Something to Chew On with Dallam Masterson

Come to the Lake Jackson Historical Museum during your lunch hour for an intriguing mid-day history lesson! This month, we are excited to welcome Adm. Dallam Masterson as our guest speaker. 

Adm. Dallam Masterson is a consulting petroleum geologist in Houston with 40 years’ experience exploring for oil and gas on the Alaskan North Slope and for unconventional shale plays in the Lower 48 states. He is a fourth great grandson of Samuel Rhoads Fisher, the first Secretary of the Texas Navy for the Republic of Texas.

Adm. Masterson will give a presentation entitled BIRTH OF A NAVY: God Prosper Texas! Samuel Rhoads Fisher - First Secretary of the Navy for the Republic of Texas. The presentation will cover the life and contributions of Samuel Rhoads Fisher, and will be followed by a Q&A session. 

Adm. Beth Fisher will join Adm. Masterson in answering questions about Samuel Rhoads Fisher and The First Texas Navy. Adm. Fisher is a 7th generation Texan, a descendant of Samuel Rhoads Fisher and a member of DRT, DAR, CDA, and TNA. 

Admission is free! Add on a box lunch from McAlister's Deli for $12, or you are welcome to bring your own.  All lunch orders must be placed by Tuesday, December 12th by 4 PM.

Read the full synopsis of Adm. Masterson's talk below:

Samuel Rhoads Fisher met Moses and Stephen F. Austin in Missouri in 1819 and decided to move his shipping business from Philadelphia to Austin’s colony at the newly founded town of Matagorda in 1830. The house that ships’ carpenters built for Fisher’s family in 1832 has survived several major hurricanes and is one of the oldest homes in Texas. Fisher was instrumental in creating the Texas Navy in November 1835, beginning with the acquisition of the first Navy schooner William Robbins (renamed Liberty) that captured Mexican supplies and diverted them to the Texian army to ensure their victory at San Jacinto in April 1836. Fisher signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and was appointed the first Secretary of the Navy for the Republic of Texas by President Sam Houston. When Mexico threatened the survival of the young Republic with a naval blockade of the Texas coast in 1837, Secretary Fisher ordered the Texas Navy on a diversionary cruise to Yucatán that broke the blockade. President Houston was not pleased that Fisher volunteered for the Yucatán cruise while on leave and fired him when he returned to a hero’s welcome in Texas. Fisher was cleared of all Houston’s charges by the Texas Senate, and in his farewell letter Fisher closed with “God prosper Texas! and to you my friends and fellow citizens, happiness and thanks.