S. Rhoads Fisher
Matagorda, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Statesman - businessman who contributed talent and time to establish and maintain Texas Independence. A quaker; born in Pennsylvania. Moved to Texas 1830. Set up mercantile house and shipping business in Matagorda. Struggled against anti-Texas policies of Santa Anna's dictatorship in Mexico. Won election as one of Matagorda delegates to the 1836 convention in Washington on the Brazos. Signed Texas declaration of Independence. In first regular administration of Republic of Texas, became secretary of the navy in cabinet of president Sam Houston in October 1836. By March 1837 Mexican blockaders were trying to reduce Texas to starvation by capturing shipments including those of the U.S.A. -- on Gulf of Mexico. Secretary Fisher went to sea with the Texas navy to attack Mexican coast and draw blockaders away from ports of Galveston, Matagorda, and Velasco. Texas captured territory and ships of the enemy; but later accidents and storms destroyed the navy and prizes. In late 1837 secretary Fisher resigned. Back in Matagorda he died as result of a shooting in 1839. He and his wife had four children. Several leaders in state government have come from this family. In 1876 a new county was named in honor of S. Rhoads Fisher. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Pennsylvania-born Quaker, S. Rhoads Fisher came to Texas in 1830 and set up a mercantile house and shipping business at Matagorda. Chosen as a Matagorda delegate to the 1836 convention, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and became the young Republic's secretary of the navy under President Sam Houston. When Mexican ships blockaded the coast in 1837, Fisher himself put to sea with the Texas Navy to draw the enemy away from Galveston, Matagorda, and Velasco before resigning late that year; he died in Matagorda in 1839, and a county was named in his honor in 1876.
Why it matters
Fisher helped both declare and defend Texas independence, and the naval war he joined kept the Republic's Gulf ports open in its perilous first years.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1830s, Texas was a restless frontier of Mexico, filling with Anglo-American settlers who chafed against a government far away in Mexico City. When Santa Anna consolidated power and moved against local liberties, the settlers' unease hardened into rebellion, and in 1836 that rebellion became a war for independence.
Matagorda, on the Gulf coast where the Colorado River meets the sea, was one of the small but vital ports of this young world. Ships were the lifeline of the Texas coast — carrying goods, people, and news — and a merchant with vessels and a mercantile house held real influence in the struggle taking shape.
This is the world a Pennsylvania-born Quaker stepped into. Quakers were known for their peace testimony, which makes it all the more striking that this one would come to Texas, throw himself into a revolution, and eventually put to sea in its navy. The frontier had a way of reshaping the men who came to it.
People & events
S. Rhoads Fisher was a statesman and businessman born in Pennsylvania who moved to Texas in 1830 and set up a mercantile house and shipping business at Matagorda. As Santa Anna's dictatorship pressed its anti-Texas policies, Fisher took the settlers' side, and in 1836 the people of Matagorda elected him as one of their delegates to the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
There he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence — putting his name to the founding document of a new republic. When that republic formed its first regular government, President Sam Houston named Fisher secretary of the navy in October 1836. It was a role that would soon demand more than paperwork.
By March 1837, Mexican blockaders were trying to starve Texas into submission by seizing shipping — even vessels bound to and from the United States — along the Gulf. Fisher did something remarkable for a cabinet officer: he went to sea himself with the Texas Navy, striking at the Mexican coast to draw the blockaders away from the ports of Galveston, Matagorda, and Velasco. The navy took enemy ships and territory, but storms and accidents later destroyed the fleet and its prizes. Fisher resigned late in 1837, returned to Matagorda, and died there in 1839 as the result of a shooting. He and his wife had four children.
Its place in the American story
Fisher's life touches one of the pivotal chapters of American expansion. The Republic of Texas he helped found would, within a decade, become part of the United States — and the questions of independence, annexation, and war that followed helped set the course of the nation itself. To sign the Texas Declaration of Independence was to help write a piece of that larger American story.
What makes his case memorable is that he both declared and defended the republic. Many men signed founding documents; fewer went to sea to keep them from becoming dead letters. By drawing off the blockade, the navy Fisher joined helped keep the young republic's Gulf ports open in its most perilous first years — the difference between a nation supplied and a nation starved.
His memory endured in the most permanent way a place can offer: in 1876 a new Texas county was named in his honor, and the marker notes that several leaders in state government descended from his family. A founder's influence, it turns out, can run for generations.
If you visit
This is a memorial in Matagorda, the coastal town where Fisher built his business and made his home. Stand there and let the setting tell the story: this was a working Gulf port, and it was from waters like these that a secretary of the navy sailed out to challenge a blockade.
As you read the tribute, hold the contradictions that make him human — a Pennsylvania Quaker who became a Texas revolutionary, a cabinet officer who chose to fight at sea rather than direct the war from shore, a man who helped win a republic and then died young by violence. History rarely comes tidier than a monument makes it look.
Matagorda rewards the kind of traveler who likes their history close to the water and off the beaten path. Pair this memorial with a slow look at the coast and the river mouth, and you'll come away with a feel for how much the young Republic of Texas depended on these small, salt-air ports — and on the men who risked everything to keep them open.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · S. Rhoads Fisher
- · Sam Houston
- · Santa Anna
Related events
- · Texas Declaration of Independence
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
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