Fisher, Archibald

Born: 1790

Flourished: Warren County, Illinois

Fisher was an unmarried schoolteacher. At some point prior to 1840, he sustained a head injury that left him subject to confusion and memory loss. In 1841, he boarded with William Trailor in Warren County, Illinois. After spending a day with Trailer and his two brothers, Archibald and Henry, investigating land for purchase in Sangamon County, Fisher disappeared. Henry accused Archibald and William of murdering Fisher, but Fisher was found alive and in the care of his physician in Warren County. Logan & Lincoln defended the Trailor brothers in the murder trial.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 720-24; Abraham Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed; Remarkable Case of Arrest for Murder; People v. Trailor & Trailor, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org.