George Fisher (settler)

George (Jorge) Fisher (1795–1873) was a customs officer and early leader of the Texas Revolution.

Fisher (originally named Đorđe Šagić, and also known as Đorđe Ribar, which translated into English is George Fisher) was born to Serbian parents in Székesfehérvár, Hungary in April 1795. Following his father's death George was sent to the Orthodox Church in Karlovci, to train as a priest. He left in 1813 to join the Serbian revolutionary forces during the First Serbian Uprising.¹ He traveled to Philadelphia in the United States in 1814 before heading to Mexico. In 1825, Fisher helped found the first York Rite Masonic Lodge in Mexico. He became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1829 and contracted to settle five hundred families on lands in Texas formerly held by Haden Edward.

Fisher later was in charge of a customs house at the far north end of Galveston Bay, succeeding the very unpopular John D. Bradburn in this post. Fisher demanded that all ships landing at the mouth of the Brazos River pay their customs duties to him at Anahuac. This was a great hardship to area boat captains due to the great distances between that port and other Texas seaports. Fisher was forced to resign his post in early 1832 after a military confrontation with Texian settlers.

Later that year, Fisher began publishing the liberal newspaper Mercurio del Puerto de Matamoros in Matamoros. On October 13, 1835, Fisher and José Antonio Mexía organized a movement in New Orleans to attack Tampico to instigate a revolt among the eastern states of Mexico.

In 1837, he became a commission agent in Houston and served as justice of the peace in 1839. Fisher was admitted to the bar in 1840 and was elected to the Houston city council. In 1843 he became a major in the Texas militia. He traveled to Panama in 1850 and on to California in 1851. He served in various civic and administrative posts in San Francisco from 1860 to 1870. Soon after retiring, he was appointed by the King of Greece as Consul for that nation.

Fisher was married four times. He died in San Francisco on June 11, 1873.

References

1. Parmenter, Mary Fisher, Walter Russel Fisher, Lawrence Edward Mallette The Life of George Fisher. Jacksonville, Florida: The H. & W.B. Drew Company. 1959
2. Slavkovic, A. B. The Immigrant. The Judge Fisher Story. Pittsburgh, PA: White Angel Media. 2006

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