Background
He was born near Staunton, Vairginia, the second of three sons and third of five children of John and Mary (Wilson) Fifer.
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He was born near Staunton, Vairginia, the second of three sons and third of five children of John and Mary (Wilson) Fifer.
He attended school in Virginia and in McLean County, Illinois, to which his parents moved in 1857.
After being mustered out of service in October 1864 Fifer returned to Bloomington and enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan College.
Graduating with a B. S. degree in 1868, he studied law in a Bloomington law office and was admitted to the bar in 1869.
There he assisted his father, a farmer and a brick and stone mason, in the operation of a brickyard at Danvers, ten miles west of Bloomington.
In August 1861 Fifer enlisted as a private in the 33rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He served in the western theatre of the Civil War, taking part in the Vicksburg campaign in 1863. Nine days after the capture of Vicksburg he was severely wounded in battle near Jackson, Mississippi, but he recovered early in 1864 and rejoined his company at New Orleans, serving several months beyond the expiration of his three-year enlistment.
Fifer began his political career in 1871 when he was elected corporation counsel of Bloomington. In 1872, nominated on the Republican ticket, he became state's attorney of McLean County, an office he held for seven years.
He was elected to the Illinois senate in 1880. Fifer was a popular senator during his four-year term, and in 1888 he ran for governor of Illinois, winning the Republican nomination and defeating John M. Palmer, his Democratic opponent, by a narrow margin.
Four years later, although running slightly ahead of the national ticket, he lost to John Peter Altgeld.
As governor he secured the adoption of the Australian ballot and a relatively advanced law of pardons. Having joined Jesse Fell in the creation of a "Society of Free-thinkers" in Bloomington, he became identified with the Unitarian Church of Bloomington, of which his wife's parents were charter members.
Since all of his opponents in the 1888 campaign--six Republicans in the primary and Palmer in the election--were generals or colonels, Fifer proudly called himself by his only army rank, "Private Joe. "
He died at Bloomington in his ninety-eighth year and was buried there in Park Hill Cemetery.
(Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)
Having joined Jesse Fell in the creation of a "Society of Free-thinkers" in Bloomington, he became identified with the Unitarian Church of Bloomington, of which his wife's parents were charter members.
In 1872, nominated on the Republican ticket, he became state's attorney of McLean County, an office he held for seven years.
A staunch Republican throughout his life ("I got my Republicanism shot into me during the war, " he once told a newspaper man), Fifer tended toward the espousal of liberal causes.
President McKinley named Fifer to the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1899. He was reappointed by President Theodore Roosevelt and served on the Commission until 1906, when he retired from public life. A staunch Republican throughout his life ("I got my Republicanism shot into me during the war, " he once told a newspaper man), Fifer tended toward the espousal of liberal causes.
He was reputed to be an able lawyer and a vigorous prosecuting attorney, but his greatest interest was politics. For almost seventy years he was a valued counselor to the Illinois Republicans.
His friends included many of the leaders of his day in both parties. His home was a favorite stopping place for visitors, and his conversation was rich with anecdotes and quotations from the classics, drawn from his remarkable memory.
He served as a member of the Illinois Senate, 1881–83.
Nearly six feet tall, Fifer was described at the time of his governorship as "spare and wiry, " with a dark complexion and "keen eyes, " nervous in temperament, and by nature "frank and sympathetic. "
On June 15, 1870, he married Gertrude Lewis of Bloomington; they had two children, Herman W. and Florence. His daughter, Mrs. Florence Fifer Bohrer, became in 1924 the first woman member of the Illinois senate.