Samuel Rhoads Fisher, secretary of the Texas Navy during the republic era, was born in Philadelphia, Penn. on Dec. 31, 1794.
He was reared and educated in the best schools of that city.
He began life as a government employee in the Naval Stores of Philadelphia.
His habits of industry and strict attention to business soon won him promotion to the rank of commissariat; thus his familiarity with naval affairs.
In 1829, Fisher submitted plans to a contractor in Philadelphia, to send materials and craftsmen to Matagorda to build a home for his family.
Fisher sailed to Matagorda in 1830 to find no home, no contractor and no money.
He immediately hired ships carpenters and skilled wood-workers to build this house and it was completed in 1832.
Fisher came to Texas as a member of Austin’s Third Colony, where he received title to one league of land in current Matagorda County.
He appealed directly to the governor of Coahuila y Tejas in Saltillo for 10 leagues, but was denied.
On Oct. 29, 1832, he was issued title to two more leagues in Matagorda County.
Nearly three years later, in August 1835, he received title to one league in Lorenzo de Zavala’s Colony in current Hardin and Tyler counties and, in 1838, he received a labor in Harrisburg, current Houston in Harris County.
Sam Houston Dixon in Men Who Made Texas Free states that Fisher was a most amiable and accomplished gentleman.
He was modest and unassuming and avoided rather than sought notoriety.
He was trained along business lines and had no relish for the excitements incident to a public career, although he willingly contributed his time and talents to public affairs when the circumstances of the time demanded his services.
Before 1819, he married Ann Pleasants, born Jan. 26, 1796; they had four children.
Ann died Oct. 21, 1862, of yellow fever.
In the eight and one half years he was in Matagorda County, Fisher acquired several schooners for shipping various cargoes.
He was also a large planter and owned a mercantile store in Matagorda.
At that time, Texas was under the control of Mexico. Fisher was busy increasing his land holdings and property.
He was most active in local affairs, particularly in Colonial Councils, whose interests were in obtaining independence for Texas from Mexican domination.
He was a signer of the Goliad Declaration which was the first public move toward this independence.
Fisher and Bailey Hardeman were elected as delegates to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos and there signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Fisher’s nomination by President Sam Houstonas secretary of the Texas Navy was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 28, 1836.
In October, 1837, however, Houston ordered him removed from office.
Houston accused Fisher of abuse of office, insubordination, use of his position for smuggling, and the unjust capture of the English brig Eliza Russell.
The President’s displeasure came from what Mirabeau B. Lamar later called Fisher’s “Plundering, burning and destroying the property of defenseless and unoffending Mexicans; not warranted by laws of wars and nations.”
A lengthy and bitter trial before the Senate ensued.
On November 28, 1837, by a vote of six to five, the Senate voted to remove Fisher as Secretary of the Navy on “the grounds of harmony and expediency,” though they did not find that Houston presented enough evidence for a finding of dishonorable conduct .
The Senate promptly ordered Fisher’s reinstatement, although the acting secretary refused to yield the office.
The Senate promptly ordered Fisher’s reinstatement, although the acting secretary refused to yield the office.
Fisher was shot and killed in Matagorda, March 14, 1839.
Albert G. Newton was charged with the murder but was acquitted on March 3, 1840.
The district attorney in the trial was William L. Delap and the jurors were Benjamin I. White, foreman; H. T. Davis, John Delap, Charles Dale, Henry Williams, A.C. Horton, William C. McKinstry, H.L. Cook, G.M. Collinsworth, Charles Howard, A.L. Clements, John D. Newell and James Duncan.
The grand jury was duly sworn, the Honorable William Jones delivered the charges to the jury, and they retired to the jury room attended by the sheriff, Isaac Van Dorn.
The jury returned a verdict of “Not Found” and the defendant was discharged by the court.
Samuel W. Fisher died September 15,1874.
A historical marker, which notes he was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first Secretary of the Texas Navy, was placed on Samuel’s grave in 1964.
Fisher County was created August 21, 1876, and was named in honor of S. Rhoads Fisher, “a distinguished officer of the Republic.”
