FISHER COUNTY HISTORICAL MARKERS Contributed by: Joan Renfrow ******************************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ******************************************************************************** FISHER COUNTY HISTORICAL MARKERS The Texas Historical Commission http://www.thc.state.tx.us/index.html ADAIR-STEADMAN SITE Marker # 82 Location: 10.4 miles W of Roby on US 180, then 6 miles S on FM 1812 City: Roby vicinity Marker Erected: 1984 Marker Text: In this vicinity is a prehistoric archeological site discovered in 1969 near the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. Archeologists have conducted extensive scientific excavations and attribute most of the cultural materials to the Paleo-Indian Period. The Adair-Steadman Site was a large base campsite for makers of fluted points, who were part of the distinctive Folsom culture between nine and eleven thousand years ago. Prehistoric peoples chose to live here because of the availability of water at the time of occupation and the presence of a large stone resource area nearby. Stone tools and other material recovered include fluted point fragments, point performs, channel flakes, scrapers, gravers, and large bifaces. Future archeological, geological, and paleontological studies of the site may yield sufficient data to reconstruct the physical appearance of the site during its period of occupation. One of the most significant locations of Folsom artifacts in North America, the Adair- Steadman Site is important as a valuable source of information on the prehistory of the state, the nation, and the entire continent. It is protected from disturbance by federal and state antiquities laws. (1984) FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF ROBY Marker # 12586 Location: North 2nd and Church Street City: Roby Marker Erected: 2001 Marker Text: The oldest active church in Fisher County, this congregation dates to the earliest years of the county's settlement and organization. The town of Roby was laid out as county seat in 1885, and citizens began establishing churches, schools and businesses. Methodists met in the home of Captain and Mrs. V. H. Anderson under the leadership of circuit-riding preacher J. W. Dickinson. The congregation formally organized as the Roby Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1886 and held a revival that summer. The eight charter members included Vachel Anderson, Melvina Anderson, James Patterson, Barbary Patterson, Gabie Simpson, Lou Simpson, Jane Roy and Fannie Barron. Until the first sanctuary was constructed in 1889, worship services were held in the Fisher County courthouse. Later church buildings, completed in 1901, 1926 and 1981, have all stood at this site, on property sold to the church trustees in 1887 by M. L. and D. C. Roby and in 1889 by E. H. Dowel. Throughout its history, this congregation, known as the First United Methodist Church since 1968, has demonstrated its commitment to mission and ministry. Membership over the years has included a number of civic and political leaders, and several members have entered the ordained ministry. Roby's First United Methodist Church serves as an important part of the community's cultural heritage. (2001) FISHER COUNTY Marker # 1902 Location: SW corner of Courthouse lawn City: Roby Marker Erected: 1936 Marker Text: 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) ORGANIZATION OF FISHER COUNTY Marker # 3866 Location: SW corner of Courthouse lawn City: Roby Marker Erected: 1983 Marker Text: 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) SITE OF HITSON COMMUNITY Marker # 11672 Location: 15.1 miles E of Rotan on SH 92 at CR 251 City: Rotan vicinity Marker Erected: 2000 Marker Text: Ranchers John and William Hittson were among the first to settle in this area in about 1870; the area around their homes became known as Hittson or Hitson. Fisher County was created in 1876, and settlement began to increase. A post office opened in 1885. A school began operation in 1888 and by 1896 Hitson had a general store operated by C. W. Morris as well as a Methodist church. The Hittson brothers were the major landowners in the area, but the community included a number of large farming families who cleared the fertile land and planted crops. Though the post office was moved to Swedonia in 1906, the community of Hitson continued to grow. Oil was discovered in the area after World War I, providing an additional means of income for the townspeople as well as the Hitson school for a time. In 1925 there were 32 families with 120 school-age children living in the area. By 1940 the town had a school, a church, three businesses and scattered dwellings. As was the case in many small towns across Texas and the U.S. during World War II, most of the town's young people enlisted in the armed forces or moved to cities to take part in the war effort. With their labor force thus depleted, Hitson farmers were unable to survive. Small family farms were sold to larger enterprises. Most of the new owners lived in nearby Hamlin or Rotan. Hitson school was consolidated with Hamlin schools in 1947; the white frame church building used by the Hitson Baptist Church was moved to Roby in 1959 and by the end of the 20th century all that remained of the community were a few homes and a cemetery. (2000) HOBBS CEMETERY Marker # 2501 Location: 11.7 miles W on US 180, turn N on FM 3205, about 3 miles City: Roby vicinity Marker Erected: 1986 Marker Text: Settlers began moving into this area of Fisher County in the early 1880s. The community that developed became known as Hobbs when Roby postmaster Vachel Hobbs Anderson suggested his middle name for the new post office here. In the early 1900s, area residents Robert and Ann Hayter donated land at this site for the cemetery to serve the growing settlement. The first burial was for Indiana native Thomas J. Bone (1833-1906). Hobbs later developed north near a new school site, but Hobbs Cemetery remains as a reminder of the community's early history. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986. Incise on back of marker: Marker Provided By: Fannie W. Albert, Connie H. Tutt, Lota W. Kennedy HOBBS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Marker # 11683 Location: 11 miles W of Rotan on FM 1614 at it's intersection with FM 611 City: Rotan vicinity Marker Erected: 2000 Marker Text: The first school in what would become the Hobbs community was known as Buffalo and taught in a tent on Buffalo Creek from 1887 to 1888. The Rev. Robert Martin erected a church and schoolhouse on the site with funds from his home church in Louisiana. By 1896 the school was named for Vachel Hobbs Anderson, postmaster at Roby, and had changed locations several times. J. W. Hale became county school superintendent in 1922. His efforts contributed to the voters' decision to consolidate the Hobbs, Dallas, Grady and Baird common school districts in 1924. The new district, known as Hobbs Consolidated Common School District No. 18, united the four districts. The new eleven-grade Hobbs school facility opened in 1925. With additions and annexations in ensuing years, Hobbs grew from 85 square miles to 240, combining many schools: Guinn, Sardis, Lone Star, Buffalo, Claytonville, Camp Springs, County Line, Capitola, Sam Bone, Busby, Barronview, Plainview, Cottonwood, Bush, Lone Valley, Midway, Gannoway, Rico, Busby, Rough Creek, Chicken Foot, Linn, Pyron and others. In the 1930s the Works Progress Administration added the primary, home economics and vocational agricultural buildings to the campus, and grade twelve was added to the course of studies. After World War II the rural population decreased as people migrated to cities. High school enrollment was 380 in the 1940s. A new building was constructed in 1956, a cafeteria in 1969 and a new vocational agricultural building in 1976. The high school was closed in 1980 and, when elementary school enrollment dropped to 13 in the fall of 1989, Hobbs Independent School District was dissolved and annexed to the Roby, Rotan and Snyder districts. (2000) CAPTAIN HENRY C. LYON Marker # 715 Location: NE section of Roby Cemetery, County Road 203, N side of Roby City: Roby Marker Erected: 1936 Marker Text: Served in army of the Republic of Texas; commanded a company in the army of the Confederate States of America; born in Tennessee April 15, 1815; died March 31, 1889. NEWMAN COMMUNITY AND CEMETERY Marker # 3591 Location: From Sylvester take FM 1085 7.8 miles south; turn west on CR 251 continue about .5 mile to cemetery and marker City: Sylvester vicinity Marker Erected: 1993 Marker Text: Jim Newman, one of Fisher County's earliest settlers, established a ranch in this area about 1879. The community that developed near his ranch was named Newman when the county's first post office opened here in 1881. The town consisted of the Old Newman and Union Hall Schools, a post office/grocery store, and the Newman Baptist Church by 1901. The Newman Cemetery was legally set aside in a deed conveying property at this site for cemetery purposes in 1906. The first persons buried here were Miller Phigpen and J. E. W. Scott in 1906. Among the sixteen veterans of various wars buried here is American Civil War veteran R. L. Creswell. The Methodist Episcopal Church built a sanctuary here about 1908. Union Hall and Old Newman schools consolidated in 1913, and in 1924 a new brick schoolhouse was constructed. In 1929 the Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches erected new sanctuaries. A steady decline in the area's population resulted in the dissolution of the Methodist Church in 1940, the school in the early 1940s and the Baptist Church about 1950. Vestiges of the town's church and school structures and the still active Newman Cemetery are all that remain of the former town of Newman. (1993) PALAVA CEMETERY Marker # 3915 Location: from Roby take SH 70 13 miles south, then head east on FM 2744 City: Roby vicinity Marker Erected: 1990 Marker Text: Originally named Center Point, the town of Palava traces its history to early settlement in this area in the late 1870s. It was renamed when the U.S. Government granted a request to establish a post office here in 1900. Stella A. Daniel, member of a pioneer Fisher County family, served as the town's first postmaster. As more settlers arrived in the early 1900s, the town grew into a cotton marketing center. At its peak Palava boasted homes, four churches, a school, and such businesses as a cotton gin, retail stores, blacksmith shop, barbershop, and cafe. Although the oldest documented burials in the Palava Cemetery date to 1893, it is believed there are unmarked graves from as early as 1855. Interments include those of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Also buried here is Charles Byrd (d. 1912), who served as a Texas Ranger in the Frontier Battalion in the 1870s. After the Palava School was consolidated with the Sweetwater School District in 1954, the community began to decline. The Palava Cemetery is now the only physical reminder of a once thriving town. It serves as a memorial to the area's pioneers. (1990) ROBY Marker # 4312 Location: Intersection of US 180 (S 1st) and SH 70 (Concho St.) in a small park across from the Courthouse City: Roby Marker Erected: 1989 Marker Text: Located on land originally included in a land grant to Texas War for Independence veteran Thomas H. Cosby, the town of Roby was first platted in 1885. The land was purchased by D. C. and M. L. Roby of Mississippi, relatives of Cosby's second wife, Martha. The Robys hired Walton, Hill, and Walton, a Travis County law firm, to represent their interests, and instructed the attorneys to organize a town to be named county seat of Fisher County. On behalf of their clients, the attorneys donated land for churches, schools, a park, and a cemetery. Town lots were also given to settlers who would build homes within ninety days. In an election held in April 1886, Roby was declared the county seat. The first county court was held in a shed behind the V. H. Anderson House, which served as the town's first post office. A frame courthouse was built on the southwest corner of the town square and was replaced over the years by a succession of other structures. Schools, churches, and businesses were established as settlement in the town increased. Retaining its small town atmosphere, Roby remains a center of commerce for Fisher County. (1989) ROBY CEMETERY Marker # 4313 Location: At junction of SH 70 and County Road 203, N side of Roby City: Roby Marker Erected: 1988 Marker Text: Settlers began arriving in this area in the late 19th century. The oldest grave marker in the Roby Cemetery, that of Mable W. Deming, bears the date 1884, one year prior to the organization of Fisher County and the establishment of the town of Roby. Brothers D. C. and M. L. Roby purchased over 4,000 acres of land in 1885. They had a townsite platted; donated sites for schools, churches, and a park; and designated the land containing Mable Deming's grave as a public cemetery. The original cemetery plot consisted of seven acres, and the brothers stipulated that no fee was to be levied for grave sites in that section. The Roby Cemetery served as the principal burial ground for citizens of Fisher County. In the late 1950s the county deeded the cemetery lands to the city of Roby. In 1975 the Roby Cemetery Association was chartered and accepted the deed to the cemetery property from the city. Later land acquisitions increased the graveyard's size to twenty-one acres. Those interred in the Roby Cemetery include pioneer settlers of Fisher County, veterans of the Civil War, and one former slave, "Aunt" Abbie Alborn, who came to this area from Tennessee in 1886. The graveyard serves as a reminder of the area's early history. (1988) THE OLD ROCK HOUSE Marker # 5390 Location: From Sylvester take SH 1085 south about 0.3 mile to dirt road veering to left. Follow dirt road onto ranch and to rock house City: Sylvester vicinity Marker Erected: 1984 Marker Text: In the 1880s Andy Long (b. 1850) began acquiring his 10,300-acre spread known as the "OB" Ranch. His landholdings surrounded what is now the town of Sylvester. This one-room rock house, built in 1883, served as ranch headquarters. Long stayed here while he was in the area working his cattle but maintained a home for his family in Sweetwater (25 mi. SW). The Old Rock House at times also served as living quarters of the ranch foreman. Andy Long sold the "OB" Ranch in 1901 to the Compere brothers for the purpose of colonization. (1984) ROTAN Marker # 4357 Location: Snyder and Garfield City: Rotan Marker Erected: 1983 Marker Text: First known as White Flat, the town of Rotan was settled prior to the organization of Fisher County in 1886. A thriving community developed, but not until the railroad came through in 1906 did the town become a major area commercial center. During the summer of that year, the Texas Central Railway decided to extend the western terminus of its Waco line to White Flat. The coming of the railroad, which had had a dramatic economic impact in other Texas towns, was eagerly anticipated. The arrival of the first train in October 1906 signaled the opening for sale of many business lots. The name Rotan was adopted for the town when the post office was established. A postal station in Dickens County previously had been given the name White Flat, so Rotan was chosen to honor one of the railroad's principal stockholders. The town prospered with the opening of many business establishments to serve the surrounding agricultural area. Two Rotan businesses have operated continuously since their establishments--the "Rotan Advance," which began publication as the "Terminal Advance" one month before the first train arrived, and the First National Bank, which was chartered in 1907. (1983) ROYSTON TOWNSITE Marker # 4378 Location: From Roby take US 180 about 4.5 miles E turn north onto 1224 and continue about 4.2 miles to marker just N of junction with FM 2142 City: Roby vicinity Marker Erected: 1988 Marker Text: The town of Royston came into existence in 1906, when the Texas Central Railroad built a line through this area. In addition to the railroad depot, homes and businesses were soon established in the new town. The Royston Post Office was established in 1907. Businesses included a 30-room hotel, the "Royston Record" weekly newspaper, the Royston Mercantile Company, the Royston State Bank, a cotton gin, tin shop, grocery and hardware store, drug store, restaurant, and two lumberyards. A public school was in operation until 1947, when it was consolidated with McCaulley School. Churches in the town included Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal. The center of a rich agricultural area, Royston's economic base was broadened after the discovery of oil in the area in 1928. The railroad continued both freight and passenger service until 1972, and Royston was an important supply center for the surrounding agricultural area for a number of years. The town of Royston gradually declined, and the rails were removed by the railroad company. This site marks the approximate southern boundary of the town square. Now a ghost town, it is nevertheless an important part of Fisher County history. (1988) D.W. STPHENS NO. 1 DISCOVERY OIL WELL Marker # 11882 Location: 3.9 mi. W of Roby on US 180; 4.2 mi. N on FM 1224 to its intersection with FM 2142 City: Roby vicinity Marker Erected: 1998 Marker Text: (The Texas Company [Texaco]) The search for oil in Fisher County began in 1918. Though four wells were drilled in the southwestern part of the county in 1919, all four were dry, and more wells were drilled in the Rotan area. None of these yielded oil. Dan W. Stephens (1860-1946) and his wife Laura Bell Johnson owned 3,100 acres of land near the railroad town of Royston. The Stephens property was selected for a well in 1927. On May 21, 1927, the Texas Company (later Texaco) began drilling approximately four miles north of this site. The well was drilled to 2,302 feet. It encountered a casing problem and was plugged and abandoned. On October 24, 1927, another hole was begun fifty feet to the east. By January 19, 1928, it had become the first producing oil well in the county, reaching 3,275 feet into the earth. Eventually, seven wells were located on the Stephens land, and more wells dotted the landscape of Fisher County. Revenues from the petroleum business helped landowners through the Depression era, brought sorely needed employment, and helped to build and maintain schools, roads, buildings, and hospitals. The Stephens No. 1 produced 481,447 barrels of oil in 66 years. Plugged and abandoned in November 1994, its service to Royston and Fisher County is remembered. (1998) WOODS CHAPEL CEMETERY Marker # 5901 Location: 19 miles E of Roby on US 180, at intersection with FM 1812 City: Roby vicinity Marker Erected: 1988 Marker Text: Settlement of this area of Fisher County began in the early 1880s. A small frame building, erected near this site in 1883-1884, was used as a school and church. A cemetery was established and was in use by 1884. The church was named in honor of its first pastor, J. B. Woods. Among the first settlers here were Henry Clay Lyon (1815-1889) and his family. Lyon, a native of Tennessee, was a veteran of the Republic of Texas Army as well as the Confederate forces of the Civil War. Although Lyon is buried in the Woods Chapel Cemetery, a granite marker in his honor was placed in the Roby Cemetery at this site of the graves of his wife and children. Plans to reinter him next to his widow during the Texas Centennial of 1936 were never completed. The earliest marked grave in the Woods Chapel Cemetery is that of Sarah H. Lawrence (1881-1884), a granddaughter of Henry C. Lyon. Of the twenty-six marked graves here, thirteen are those of infants or small children. The graveyard also contains at least twenty-eight unmarked graves. An important part of Fisher County history, the cemetery is the site of an annual San Jacinto Day observance on April 21. (1988)