Organization of Fisher County

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the organization of Fisher County. When the Texas Legislature created Fisher County in 1876, there was not a single permanent settlement out there. Not one.

The land was so empty that the county couldn't even stand on its own for court business. They had to link it up with Shackelford and Nolan Counties just to keep the judicial wheels turning. Fisher County was, for a spell, a county in name only.

But settlers have a way of showing up, and by 1885, enough of them had moved into the area that it was time to make things official. That meant organization. And organization, out here on the Texas frontier, meant one thing above all else: somebody had to pick a county seat.

Now, if you think that was going to happen quietly, you have not spent much time around Texans. Two townsites were laid out in 1885, both angling hard for that prize. On one side, you had a businessman named E.

D. Strang, a native of Wisconsin, who organized and promoted a town called Fisher. On the other side, two former Mississippi plantation owners, D.

C. and M. L. Roby, had inherited land, and right on that land they laid out a townsite they called Roby.

Fierce competition. That's the marker's own word for it, and I believe every syllable. The supporters of each town dug in.

When the proponents of Roby felt they had enough votes in their corner, they went to the Nolan County Commissioners Court and presented a petition for an election. The adherents of Fisher cried foul. They contested that petition as faulty.

But when it came time to prove it, they couldn't make those accusations stick. So the election went forward in April of 1886, and when the votes were counted, Roby was the county seat. The newly elected officials got down to business, construction began on a courthouse, and tempers, which had been running plenty hot, finally settled.

Fisher County, born on paper in 1876 and empty as a dropped boot, had at last become a real, organized county. Roby won the argument. The courthouse made it permanent.

What the marker says

When the Texas Legislature created Fisher County in 1876, there were no permanent settlements in the area. As a result, the county was linked with Shackelford and Nolan Counties for judicial purposes. By 1885, enough settlers had moved into the area to warrant official organization of the county. Part of this organization was the selection of a county seat, a matter that caused much debate. In 1885 two townsites were laid out and proposed as county seats. Businessman E. D. Strang, a native of Wisconsin, organized and promoted the town of Fisher, while two former Mississippi plantation owners, D. C. and M. L. Roby, inherited land on which they laid out the townsite of Roby. Fierce competition began between the adherents of each site. When the proponents of Roby felt they had enough votes, they presented a petition for election to the Nolan County Commissioners Court. Although adherents of Fisher contested the petition as faulty, they could not prove their accusations as correct. An election held in April 1886 determined Roby to be the county seat. As newly elected officials attended to business and construction began on a courthouse, tempers settled, and the organization of Fisher County was complete. (1983)