DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll tell it straight with a little room to breathe. Out here on the South Plains, the land remembers things. The ground beneath your wheels was once part of an old Indian trail running all the way from Mexico up to the settlements on the Texas frontier — a route worn into the earth long before any county line existed to cross.
And in 1856, somebody rode through this very region who would later become one of the most talked-about figures in American history. Colonel Robert E. Lee — commanding the U.S.
Second Cavalry, a unit already carrying the reputation of being famed — campaigned against the Indians right here in this stretch of country. The man who would later serve as General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army was out here, in the dust and the heat, doing frontier work. History has a way of passing through a place quietly before anyone knows to pay attention.
Now, Fisher County itself came together in pieces, the way a lot of West Texas did. It was carved out of Young and Bexar territories — created in 1876, settled in 1877, and finally organized in 1886. That's a ten-year window between creation and organization, which tells you something about how slowly civilization crept across this particular stretch of prairie.
The county carries the name of Samuel Rhoads Fisher, born in 1794 and gone by 1839. In the time he had, he did considerable. He put his name on the Texas Declaration of Independence, and he served as Secretary of the Navy in the Republic of Texas in 1836.
The Republic of Texas had a navy — and Samuel Rhoads Fisher ran it. That detail alone is worth sitting with for a moment. As for Roby, the county seat — it was named for landowners.
The marker doesn't elaborate, and sometimes that's the whole story: the land belonged to somebody, and the name stuck. An old trail, a future general, a founding father of a republic, and a county that took a full decade to get itself organized. Fisher County earned its place on the map the long way around.
What the marker says
Sites of old Indian trail from Mexico to settlements on Texas frontier. In this region in 1856, Colonel Robert E. Lee, then commanding the famed U.S. Second Cavalry (and later General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army), campaigned against the Indians. County formed from Young and Bexar territories. Created 1876. Settled in 1877. Organized 1886. Named for Samuel Rhoads Fisher (1794-1839), a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Secretary of the Navy in the Republic of Texas, 1836. Roby, county seat, named for landowners. (1965)