Edward Wisherd (1825-1912) was born in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and died in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was a farmer. In about 1836 he moved with his family to Frederick County, Maryland, and he married Amanda A. Wisherd (b. Smith) in Washington, Maryland, in 1850. They had six children. In 1854 the Wisherds moved to Buckheart, Illinois, and in 1880 to Tarkio, Missouri, where he bought a farm with one of his sons. Wisherd's wife died in 1885, and in 1891 he moved to Ramshorn, Nebraska, remaining there until about 1910, when he moved to Lincoln. One of his daughters, M. Virginia Willsie (b. Wisherd) joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1898, and was the sister-in-law of Lucinda Willsie, a student of Mary Baker Eddy's, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science, and active in establishing Christian Science in Chicago, Illinois. In September 1886 Lucinda Willsie wrote to Eddy recommending Wisherd for Eddy's next class. In October 1886 Wisherd himself wrote to Eddy expressing interest in taking a class from her, but the available records do not reflect that he did so. His obituary noted that in his later years he had embraced the Christian Science faith.

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