Cephas Fisher Sr. was a Quaker, born April 13, 1778 at Monahan, York County, Pennsylvania, the son of James Fisher and Jane Atkinson, who were members of the Warrington Monthly Meeting. Cephas Sr. was taken from Pennsylvania in 1789, with his parents and family, to Hopewell, Virginia, then in 1792 to Westfield, North Carolina, and on to Greene County, Tennessee. Cephas Sr. was married August 24, 1803 in the New Hope meeting house, Greene County, Tennessee, to Rachel Stanfield (probably his third cousin).

Rachel Stanfield, born in 1785, was the daughter of Thomas Stanfield and Hannah Vernon. Thomas Stanfield was probably a grandson of John Stanfield, who had come to Pennsylvania from Lurgan, Ireland with parents Samuel Stanfield and Jane Andrew Stanfield. John Stanfield married Hannah Dixon (nee Hadley) at Kennett meeting, in 1742. He moved to Hockesin (now Delaware), and then to Cane Creek, North Carolina in 1753. He died in Orange County in 1755. One of his sons apparently moved to Greene County, Tennessee. Thomas Stanfield was on a Greene County jury in 1802, and other members of the Stanfield family also appear in Greene County court records.

Cephas Fisher Sr.’s grandmother, Alice Stanfield, was also one of the Samuel Stanfield children. Our family tradition, repeated by Grandfather Florance C. Fisher Sr., includes an Irish ancestry which was probably remembered due to history told by both Cephas and Rachel. Cephas and Rachel, and Cephas’ parents, moved from Tennessee to Highland County, Ohio in 1804, where they were members of the Miami Monthly Meeting. Cephas and Rachel lived first near East Monroe in Highland County, then moved near Lees Creek and New Vienna, in Clinton County, where they remained. Rachel died May 5, 1840 at age 55 (Fairfield Monthly Meeting).

Cephas Fisher Sr. remarried after the death of Rachel, to Jane Leech Atkinson, the widow of John Atkinson, who had been robbed and thrown overboard from the “Dutch Boy” during a trip to St. Louis in 1839. Cephas became the guardian of Jane’s minor children.

One child, Eli, was born to Cephas and Jane.

Cephas Sr. died at age 84, December 31, 1863. Cephas and Rachel are buried at Lees Creek Friends cemetery. Thelma Lucille Fisher, in her book “Atkinson - Fisher Quaker Immigrants with William Penn,” 1978, Cox Printing Company, describes Cephas Sr.’s funeral: “Cephas died 30 December 1862, in the Fairview Friends’ Church neighborhood, Clinton County, was taken on a sled, on a cold, snowy New Years Day, to be buried in the Lees Creek Quaker Cemetery, on Highland Road, where mourners were warmed by a huge bonfire. He was 84 years, 8 months, and 17 days old. Both he and Rachel are buried in the back of this cemetery, on the right side.” (The cemetery appears on maps about 1 1/4 miles northwest of Highland, on the left side of the road leaving Highland. It is the site of the old Lees Creek Quaker Meeting House.) Cephas and Rachel had 8 children: Hannah, James, Rebecca, Thomas, John, Samuel, Cephas A. Jr, and Rachel or Jane.

This family farmed in Clinton County, Ohio throughout the 19th century. There are Fisher descendants still living on “Fisher Road” leading out of Lees Creek toward New Vienna, which was Cephas Sr.’s post office address.