Santa Barbara County Biographies

I. K. FISHER

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

I. K. FISHER, who is a member of the City Council from the Fifth Ward, and a 
man largely interested in the progress and development of Santa Barbara, was born 
at Fisher's Summit, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1836. His father moved to that 
locality in 1832, and established and named the town. The subject of this sketch left 
home in 1854, and as a butcher received a contract from the Huntington & Broad Top 
Railway to supply constructing parties with meats. In 1854 he went to Nebraska, and 
for two years speculated in lands in and around Omaha. Then for three years he was 
wagon master for Major Rossells & Waddell, and took charge of freight trains across the 
plains from Kansas City to Salt Lake City, carrying supplies and merchandise. In 1859 
he went to Colorado, and was engaged until 1863 in mines, and speculating at Central 
City, Black Hawk, Delaware Flats and Denver. He was one of the pioneers to Boise 
City, Idaho, and helped lay out the town. Until 1867 he was engaged in mining and 
speculating in Montana, Arizona and at Salt Lake City. In 1867 he came to Los Angeles, 
and in 1868 to San Diego, where he ran backs and did teaming about the city. He 
also had mining interests at Julian. In 1871 he came to Santa Barbara in the employ of 
the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, and in 1873 he bought out the California Market on State 
street, where he has since been connected in business, having many outside interests. Mr. 
Fisher sold an interest in August, 1889, to Mr. More and Mr. Hollister, under the firm 
name of I. K. Fisher & Co. He also owns a half interest in a 670-acre ranch at the mouth 
of the Santa Ynez River, and one-half interest in a 226-acre ranch at Ortega. He also 
owns 270 acres near town, where he does some farming, and also keeps a tine stock of 
horses, about fifty head. He breeds the Richmond blood for speed and carriage driving. 
He owns 419 acres on the Hondo Creek, which is tine grazing land. 

Mr. Fisher was elected to the City Council from the Fifth ward in 1884, and was reelected 
in 1886 and 1888. 

Mr. Fisher was married in Santa Barbara in 1874, to Miss Lizzie Holmes, and of three 
children only one survives. Mr. Fisher has been a member of the I. O. O. F. for twenty 
years. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and A. O. U. W. He is an owner 
and director of the Santa Barbara Water Company, and bas many other interests in 
and about the city. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.