DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Fisher-Sargent-Gottschalk House in Matagorda County. Now, some houses just stand there. Four walls, a roof, a door that sticks in the summer.
But then there are houses that seem to collect history the way a front porch collects weather — and this is one of those houses. Samuel Rhoads Fisher had this place built in 1832. Take a moment with that year.
Texas wasn't yet a republic, wasn't yet a state. It was still a colony, and the men and women living here were still figuring out what it might become. Fisher was one of those figuring-out kind of men.
Born in 1794, he came early to this land, and he left his mark on it in ways that go well beyond a single house. He signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. He served as secretary of the Republic of Texas navy.
By the time he had this house raised for his family, he was already a man at the center of something enormous. Samuel Rhoads Fisher died in 1839. But the house kept standing.
His widow, Ann, stayed on. She continued to reside here until 1860 — nearly three decades of sunrises off those two-story open porches, nearly three decades of that side gabled roof holding against whatever the Gulf Coast sky had in mind. And then the house passed on, as houses do, to new hands and new stories.
A planter named Elsey Harrison took ownership. Then Samuel W. Fisher — son of the man who first had it built — came back to it, as if the house had a kind of gravity pulling the family home.
After him came John T. Sargent, who added a schoolroom onto the house for his children, because apparently a man looks at a historic two-story home and thinks: needs a classroom. And then the Gottschalks.
Rancher Gus L. Gottschalk and his family held onto this place, and they held on tight — right up until 1977. That is a long tenure for any family in any house anywhere.
So what you've got here is a structure that began as a colonial family home in 1832, carried a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence in its original walls, sheltered a widow through decades of change, welcomed a planter, a founder's son, a schoolmaster-minded father, and a ranching family — all under the same side gabled roof, all coming and going through those same open porches. Some houses just stand there. This one has been paying attention.
What the marker says
Samuel Rhoads Fisher (1794-1839), early Texas colonist, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and secretary of the Republic of Texas navy, had this house built for his family in 1832. His widow, Ann, continued to reside here until 1860. Later owners of the house included planter Elsey Harrison; Samuel W. Fisher, son of the original owner; John T. Sargent, who built a schoolroom onto the house for his children; and rancher Gus L. Gottschalk, whose family retained ownership until 1977. A noted local landmark, the house features two-story open porches and a side gabled roof. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991