Willbur Fisk

Willbur Fisk (August 31, 1792 – February 22, 1839) was a prominent American Methodist minister, educator and theologian. He was the first president of Wesleyan University.

Fisk was born in Guilford, (near Brattleboro), Vermont on August 31, 1792. His father, the Hon. Isaiah Fisk (1763–1859), was from Massachusetts and descended from William Fisk who emigrated to America from England in about 1637. His mother, Hannah (née Bacon, c. 1760–1845), was also from Massachusetts and was descended from John Bacon who came to America in 1640.

Isaiah and Hannah Fisk married on May 2, 1786, and moved to Guildford, where Isaiah's father, Amos Fisk, had purchased land at the outbreak of the American Revolution. Their first child, Isaiah Jr., was born in 1789, and died as a youngster in 1793. Polly, their second child, was born in Brattleboro in 1790. Willbur, their third child, was born two years later in 1792.

Unfortunate business interests caused a financial hardship for Isaiah and Hannah, and they moved with their children from Guilford to Lyndon, Vermont, in Caledonia County, about forty miles from the Canada–US border.

Isaiah Fisk became a respected citizen in Lyndon, and he was elected by his fellow citizens as assistant judge, Caledonia County Court from 1808 to 1813 and chief judge, Caledonia County Court from 1815 to 1823. He was also a presidential elector in the 1816 presidential election.

Willbur Fisk was raised in Lyndon, and at age 16 he was admitted to the Peacham Academy in Vermont, where he completed a course of instruction in two years. After leaving the academy, he began attending Burlington College in Vermont in 1812 (now the University of Vermont). The outbreak of the War of 1812, however, caused classes to be suspended. He then transferred to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1814 and graduated in 1815.

While at Brown he determined to pursue a career in law, and upon graduation returned to Lyndon where he began working at the law office of the Hon. Isaac Fletcher. Fisk was not known as a particularly devoted student while in college, but after a year or so decided that a career in law was at odds with his Christian character. He left the legal profession behind and moved to Baltimore where he was engaged as a tutor.

Fisk was plagued by respiratory problems throughout his life, and ill health in Baltimore caused him to move back home to Lyndon to recuperate. While in Lyndon, he came in contact with the great religious revival sweeping the state of Vermont. His mother, Hannah, had forsaken her New England Calvinist roots to become a Methodist, and her home was a center of Methodist activity in northern Vermont. After much contemplation, Fisk decided to become a Methodist minister and was appointed an itinerant minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1818.^{[citation needed]} His influence with the conference reversed its opinion from principled opposition to higher education to the establishment of secondary schools and colleges.