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Joseph Wilson Fifer (October 28, 1840 – August 6, 1938) was a Republican governor of Illinois, serving from 1889 to 1893. He also served as a member of the Illinois Senate, 1881-83.

“Private Joe” Fifer was born at Staunton, Virginia on 28 October 1840. At the age of 16, in 1856, he moved with his family to Danvers, Illinois and worked in his father’s brickyard for several years.

Fifer enlisted as a Private in the 33rd Illinois Infantry at the start of the Civil War and was severly wounded at Jackson, Mississippi during General Grant’s Vicksburg campaign. He refused a discharge and spent the rest of the war guarding a prison boat.

After the war, he married. Joseph Fifer and his wife Gertrude, had 3 children. The oldest child died in infancy, leaving Herman and Florencer. He studied law at Illinois Wesleyan and became the tax collector at Danvers Township. He served as Bloomington city attorney and as a state’s attorney as well.

In 1880 he was elected to the state senate where he served for seven years. His name was elevated to state level after fighting with General John Black, the pension commissioner, when the latter tried to remove him as a “typical Republican politician who did not deserve a pension.” Fifer’s pension was $24 a month. Due to his celebrity status "Private Joe" Fifer was elected Governor of Illinoisin 1889. Fifer lost a reelection bid, and then twice refused the nomination to run again for governor. He was appointed to the Interstate Commerce Commision (ICC) by President William McKinley in 1897.

Governor Fifer lived to see his daughter, Florence Fifer Bohrer, elected as the first female State Senator of Illinois in 1924. “Private Joe” was hit by an automobile at the age of 92; he lived blind, deaf, and crippled another six years before he died on 6 August 1938.

Governors of Illinois
Bond • Coles • Edwards • Reynolds • Ewing • Duncan • Carlin • Ford • French • Matteson • Bissell • Wood • Yates • Oglesby • Palmer • Oglesby • Beveridge • Cullom • Hamilton • Oglesby • Fifer • Altgeld • Tanner • Yates • Deneen • Dunne • Lowden • Small • Emmerson • Horner • Stelle • Green • Stevenson • Stratton • Kerner • Shapiro • Ogilvie • Walker • Thompson • Edgar • Ryan • Blagojevich

http://www.il.ngb.army.mil/History/famous/fifer.htm Illinois National Guard

http://www.pantagraph.com/cityguide/sesqui/famous2.php Daily Pantagraph

This article incorporates facts obtained from The Political Graveyard.

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