Judge Greenleaf Fisk

Fisk's other town was Brownwood. The Handbook of Texas says that in Brown County between 1862 and the mid-1870s he served as teacher, chief justice, county judge, county clerk and treasurer, among other offices, and that local historians call him the father of Brownwood. When drought left the main settlement without water and a title problem arose at an alternate site, he donated sixty acres near his home and 100 for county use. He sold T. D. Harriss 800 acres on the condition that Harriss bring his large family, to fill the school.

What the plaque says

Judge Greenleaf Fisk (May 19, 1807 - Jan. 26, 1888) Born in Albany, New York, Greenleaf Fisk was the son of a Presbyterian minister. He began preparation for the ministry himself but left his studies to migrate to the Texas frontier. In 1834 he settled in Bastrop. There he joined a company of volunteers and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836. Later he was elected to the Republic of Texas Senate. In the 1840s Fisk moved his family to a log house on the South San Gabriel River near present Leander. When Williamson County was organized in 1848, Fisk was the first "chief justice," as the office of county judge was then called, a position he had held in Bastrop County. It is said that he often waled the 11 or 12 miles from his home to the courthouse in Georgetown. Fisk was also a surveyor, and many land records in Williamson County bear his name. In 1860 Fisk moved to Brown County, where he again served as county judge and held other county offices. He donated 60 acres for the townsite of Brownwood and additional acreage for county use. His grave is in Brownwood's Greenleaf Cemetery. Fisk was married first to Mary Manlove, who is buried near Leander. After her death, he married Mary Hawkins. He had 15 children. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — steps away
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 2.1 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 8.6 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 23 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• Chief Justice John Edward Hickman — steps away
• In Memory of Robert Jones Rivers — steps away
• Emzy Taylor — steps away
• Williamson County — steps away