Colonel Absalom Bishop

The founder of Decatur arrived with a past in Georgia. The Handbook of Texas says Absalom Bishop served in the Georgia Guard during the forced removal of the Cherokee, helped detain the songwriter John Howard Payne in 1835, and was a pro-slavery agitator whose activities, his biographer wrote, grew radical enough that he had to leave the state. He worked as a goldsmith in New York, and some sources credit him and Thayer Codding with inventing the fountain pen in 1849. In Texas he became a fiery advocate of secession, and the surrender in 1865 ended his political career.

What the plaque says

Colonel Absalom Bishop COLONEL ABSALOM BISHOP ABSALOM BISHOP (1804-1883) BEGAN HIS MILITARY SERVICE AS A CAPTAIN OF MILITIA IN THE SEMINOLE WAR IN FLORIDA. HE LATER ATTAINED THE RANK OF COLONEL. BISHOP LIVED IN SEVERAL STATES BEFORE ARRIVING IN HOPKINS COUNTY, TEXAS, IN 1852, AND THEN IN WHAT WOULD BECOME WISE COUNTY IN 1855. ONE YEAR AFTER HIS ARRIVAL, HE WAS SUCCESSFUL IN CONVINCING THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE TO CREATE WISE COUNTY OUT OF COOKE COUNTY. BISHOP WAS ONE OF THE FIRST SETTLERS TO ACQUIRE LAND AT THE TOWNSITE HE HELPED CONVINCE VOTERS TO SELECT AS COUNTY SEAT. HE ORIGINALLY WANTED THE TOWN TO BE CALLED TAYLORSVILLE AFTER GENERAL AND PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR. HOWEVER, WHEN TAYLOR SWITCHED TO THE WHIG PARTY, BISHOP, A PASSIONATE DEMOCRAT, PERSUADED THE LEGISLATURE TO NAME THE TOWN DECATUR IN HONOR OF U.S. NAVAL HERO STEPHEN DECATUR. BISHOP BUILT A MERCANTILE STORE WHICH WOULD EVENTUALLY BE USED AS A TEMPORARY POST OFFICE AND STAGE STOP ON THE BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND STAGE LINE. THE COLONEL ALONG WITH OTHER WISE COUNTY RESIDENTS CONVINCED THE BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND STAGE LINE OWNERS TO RELOCATE THEIR ROUTE TO RUN THROUGH DECATUR AND ON TO BRIDGEPORT. IN ORDER TO DO SO, THEY OVERSAW THE BUILDING OF BRIDGES OVER DENTON CREEK, SANDY CREEK AND THE WEST FORK OF THE TRINITY RIVER. BY DOING SO, COMMERCE INCREASED AND STAGE TRAVEL FROM DECATUR TO AUSTIN ALSO BECAME A REALITY. COLONEL ABSALOM BISHOP PASSED AWAY ON NOVEMBER 30, 1883, AND WAS BURIED ALONGSIDE HIS WIFE IN OAKLAWN CEMETERY. BISHOP, CALLED "THE FATHER OF WISE COUNTY AND DECATUR," WAS A COLORFUL FIGURE WHO BROUGHT TO TEXAS A BROAD RANGE OF EXPERIENCE THAT ALLOWED HIM TO HELP MOLD A RAW AND WILD LAND INTO A BUSTLING TOWN AND NEW COUNTY. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wise County Courthouse — steps away
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 26 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.

More markers nearby

• Wise County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Charles Vernon Terrell — steps away
• First National Bank of Decatur — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Decatur — 1.7 mi