Arthur G. Fisk
American politician

Arthur G. Fisk (November 23, 1868 – February 25, 1938), was an American politician and attorney who served as the Speaker of the California State Assembly. He also served as Postmaster of San Francisco during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and U.S. Commissioner for Northern California in his later years. At age 65, he was sentenced to federal prison for embezzling bail bond money under his control.
Early life and education
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Fisk relocated to Santa Barbara, California with his parents in 1869. His family soon moved to San Francisco, where Fisk grew up and attended public schools. Fisk graduated from Harvard Law School in 1894.
Career
After graduating from law school, Fisk returned to San Francisco to work in the law firm of former Assembly Speaker Morris M. Estee.
California Assembly
In 1900, Fisk was elected to the California State Assembly for the 37th district and served as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 1901. Since the legislature was part-time, Fisk also ran for District Attorney of San Francisco but narrowly lost. In 1903, he was elected as Speaker of the Assembly.
“Arthur G. Fisk” enters the record as american politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arthur, Fisk and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arthur G. Fisk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.