Fisher County was the site of an old Indian trail from Mexico to settlements on the Texas frontier. In this region in 1856, Colonel Robert E. Lee, then commanding the famed U.S. Second Cavalry and later General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army, campaigned against the Indians. The county was formed from Young and Bexar territories, created in 1876, settled in 1877, and organized in 1886. It was named for Samuel Rhoads Fisher, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and Secretary of the Navy in the Republic of Texas in 1836. Roby, the county seat, was named for landowners.