George Purnell Fisher, Dickinson College & State Department (Woods, 1905)

George Purnell Fisher was born at Milford, Delaware, October 13, 1817. At the age of seventeen he entered the sophomore class at Dickinson College, where he graduated in July, 1838. Having decided upon the profession of law, he entered the office of Hon. John M. Clayton. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1841; settled at Dover and soon acquired a large clientage for a young man. When John M. Clayton became Secretary of State under President Taylor, Fisher entered into public life by becoming Clayton's confidential clerk. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was negotiated while Fisher was Secretary Clayton's clerk; hence he was in close personal relation with Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, the British Minister. At one of the conferences at Washington, a house in the rear took fire, and Bulwer, Clayton and Fisher rushed out and helped the firemen with the crude appliances of that day to put the fire out. They then returned to their work, wet, grimy and smoked.