11 – Jan. 11 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

He was… a “strangely gifted orator.”
 Thomas Jefferson Fisher came to his untimely end when an unnamed assailant shot him in the head at Louisville, KY on Jan. 11, 1866, he was just 54 years old.  He lived for three days, his murderer was never identified.  He was one of the most powerful early Baptist evangelists in America.  He was born on April 9, 1812, in Mt. Sterling, KY.  His father was of German extraction and had moved there from Penn.  Young Fisher received Christ when he was 16 and united with the Presbyterians at Paris, KY.  A year later he was immersed by Jeremiah Vardeman and united with the Baptist church in Davids Fork, Fayette County.  Being in a family of 13 children, educational opportunities were limited, so Fisher became a tailor and paid for his own schooling.  Finally he studied with a Baptist pastor in Pittsburgh, PA.  In 1834 at 22 he was ordained by the same church and became pastor of the Mill Creek Baptist Church near Bardstown, KY.  But it became clear that God had called him to evangelism.  He was described as a “strangely gifted orator.”  He held most of his protracted meetings in the South.  Vast crowds attended his meetings and it is estimated that approximately 12,000 were converted to Christ.  For thirty-four years he was mightily used of God.  Who knows how many would have been reached if he had lived out his life.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. IIII: Cummins /, pp. 22-24.