From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Texan politician
Samuel Rhoads Fisher
was the secretary of the
Navy
of the
Republic of Texas
.
[1]
He was born in
Pennsylvania
on December 31, 1794, and settled in Texas in 1830 with his wife and four children in the Matagorda area. He represented Matagorda Municipality in the Convention of 1836 at
Washington-on-the-Brazos
where he signed the
Texas Declaration of Independence
. President
Sam Houston
nominated Fisher as
Secretary
of the
Texas Navy
and the appointment was confirmed by the Senate on October 28, 1836.
[1]
A letter to presidential candidate
Mirabeau B. Lamar
in August 1838 from
George Wheelwright
urged reconsideration of Fisher for Secretary for the good of the navy and defense of the Republic and Houston suspended Fisher from office in October 1837, to secure "harmony and efficiency". Many in the senate opposed the move and the Senate ordered Fisher's reinstatement on October 18, 1837. This event was a major incident in the early days of the Republic of Texas and added to the severe split between the various factions in the government.
Sam Houston Dixon wrote in
The Men Who Made Texas Free
that:
When Mr. Fisher died, Richard Ellis, who was president of the convention which declared Texas independent of Mexico, said from the floor of the Senate: 'In the death of Rhodes Fisher the Republic has lost one of its wisest defenders. He was a man of poise even midst times of stress and excitement. Well do some of us remember his cool and deliberate consideration of our acts at Old Washington, March, 1836; how his voice of caution rang out as men of zeal vied with one another in their precipitous rush to complete their labors of establishing a government and returning to their homes. So earnestly did he plead and so logical was his appeal that we were persuaded to follow his advice. There was nothing of the braggadocio about him and he did not lack courage to express his opinions.
Fisher died on March 14, 1839, from a gunshot wound. Albert G. Newton responded to legal charges in Fisher's death, but a grand jury refused to indict him.
[2]
Fisher was buried at
Matagorda
, Texas.
[3]
Fisher County
, established in 1876, was named after him.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Detailed biography
- The
Handbook of Texas Online
.
- Linda Ericson Devereaux, The Texas Navy (Nacogdoches, Texas, 1983).
- Jim Dan Hill, The Texas Navy (New York: Barnes, 1962).
- Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones, 1944; rpt. 1959).
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Secretaries of War (1836 - 1841)
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Secretaries of the Navy (1836 - 1841)
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Secretaries of War and Marine (1841 - 1846)
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International
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National
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Other
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