George Fisher

Who was George Fisher?

George Fisher was a customs officer and early leader of the Texas Revolution.

Fisher was originally named Đorđe Šagić/Ђорђе Шагић, and also known as Đorđe Ribar/Ђорђе Рибар, which translated into English is George Fisher. He was born to Serbian parents in Székesfehérvár, Hungary in April 1795. Following his father's death Đorđe was sent to the Serbian Orthodox Church seminary in Sremski 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 Davis 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.