{{Short description|Governor of Illinois from 1889 to 1893}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2011}} {{Infobox officeholder |name= Joseph Wilson Fifer |image= Joseph.W.Fifer.jpg |caption= Fifer circa 1892 |order= 19th |office= Governor of Illinois |term_start= January 14, 1889 |term_end= January 10, 1893 |lieutenant= Lyman Ray |predecessor= Richard J. Oglesby |successor= John Peter Altgeld |office2 = Commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission |term_start2 = November 14, 1899 |term_end2 = December 30, 1905 |predecessor2 = William J. Calhoun |successor2 = Franklin Knight Lane |office3= Member of the Illinois Senate from the 28th district |term3= 1881–1885 |predecessor3=John M. Hamilton |successor3=LaFayette Funk |signature=Joseph Wilson Fifer Signature.svg |birth_date= October 28, 1840 |birth_place=Staunton, Virginia, U.S. |death_date={{death date and age|1938|8|6|1840|10|28|mf=y}} |death_place=Bloomington, Illinois, U.S. |party=Republican |profession= |spouse= |footnotes= }}
'''Joseph Wilson Fifer''' (October 28, 1840 – August 6, 1938) was the 19th governor of Illinois, serving from 1889 to 1893. He also served as a member of the Illinois Senate from 1881 to 1883.<ref name=herald>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-and-review-joseph-fifer-ex-gover/181397106/| title=Joseph Fifer, Ex-Governor, Dies Suddenly| newspaper=Herald & Review| location=Decatur, Illinois| date=August 7, 1938| access-date=September 19, 2025}}</ref>
Fifer was born at Staunton, Virginia on October 28, 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 severely 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, Fifer married Gertrude Lewis and had three children. The oldest child died in infancy, leaving Herman and Florence. He studied law at Illinois Wesleyan University and became the tax collector at Danvers Township. He served as the city attorney of Bloomington, Illinois and as a state's attorney as well.<ref name="MCMH">{{cite web| first1=Joann C.| last1=Yant| first2=Michael| last2=Kozak| website=McLean County Museum of History| url=http://www.mchistory.org/Fifer_Bohrer_Collection_Finding_Aid.html| title=The Fifer-Bohrer Papers Collection| access-date=September 19, 2025| archive-date=April 8, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408190439/http://www.mchistory.org/Fifer_Bohrer_Collection_Finding_Aid.html| url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1880, he was elected to the state senate from the 28th district, where he served during the 32nd and 33rd General Assemblies. He was preceded by John Marshall Hamilton and succeeded by LaFayette Funk in office.<ref>{{cite book| editor-last=Woods| editor-first=Harry| title=Illinois Blue Book 1913-1914| date=August 10, 1914| chapter=Members of the General Assembly - 1818 to 1914, Inclusive| pages=380-386| publisher=Illinois Printing Company| location=Danville, Illinois| access-date=June 29, 2025| via=Illinois Digital Archives| url=https://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/bb/id/26033}}</ref> thumb|left|The Fifer home in Bloomington, Illinois His name was elevated to state level after fighting with General John C. 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, Fifer was elected Governor of Illinois in 1889. One of his notable acts as governor was to commute the life sentence of murderer Thomas Neill Cream, allowing his release, and freeing Cream to commit at least four more murders in London.<ref>{{cite book| title=Famous Trials| url=https://archive.org/details/famoustrials00hodg/page/250/mode/2up?q=neill+cream| page=251| editor1-last=Hodge| editor1-first=Harry| editor2-last=Hodge| editor2-first=James H.| publisher=Penguin| year=1984| isbn=978-0-1400-6924-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=McLaren| first=Angus| title=A Prescription For Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6woOtCewtnAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Prescription+For+Murder:+The+Victorian+Serial+Killings+of+Dr.+Thomas+Neill+Cream&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiO_JfQmuaPAxUipIkEHVnKC8MQ6AF6BAgHEAM| page=43| location=Chicago| publisher=The University of Chicago Press| date=June 1995| isbn=978-0-2265-6068-7}}</ref>
Fifer lost a reelection bid, and then twice refused the nomination to run again for governor. He was appointed to the Interstate Commerce Commission by President William McKinley in 1899.<ref name=herald/>
Fifer was a delegate to the 1920 Illinois Constitutional Convention.<ref name=delegates>McCann, B. H. (editor). [https://books.google.com/books?id=nItasic9QdAC&pg=PA200 "Delegates' Manual of the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the State of Illinois 1920"]. Illinois State Journal Company, Springfield, State Printers, 1920. Page 200.</ref> Governor Fifer lived to see his daughter, Florence Fifer Bohrer, elected as the first female state senator of Illinois in 1924.
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Joseph Wilson Fifer}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070512164529/http://www.il.ngb.army.mil/History/famous/fifer.htm "Biography"]. ''Illinois National Guard'' * {{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pantagraph-former-governor-joseph-w/181397565/| title=Joseph W. Fifer, 97 Year Old former Illinois Governor, Dies| newspaper=The Pantagraph| location=Bloomington, Illinois| date=August 7, 1938}}. * [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Illinois/_Texts/DRUOIH/Central_Illinois/10*.html "Joseph Fifer House"]. (in Bloomington) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110820210206/http://mchistory.org/Fifer_Bohrer_Collection_Finding_Aid.html "Fifer-Bohrer Papers Collection"]. ''McLean County Museum of History''. archives
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Richard J. Oglesby}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Governor of Illinois|years=1888, 1892}} {{s-aft|after=John Riley Tanner}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = Richard J. Oglesby |title=Governor of Illinois | years = 1889–1893 | after = John P. Altgeld}} {{s-gov}} {{s-bef|before=William J. Calhoun}} {{s-ttl|title=Commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission|years=1899–1905}} {{s-aft|after=Franklin Knight Lane}} {{s-end}}
{{Governors of Illinois}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fifer, Joseph W.}} Category:1840 births Category:1938 deaths Category:Republican Party governors of Illinois Category:Republican Party Illinois state senators Category:Politicians from Bloomington, Illinois Category:Politicians from Staunton, Virginia Category:People of the Interstate Commerce Commission Category:19th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly