Lee T. Fischer, D. D., of Pratt, Kan., at the present time probate judge of Pratt county, was born June 7, 1840, at Oxford, Ohio. He is a son of Jesse and Mary (George) Fischer, the former born at Goshen, Ohio. Jesse Fischer was, in his earlier career, a woolen manufacturer, but later entered railroad service, being at one time yard master of the Pennsylvania railroad, at Indianapolis, Ind. He was a son of German parents who were descendants of the German royal line. Mary George Fischer was born at Oxford, Ohio, and died at Lamer, Mo., in 1880. She was a gifted woman and a worker of great ability and earnestness in the Methodist Episcopal church. To these parents were born five children—one son and four daughters: Lee T. Fischer, D. D., is the only son; Jennie is Mrs. John Shoeman, a resident of Irvington, a suburb of Indianapolis; Sarah is deceased; Elizabeth is the widow of Pleasant Ayers and resides in Indianapolis; and Harriet is the wife of Newton Liston, a stockman and merchant in Indiana.

Reverend Fischer acquired his education in the public schools of Ohio and at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, which institution numbers two presidents of the United States among its graduates. He took a two-years theological course at Oxford, New School Presbyterian. He subsequently entered railroad service and was thus employed twelve years, five years of that time as a passenger conductor on the Pennsylvania railroad. At the opening of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in Company I, Eleventh Indiana infantry. This regiment was organized at Indianapolis, in April, 1861, for three months' service, was mustered in on April 25, and on May 8 was transferred to Evansville for blockade duty along the Ohio river. One of its colonels was Lewis Wallace, the world-famed author of "Ben Hur." A somewhat dramatic incident occurred upon the day the regiment left Indianapolis for the front. The patriotic women of that city presented it with a handsome stand of colors, and when Colonel Wallace received it he turned to the men and said in his most impressive tone: "Now, remember Buena Vista, boys, and on our knees let us swear to defend this flag with the last drop of our blood." Every man in the regiment, including Wallace himself, dropped to his knees, and the Colonel repeated the following oath: "We pledge ourselves before God and these, our fellow-countrymen, to defend this flag with our lives, and to die for it if necessary, God being our helper. Amen." A solemn "Amen" came in one breath from the regiment, and the subsequent history of the gallant Eleventh shows how well the oath was kept. The most of its service was in Virginia and West Virginia, along the Potomac. It was mustered out at Indianapolis Aug. 2, 1861. Mr. Fischer reënlisted in February, 1865, in the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Indiana infantry, as a sergeant in Company I. He served as first lieutenant eight months and as a recruiting officer until the close of the war. After the war he resumed railroading, but after three years left that employment to enter the ministry of the Baptist church. He served as an evangelist seventeen years in Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska and Michigan. He was pastor of the Baptist church at Geneva, Neb., six years; at Trenton, Mo., one year; and at Columbia City, Ind., three years. In 1892 he removed to Oklahoma, where he was pastor of the Baptist church at Kingfisher one year, and at Alva three years. In 1906 he removed to Pratt, Kan., and was pastor of the Baptist church there until 1910, when he was elected on the Republican ticket as probate judge of Pratt county. He is a stanch Republican. Casting his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln, at the time of the Emancipator's second election, he has, from that time to the present, voted for every Republican candidate for the presidency.

Reverend Fischer has been married twice. His first marriage was to Miss Martha A. Pogue of Indianapolis, whom he wedded Dec. 23, 1861. Her father was one of the first settlers in Indianapolis and was killed by Indians at "Pogue's Run" in the early days of that city. Reverend Fischer and his first wife were the parents of three sons and two daughters: Ida died at the age of five; Frank M. is a railroad conductor at Kansas City, Mo.; Hubert, an electrician, is stationed at Colorado Springs, Col.; Ada O. is deceased; and Dennis A. resides at Pratt, Kan. The mother of these children died in 1885, at Kearney, Mo. Reverend Fischer has as an heirloom an iron cooking kettle, now over 200 years old, brought to Indiana in an early day by the Pogues.

At Richmond, in 1886, Reverend Fischer married Miss Emma, a daughter of Ryland Shackleford, a Kentuckian by birth. She is a seminary graduate and was engaged in the profession of teaching several years prior to her marriage. She is a cousin of Congressman Shackleford of Missouri. Reverend Fischer is a Royal Arch Mason. Though he has not long been a resident of Kansas, he has even in a short time proved a citizen that any community would welcome. His active career began over fifty years ago and the interim has been filled with useful and noble deeds for the cause of humanity.