Deborah Fisher Wharton

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Deborah Fisher Wharton
Educator, Suffragist
Spouse	William Wharton
Children	Hannah, Rodman, Sarah, Charles Wm, Joseph, Mary, William, Samuel (d. 1843), Anna, Esther

Deborah Fisher Wharton (1795–1888) was an

.

Early years

Deborah Fisher was born into a wealthy Philadelphia

.

Family, estate

Fisher grew up in downtown Philadelphia at 110 S Front Street. The neighborhood was busy and wealthy, and she remembered seeing famous neighbors including George Washington stroll along the street. The family enjoyed the countryside and often visited their country estate called "The Cliffs" several miles north of Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River.

Marriage

As a young woman Fisher was pious and interested in the cause of equal education and treatment of women. She married William Wharton in 1817 and together they pursued their interest in

. In this respect the Fishers and Whartons stood out because they were wealthy and urban, but were nostalgic about living the farming life. Deborah's father Samuel bought a house at 336 Spruce Street in downtown Philadelphia as a wedding gift. Deborah raised her family in the house and lived there the rest of her life.

Religious and social causes

Deborah and William and were involved in

and served in that capacity for twenty years.

Bellevue

William and Deborah received a gift of the Bellevue estate from his father Charles Wharton in 1834, the year that her father died. It was a farm near the Cliffs estate that she had grown up to love. The Whartons and their children spent many happy summers at Bellevue, where they enjoyed the vegetable gardens, horse-drawn carriage trips and the cool of the nearby Schuylkill River.

Newport, Rhode Island

Wharton's mother, Hannah Rodman Fisher, came from a long line of

and raised her family there. Although Deborah was a Philadelphian, she made the trip back to Newport many times, in later years with her children and grandchildren.

Education and Swarthmore

Like many women of her time, Deborah Fisher Wharton was kept at home by her duties as mistress of a large household and mother of ten children. But like most

.

Deborah Fisher Wharton's family prospered. Her daughter Esther married Benjamin R. Smith, the son of

of Philadelphia. Fisher's son, Joseph Wharton, became renowned for building a large business empire that included refining zinc, nickel, and iron.

Selected works

• (1837) An epistle from the Yearly Meeting of Women Friends, held in Philadelphia, by adjournments, from the tenth to the fifteenth of the Fourth Month, inclusive, 1837 : to the Quarterly, Monthly, and Preparative Meetings, within its limits
• (1838) An epistle from the Yearly Meeting of Women Friends, held in Philadelphia, by adjournments from the ninth to the fourteenth of the Fourth Month inclusive, 1838 : to the Quarterly, Monthly, and Preparative Meetings, within its limits
• (1840) Extracts from the minutes of the Yearly Meeting of Women Friends, held in Philadelphia, by adjournments, from the eleventh of the fifth month, to the fifteenth of the same, inclusive, 1840

References

• "The Deborah Fisher Wharton Papers, 1815–1876" Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
• "Biographical Memoranda concerning Joseph Wharton, 1826–1909" by his daughter Joanna Wharton Lippincott, 1909, J. B. Lippincott & Co.
• W. Ross Yates, "Joseph Wharton: Quaker Industrial Pioneer", 1987, Lehigh University Press
• Joseph Wharton Family Papers, 1691–1962, Library of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA
• Memory of DFW seeing Washington, p 214 in "Notes and Comments on Industrial, Economic, Political and Historical Subjects" by James Moore Swank, 1897, American Iron & Steel Association.
• Description of DFW's house, p 60–62 in "The Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and its Neighborhood", by Harold Donaldson Eberlein and Horace Mather Lippincott. J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1912.
• Description of DFW, p 1262 in "History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884", by John Thomas Scharf, Thompson Westcott. L.H. Everts & Co, 1884.