Fisher County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,672. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Roby. The county was created in 1876 and later organized in 1886. It is named for Samuel Rhoads Fisher, a signer of the

Texas Declaration of Independence The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and was form ...

and a secretary of the navy of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

. Fisher County was one of 30 prohibition, or entirely dry, counties in Texas, but is now a fully wet county.

History

* 10000 BC -

Paleo-Indians Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...

were the first inhabitants. Later Native American inhabitants include the

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

, Wichita and Waco,

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

, and

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

. * 1876 - The Texas legislature formed Fisher County from Bexar districts. The new county was named after Samuel Rhoads Fisher. * 1880 - The census reported 136 inhabitants. * 1881 - The Texas and Pacific Railway routed an east–west branch through Eskota. * 1885 - The town of Fisher was registered. Swedish immigrants founded the community of Swedonia. * 1886 - The town of North Roby was registered. Roby eventually won the county seat election over Fisher, but one of the voters, a Mr. Bill Purp, was later discovered to have been actually a dog whose owner lived near Roby. * 1920 - Fisher County was among Texas leaders in wheat production. * 1926 - Cotton became king, as 48,000 bales were ginned in the county. * 1928 - Oil was discovered in the county. * 1970 - The county's average annual farm income was evenly divided between livestock and crops.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which (0.3%) are covered by water.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 180 * Texas 70

State Highway 70 * Texas 92

State Highway 92

Adjacent counties

* Stonewall County (north) * Jones County (east) * Taylor County (southeast) * Nolan County (south) * Mitchell County (southwest) * Scurry County (west) * Kent County (northwest)

Demographics

As of the 2000

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, 4,344 people, 1,785 households, and 1,244 families resided in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . The 2,277 housing units averaged . The racial makeup of the county was 83.75% White, 2.76% Black or African American, 0.37% Native American, 0.14% Asian, 11.58% from other races, and 1.40% from two or more races. About 21.36% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 1,785 households, 27.6% had children under 18 living with them, 58.9% were married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.3% were not families. About 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.8% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.93. In the county, the age distribution was 23.90% under the age of 18, 6.30% from 18 to 24, 23.00% from 25 to 44, 24.10% from 45 to 64, and 22.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $27,659, and for a family was $34,907. Males had a median income of $25,071 versus $20,536 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $15,120. About 13.5% of families and 17.5% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 27.4% of those under 18 and 10.5% of those 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

* Hamlin (mostly in Jones County) * Roby (county seat) * Rotan

Census-designated places

* McCaulley *

Sylvester Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented a ...

Unincorporated communities

* Hobbs *

Longworth Longworth is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, England. Historically within the north-west projection of Berkshire, boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire in 1974. The village is between Faringdon, to the west, ...

(birthplace of Poker Hall of Fame inductee

Doyle Brunson Doyle Frank Brunson (August 10, 1933 – May 14, 2023) was an American poker player who played professionally for over 60 years. He was a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) List of World Series of Poker Main Event champions, Main Event champi ...

)

Ghost towns

* North Roby * Royston

Politics

Fisher County was one of the last rural yellow-dog counties in Texas to switch from consistently voting for Democratic candidates to favoring Republican candidates. From 1921 to 1925, the Democrat Richard M. Chitwood of Sweetwater represented Fisher County in the state house. He left his post to become the first business manager of

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

, but died the next year.

Education

School districts include: * Hamlin Independent School District * Hermleigh Independent School District * Roby Consolidated Independent School District * Roscoe Collegiate Independent School District * Rotan Independent School District * Sweetwater Independent School District * Trent Independent School District The

Texas Legislature The Texas State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a p ...

designated the county as being in the Western Texas College District.

References

External links

Fisher County government's website
*
Fisher County Profile from the Texas Association of Counties
{{authority control 1886 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1886