Annie Knowles Fisher (December 3, 1867 – June 11, 1938) was a cook, caterer and entrepreneur. Annie lived in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...

, and worked for prominent families as a cook until she started her own catering business. Fisher became famous in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

for her widely sold beaten biscuits. Through her cooking, Fisher amassed a sizable fortune and purchased rental properties and farms in and around Boone County.

Early life

Annie Knowles Fisher was born on December 3, 1867, in Boone County. She was one of eleven children born to formerly enslaved people Robert and Charlotte Knowles . From an early age, Fisher was put in charge of cooking for the family. Although Fisher attended school for a short time, she eventually quit school to help support her family. Fisher found her love of cooking while working in kitchens of wealthy white families in the Columbia area. She was paid little and received second hand clothing as one of the "perks" of the job. Fisher noted later in life for a newspaper article that although she was grateful for the second hand clothing, she wanted to make a good living so that she could afford new clothes. Fisher went to work for the Lenoir-Nifong family of Maplewood. In 1890, Fisher began to work for George Bingham Rollins and the

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon () is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on March 9, 1856.Baird, William Raimond, ed. (1905).Baird's Manual of American College Fratern ...

fraternity at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

Cooking, catering and entrepreneurship

Fisher saved most of the money she made cooking to start her catering business which she operated out of her restaurant, the Wayside Inn, which was located at the site of her childhood home behind Grindstone schoolhouse. She reportedly had over 1,000 place settings of tableware and handled many large catered events for the

. For one of her largest banquets at an alumni dinner for the

, she was paid $1,200, two dollars per plate. Fisher's beaten biscuits became so popular that Missourians who had moved out of state would mail order her biscuits to be delivered to states as far away as New York and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Annie cooked in what she referred to as, "old Missouri style," which meant she used local ingredients to give her food a distinct flavor. Her cooking became so popular that she began endorsing local businesses such as the Boone County Mill's H-P flour which she used in her famous biscuits. In 1911, a Sedalia hostess who handled catering for the Missouri State fair made sure Fisher's biscuits were on the presidential table for

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

's visit. Fisher's ingenuity did not end in the kitchen; she invented a nonstick cutter specifically for her biscuits. After Fisher's mail order business had taken off, she incorporated a biscuit brake to meet the demand for her biscuits. In a news article, Fisher reported she usually made around one million biscuits a year and around 50 dozen biscuits every hour with the help from her daughter. By 1919, Fisher was making $500 a month on biscuits alone at 15 cents a dozen. Using the profits from her cooking and catering businesses, Fisher bought her first house in 1901 and paid it off in two years. After her first property purchase, Fisher went on to buy 18 rental properties in the downtown Columbia area, most of which were along what is now Ash Street and Fifth Street. Later after Fisher's catering business had become quite successful, she purchased a 58-acre farm outside of Columbia where she raised livestock and crops to use in her cooking.

"Old Missouri Style" Beaten Biscuit recipe

Fisher's recipe included of sifted flour, of pure lard, of butter, of sweetened water, and salt to taste. Ingredients are mixed thoroughly and beaten for 15 minutes to make biscuits light and fluffy. Fisher said beating the biscuits was meant to, "put life into them." Annie_Fisher_Biscuit_Recipe

Personality

Fisher was considered by those who met her to be a strong, witty, outspoken businesswoman. In 1919, Fisher gave a speech at a meeting of the National Negro Business League. In her speech, Fisher taught how to make a profit from catering and about her life growing up. She said she was a 57-year-old woman who was not afraid to tell her age. Fisher was a celebrated personality in Columbia, with multiple articles written about her in the '' University Missourian''. One particularly interesting article was her suggestions for Thanksgiving dinner. Fisher rented her properties out to black families who couldn't find housing easily in 1913. Annie gave out her recipes freely, but noted that she could not teach the common sense needed to cook her food. A 1927 article in the Springfield Leader estimated Fisher's net worth to be $100,000.

Personal life

In 1907, Fisher divorced her husband William and offered him a little over 100 dollars not to contest the divorce in court. William refused and was awarded nothing by the court system. Fisher said that her marriage was not a success and that for her to be successful she had to believe in herself and no one else. Fisher put her daughter Lucille through college and a music conservatory with the profits from her catering business. Fisher's first home was a 16-room house on Park Avenue which stood until 1960. In the 1920s she had a house built along Old Highway 63. During construction, she bought the materials, hired her own workers, and stayed on the property in a tent to oversee construction. Fisher was buried in a modest grave in 1938 at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Columbia. How_Biscuits_paid_for_education

Legacy

Fisher's legacy lives on during

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

when a Columbia woman dresses as Fisher and visits schools to share her story with children to share with them how local African Americans have helped to shape the history of Boone County. The Annie Fisher food pantry is operated by the Columbia Housing authority, the goal of this local food pantry is to provide nutritional options for growing families and is supplied by the

Food Bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...

of Central and Northeastern Missouri.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Annie 1867 births 1938 deaths Burials at Memorial Park Cemetery (Columbia, Missouri) People from Boone County, Missouri People from Columbia, Missouri Restaurants in Columbia, Missouri African Americans in Columbia, Missouri African-American women in business American women restaurateurs American restaurateurs 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women