latter church is the St. Peter's Lutheran Church of Brodhagen today, the cemetery of which contains many members of the Fischer family.

First Lutheran of Logan, on concession 6-7, built a church building of their own when Gottlieb Hennick, a trustee, sold them land located on lot 26, conc. 6. This church maintained a relationship with Grace Lutheran in Mitchell until 1889, when Redeemer Lutheran in Monkton became the sister congregation. St. Peter's Lutheran in Brodhagen was the key church for the descendants of August Fischer's first marriage, although there are some members of the family who later joined the congregation on concession 6-7, often as a result of marriage.

The German community in Logan, then, had a choice of three churches in the last half of the 19th Century. There was St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Brodhagen, which exists today across the road from its original location. Secondly, there was the breakaway First Lutheran Church of Logan, located on concession 6-7, which figures less prominently in the Fischer family history. Finally, there was Emmanuel church, located on lot 34, concession 8, until it moved down the road to McKillop lot 2, concession 8 and became known as Zion Evangelical United Brethren Church, and even later was known as Zion United Church. The church building has been removed from the site, but its remaining cemetery contains the tombstone of Henry Fischer.

Other Fischers settled in Perth County about the same time as Henry and August, but connections to Christopher, Henry and August either do not exist, or are not known.

A number of Fishers from Great Britain established themselves in North and South Easthope.

Henrich Fischer and his wife Mary Strumm settled at lot 19, concession 8 of Ellice Township, having arrived with Henrich's brother George from the United States. Although he originally set up a farm beside Henrich's, George returned to the United States. Henrich is recorded in the Census of 1871 as being from Germany. His descendants continue to be found in the Ellice and Stratford areas. Charts of some of them follow.

First Lutheran Church Logan has the tombstone for a Freda E. Fischer (1867-12 Aug 1930). Church records show she married John Fitzner, who died February 8, 1923 and is also buried in the church cemetery. John and Frieda's children were Edward Gottlief (b. 27 Aug 1893), Martha Freda (b. 11 Jun 1897), Salma Fredericke (b. 15 May 1900), Frida Emilie Auguste (b. 19 May 1902). This latter one married William Clarence Marsales, of Hibbert Township, a farmer, whose parents were William Marsalus and Jessie Lang. It is unknown whether this line of Fischers is related to August or Henry.

Fairview Cemetery in Listowel has a number of Fischers who are not known to be related to those in this study. Buried in plot A R22-1 are: August Herman Fischer (1838-1931); his wife Magdalina Kaufman (1846-1928); Elizabeth M. (1873-1913); Louisa (1875-1975); William (1877-1965) and his wife Katherine Nuhn (1888-1932); Conrad Neabel (1886-1967) and his wife Eppie (1884-1979). In plot B R31-9 there is a Norma Fischer.

Also in Listowel, a Pricilla Eleanor Fischer was born April 4, 1940 in Listowel Hospital the daughter of Arthur Fischer and Bertha Feltz, according to Redeemer Lutheran Church Monkton records. The same records show a Lorine Gleena Gladys Fischer born to Art and Bertha September 21, 1941 in Galt. There appears to be no connection to the families of Henry and August at this time.

Maynard Fischer, Listowel, is the son of a George Fischer and nephew of another Henry. His father is from Petawawa, having been interned there during the First World War. His uncle Henry lives in Mattawa. The family has been traced and has always been established in the North Bay area since their arrival from Germany.

These inclusions are made to assist others who made research the family and come across these records, or for those who may have knowledge of the above people and can provide more information on them.