Anna Mary Fisher was born March 27, 1839, in Lewis County, Missouri. She was one of five children of James Fisher and Lucinda Doke, who were fairly well-to-do farmers.
On Valentine’s Day 1866, Anna married Willis Monroe Dameron in Adams County, Illinois. Willis had been married previously to Sarah Dysart, the daughter of a clergyman. She had died in 1860, presumably from complications following childbirth. Dameron, who was supporting his widowed mother and his little son Everett, seems not to have served on either side during the Civil War.
After their marriage, Willis and Anna farmed in La Belle, Lewis County, Missouri. They had two sons of their own: Logan Douglas, born in 1867, and Richard Monroe, born in 1872. Logan was named after his paternal uncle, a successful dry goods merchant.
The Damerons’ son Logan attended La Belle Academy and taught for five years before enrolling in Hospital Medical College in Louisville, Kentucky. After graduating in 1891, he moved to Phoenix where he went into practice with Dr. H. A. Hughes.
By then, Anna was in poor health. When Logan returned to Missouri for a Christmas visit in December, 1892, he persuaded Anna and Willis to accompany him back to Phoenix.
Anna lived for two more years before dying of pneumonia on December 31, 1894. After a Methodist Episcopal service conducted by Rev. W. A. Harris, she was buried in Porter Cemetery. Her husband joined her in January, 1907.
Shortly after Anna’s death, her son Logan married Bettie Hughes, the daughter of his partner. Having helped to start the Arizona chapter of the American Medical Association, he became its president in 1903.
- by Donna L. Carr
