Later, in 1879, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he joined the German Typographical Union and in 1881, married Johanna Pfauntz (they had three children – one daughter and two sons).

Adolph and his wife moved in 1881 to Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked for his brother as a compositor for Anzeiger des Südens, a journal for German immigrants.

[1] In 1883, he moved his family to Chicago, where he became a compositor at the Arbeiter-Zeitung, a pro-labor newspaper run by August Spies and Michael Schwab.

It was around then that he also joined the International Working People's Association and the Lehr und Wehr Verein, a radical offshoot which was formed to teach workers to defend themselves.

After the riot at the McCormick Reaper Plant on May 3, 1886, Fischer attended a meeting at Greif's Hall, on Lake Street, to formulate a response.

[3] Fischer attended the Haymarket meeting the following night and listened to speeches by Spies, Albert Parsons, and Samuel Fielden.