Roby

In 1886, the Handbook of Texas says, Roby opened its post office and school and had thirteen houses by summer. By 1890 it had about 300 people, Baptist and Methodist churches, two general stores, a hotel, a restaurant and the weekly Fisher County Call. A stone jail went up in 1892, and the first bank was chartered in 1898, the year the Roby school district was formed. Roby counted 712 people in 1900, and by 1914 it had Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Nazarene churches, a bank and telephone service.

What the plaque says

Located on land originally included in a land grant to Texas War for Independence veteran Thomas H. Cosby, the town of Roby was first platted in 1885. The land was purchased by D. C. and M. L. Roby of Mississippi, relatives of Cosby's second wife, Martha. The Robys hired Walton, Hill, and Walton, a Travis County law firm, to represent their interests, and instructed the attorneys to organize a town to be named county seat of Fisher County. On behalf of their clients, the attorneys donated land for churches, schools, a park, and a cemetery. Town lots were also given to settlers who would build homes within ninety days. In an election held in April 1886, Roby was declared the county seat. The first county court was held in a shed behind the V. H. Anderson House, which served as the town's first post office. A frame courthouse was built on the southwest corner of the town square and was replaced over the years by a succession of other structures. Schools, churches, and businesses were established as settlement in the town increased. Retaining its small town atmosphere, Roby remains a center of commerce for Fisher County. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pioneer Museum — 19 mi
  Nolan County's settlement story in a dozen rooms of Judge R. A. Ragland's 1906 house in Sweetwater, a town that started as a dugout store for buffalo hunters and a post office called Blue Goose.
• National WASP WWII Museum — 20 mi
  Hangar 1 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, where the women of the WASP trained to fly every aircraft in the Army's arsenal in World War II, then waited thirty-three years to be called veterans.

More markers nearby

• Fisher County — steps away
• Organization of Fisher County — steps away
• Roby Cemetery — 1.2 mi
• Royston Townsite — 6.5 mi