Historical markers are great but by necessity limited in the amount of information that can be inscribed in the space of a couple square feet. That's where the marker application proves to be a valuable source of information for historians.
This article includes material based on the Fiskville historical marker application submitted to the Texas Historical Commission. The marker application was compiled by William McGarry, M.Ed., Stephanie Neely, Sam Williams, Lisa Kerber, Ph.D., Ernestine Thompson.
The marker was approved by the Texas Historical Commission and erected 2005; marker number 13095. Information including location and directions to the the marker is available here https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=25884
Fiskville Historic Marker
Marker Narrative:
Two area pioneers were Josiah Fisk, who arrived in 1846, and Edward Zimmerman, who came in 1854; both brought their families to the farming lands outside Austin. Zimmerman became the first Postmaster in 1873, when more than 150 people lived in Fiskville, a dispersed agricultural community along Little Walnut Creek. Most residents were farmers, but the settlement also supported several businesses. These included gins belonging to G.W. Corzine (Cazine), a former slave, and to Andrew Payton. The community and its schools eventually became part of Austin. The Fiskville Cemetery, Zimmerman’s 1854 home and area street names serve as links to the early farming settlement.
Why a Historical Marker for Fisk?
The neighborhood of the North Austin Civic Association (NACA) used to be a small, independent farming community called Fiskville. Community members applied for a historical marker to commemorate the community of Fiskville on behalf of NACA residents. The area of NACA is bounded by Kramer Lane on the north, Lamar Boulevard on the east, Highway 183 to the south, and Metric Boulevard to the west. Today, this area is characterized by high population density, racial and cultural diversity, low- to moderate-income housing, and rapidly changing demographics. Developed in the late 1970s as a bedroom community, little remains of what was once Fiskville.
The historical marker for Fiskville helps educate people on their shared history, stimulate neighborhood pride, and motivate people to further explore and document the history of Fiskville [1] The historical marker helps community members develop educational materials to supplement the social studies curriculum in local schools, publish narratives and historical information on the NACA web site and in the monthly neighborhood newsletter, and create visual displays of the history for use at local schools, the Little Walnut Creek Library, and the annual Quail Creek Festival.
Locating Fiskville
Fiskville, founded in the early 1870s, evolved from the pioneer homesteads scattered throughout northern Travis County. According to land records in Travis County Court House, Josiah Fisk purchased many acres of land around Bull Creek and Fiskville from people owning headrights and sold the land to settlers.[2] The community of Fiskville was about six miles north of Austin on Little Walnut Creek, a westerly branch of Big Walnut Creek, and what is now North Lamar Boulevard (see map of area).[3] In the 1800s, Lamar was part of the Chisholm Trail, the cattle route that extended from Missouri to Kansas. It was also known as Upper Georgetown Road, the main thoroughfare running from Austin to Dallas. The center of Fiskville was near the intersection of Upper Georgetown Road and Burditt Mill Fiskville Road.[4] The Fiskville Store, the first in the community, was located at today’s Heron Hollow Park very near the corner of Payton Gin Road and North Lamar Boulevard (see map of Fiskville).[5]
In 1873, the year the post office was established, about 150 to 200 people lived in Fiskville.[6] In 1895 the Travis County Directory listed 123 households in Fiskville, 20 percent of which were “Colored.”[7] Four years later, the Directory listed 124 households in the area, 21 percent of which were “Colored.”[8] In 1901, it listed 100 households (20 Black and 80 White) in Fiskville.[9]
Farms and Businesses
Fiskville was primarily a farming community extending east to Big Walnut Creek. Its white soil, called “Austin Chalk,” grew pigmy cotton, two bolls to a stalk.[10] At one time, there was a quail farm in Fiskville.[11] E.W. Holler owned a peach orchard. Holler owned land in Fiskville in 1866 and moved to his farm there from Austin in 1876. By the 1880s Holler had planted thousands of peach trees, and by the 1890s he was the most “extensive peach tree grower in Central Texas with about 6,500 trees in Fiskville.”[12] In 1895 Holler reported owning 297 acres of land.[13]A freeze killed the trees around 1890.[14]
Several businesses operated in Fiskville in the mid to late 1800s. Josiah Fisk built a log and stone structure that functioned as a stage coach inn and general store, and eventually, after Josiah left Fiskville, a post office. This log and stone building was near his home on Upper Georgetown Road (now 8810 North Lamar). A fire burned several stores in the area in late December 1885 including Bengener’s Boot Shop and Jones’ Blacksmith Shop. The fire also burned the Fisk and Bowers’ Store.[15] According to the Handbook of Texas Online, Fiskville, in the mid-1880s, had a general store, a steam flour mill, and a cotton gin.[16] There was also a blacksmith’s shop, owned by W.E. Young, and a sorghum mill (for molasses), owned by John H. Mulkey. Zimmerman’s store was the town’s focal point and a favored gathering place along Walnut Creek. The store’s first floor housed the post office and a saloon. The upper floor accommodated social affairs.[17]
According to the Travis County Directory (1895), the most common occupation among heads of households was indeed farming. An African American was listed as a teacher, and another was listed as a preacher. Among White heads of households, there were in addition to farmers, three teachers, two “sheep raisers” (both of the Well family), a blacksmith, carpenter, dairyman, fruit merchant, horseman, and merchant.[18] In 1899, most people continued to describe themselves as farmers. One African American, George Washington (G.W.) Corzine, or Cazine, had two gins. Other occupations among Whites were blacksmith, merchant, and ginner.[19] In 1901, in addition to farmers, there were two people who worked in dairy, a blacksmith, a carpenter, and a physician. In 1901, I.J. Deen, a White person, sold general merchandise and served as post master. Cazine continued to work as a ginner.[20] Cazine was a former slave and one of the largest landowners in Fiskville. He owned and operated the first gins. Cazine, an entrepreneur, invested in new technology from the North. He purchased a steam threshing machine and harvested wheat for Black and White farmers.[21]
In the early 1900s, according to Ethel Tisdale, a long-time resident, Fiskville “consisted of (a) general store, a blacksmith shop that shod horses and made farm implements, and (a) schoolhouse, but most of the citizens were farmers and dairymen who lived in the surrounding countryside.”[22] The dairymen worked at three large dairies in or very near Fiskville.[23] The Harvey family operated the Meadowbrook Dairy Farm on land originally owned by Josiah Fisk.[24]
The Andrew Payton Gin opened after George Washington Cazine’s gin and was located on the road now named for it, near the intersection of Lower Georgetown Road and Burdit Mill Fiskville Road. The Payton Gin was operating in 1906 and continued to operate until the 1930s when cotton prices fell (see photo of Payton Gin).[25] It was one of two gins operated by the Payton family. The second was located on the family’s second farm in the nearby community of Sprinkle. The Burditt family also operated a grist mill east of Upper Georgetown Road.[26]
Streets in the area bear the names of some of the families (Kramer, Neans, Parmer, Payton, and Rundberg) who owned farms in Fiskville. The farms of Kramer and Neans were in the northern area of Fiskville in the 1930s, and the Robinson family farms extended west on both sides of Lower Georgetown Road.[27] The Kramer family farm raised milk and beef cattle, cotton, oats, wheat, and corn.[28]
Stores and businesses continued to open and operate. The post office continued to operate, and an area telephone exchange opened in a home adjacent to Josiah Fisk’s building. The telephone exchange operated until 1952.[29] After the car became more popular in the area, a garage and a residence for mechanics were added to the rear, or west side, of the general store. In the 1930s and ‘40s, the parents and guardians of children who attended schools in Fiskville Common District No. 11, which included Fiskville School and at least one “Colored” school, worked in the following occupations:[30]
· book keeper
· brick mason
· butcher
· carpenter
· common laborer
· cook
· county road or highway worker
· dairy hand or dairy man
· domestic maid or housekeeper
· farmer or farm hand
· electrician
· grocer
· hospital attendant
· housewife
· iron helper
· janitor
· laundress
· matron
· mechanic
· minister
· plasterer
· plumber
· porter
· teacher
· trucker
· Work Project Administration (WPA) worker
· poultry hand
· salesman
· service station attendant
· stone mason
· stone sawyer
· store keeper
· tailor
Giles Lockhart started his business Giles’ Sheet Metal, which still operates today as Custom Sheet Metal, in 1958. In the 1960s the general store and gas station sold general supplies, school supplies, and coal oil.[31]
Education, Schools, and Children’s Activities
Fiskville School, along with other rural schools of Travis County, was in the Travis County Common School District. Urban schools, including Austin public schools, belonged to the independent school districts. According to the Superintendent of the Travis County Common School Districts who served in the 1930s, the common school district system “in the early days” was probably the quickest and only way to get a community school when little or no state money was available for schools and “met the needs of the people in Texas.” Local enthusiasm, subscriptions, and donations built the small schools on land donated for both church- and school-related purposes.[32] Most schools had one teacher, but a few had as many as six. The Common School Districts in Travis County had separate schools for Whites (primarily German and Swedish immigrants), Hispanics, and African-Americans.[33] Many African American children went to classes held in “Negro tenant houses or churches which were inadequate…”[34]
According to a review of the Texas Teachers’ Daily Register for the years 1934 to 1949 (see Appendix), Fiskville Common District No. 11 served children in primary level and 1st through 8th grades. During each of the school years represented in the Register, most classes at schools in District No. 11 had about 40 to 50 students. In 1937 five children from St. John’s Orphanage, which served African Americans, went to a school in Fiskville Common District No. 11.[35]
Fiskville’s first school was built around 1867 on land originally owned by Josiah Fisk.[36] One teacher taught inside the one-room stone building, located on Upper Georgetown Road, between present day Deen Avenue and Elliot Street.[37] Fiskville School was open to White children. The Travis County School Annual (1906-1907) described the old rock school-building as “warm and roomy. (It) has a commodious vestibule, a feature that most schools lack. Calcimining the walls and painting the blackboards would add much to the school-room’s appearance and usefulness” (p.53). In 1907 Fiskville School received $15 from a box supper. Proceeds were used to purchase new windows, a door, wire netting for windows and shades. Teachers and students washed the walls, floor, and windows and polished the stove. The Hawthorne Library Plan bought a 30 volume library for the school at a cost of $10.[38]
In 1906-1907, African American children in Fiskville District No. 11 went to Walnut Creek or St. Paul. According to The Travis County School Annual (1906-1907), “Walnut Creek and St. Paul schools should be consolidated. There is absolutely no sense in maintaining the two schools, in the same district, so close together, on $200 a year, $100 to each school” (p.71). In 1907 the Colored schools in District No. 11 received a new stove-pipe.[39]
Around 1912-1914, Fiskville School added another classroom and a small entrance room, and two teachers taught class. The school’s library was a bookcase with a few books and Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary mounted on a stand. A shed near the school held the students’ horses.[40] This first school burned in 1915 (see photo), and a three-room frame structure, known as Fiskville School, replaced it. In 1917, White students only attended grades one through seven at Fiskville School.[41]
The boys of Fiskville School formed a baseball team, which played in Fiskville and other communities.[42] In the 1930s area school children often swam in the creeks and spent summer days in the Fisk house. “With its one-foot thick walls, it was the coolest place around.”[43]
In 1950 about 107 students in grades 1 to 6 attended Fiskville School. At that time, the school was in Fiskville District No. 11 but part of the Summit Consolidated Common School District. “It was brought into the Austin Public Schools” in 1951, the year the land was annexed by the City of Austin. Austin Public Schools paid to Summit Consolidated Common School District the sum of $6,448.65 for the building and the 1.46 acres. In 1953, the school was remodeled to have three classrooms and a cafeteria.[44]
The Fiskville School held its last class in May 1957 because a new school was set to open in September 1957. This new school, T.A. Brown, was to be a “modern brick building located on an extension of West Anderson Lane at about Guadalupe and Northwest Crest.” What is now Brown Elementary at 505 West Anderson Lane originally consisted of eight acres and one building with twelve classrooms, a library, cafeteria, offices, and an air-conditioned visual education room.[45] According to Starr Barkley (1963), the Saint Michael’s School for African Americans was located at the northeast corner of Rundberg and Lamar in the 1960s.[46]
Religion, Churches, and Cemeteries
Many citizens of Fiskville attended Walnut Creek Baptist Church. R.H. Taliaferro served as the first pastor of Walnut Creek Baptist Church, which was organized June 28, 1856. The first services took place at the church building on Walnut Creek, now at 12062 North Lamar Boulevard, in May 1861.[47] Several families known to have lived in Fiskville (Abercrombie, Holler, LaRue, Neans, and Payton) are represented in the Walnut Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. The oldest known internment in this cemetery dates to January 1860, and the most recent dates to April 1998. It is possible that burials took place before 1860 as the church was established in 1856. Burials in this cemetery were limited to members of Walnut Creek Baptist Church.[48]
Near Braker Lane, there were two “Colored” churches. Mount Salem was a Methodist Church. It faced a Colored Baptist Church, Mount Zion.[49] The Saint Paul’s Cemetery for African Americans was located to the East of Lower Georgetown Road. All of the headstones in St. Paul’s Cemetery and most records have disappeared.[50]
Groups from churches in Austin sometimes held camp meetings in Fiskville. For example until the start of the Civil War, the First (United) Methodist Church, located at the northeast corner of Mulberry Street (now 10th Street) and Brazos Street in Austin, held camp meetings in Fiskville after harvest time that lasted from four to seven days. Church members from First Methodist held a camp meeting in late July 1859 near Fiskville, and in October 1860 near Walnut Creek, with Rev. J.W. Whipple.[51] In 1857, Josiah Fisk, who was a Methodist, sold some of his land in Fiskville to be used for purposes related to the Methodist Episcopal Church South.[52]
Fiskville Cemetery, which covers about five acres, is located just east of Big Walnut Creek and IH35, just south of Rundberg, and southwest of the future site of the Gustavo (Gus) Garcia Park. The cemetery sits on land previously owned by Jesse Burditt, who is interned at the cemetery.[53] In August 1854 Henry Crocheron gave the land to School Trustees (William Wilkes, Giles Burdett, and S.B. Moore) to be used as a public burial ground.[54]
Currently, there are about 1,136 people buried in Fiskville Cemetery. There are a few grave sites marked for future burials, but the cemetery, except for a few grave sites, is unkept. About 316 surnames are represented in the Fiskville Cemetery, including Caswell, Deen, Duval, Payton, and Robinson. The earliest known date of death among the graves in Fiskville cemetery belongs to Jesse Burditt (1788-1855).[55] The most recent date of death among the graves belongs to Drew A. Bradford (1902-1999).[56]
Several families known to have lived in Fiskville (Dillingham, Fisk, Kramer, Parmer, Rundberg, Zimmerman) are not represented in Fiskville Cemetery or the Walnut Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. The Kramer family was Catholic, and its members were buried in Austin.[57]
People of Fiskville
Josiah Fisk and Family
Fiskville was named for Josiah Fisk who built the first house in Fiskville and raised his family there.[58] Josiah Fisk was born on November 12, 1812 in Penfield, New York to Nathan Fisk (1775-1829) and Rebecca Canfield Fisk (1781-1853).[59] He had one sister and several brothers, including George Greenleaf (1807-1888) who eventually lived in Bastrop, Williamson, and Brown Counties.[60] Josiah lived with his mother, father, and siblings on a small acreage farm in Penfield, New York until he was 13 years old. When Josiah was 12 or 13, his father died, and Josiah left home to live with his father’s brother on a farm in Massachusetts.[61]
In Massachusetts, Josiah worked on his uncle’s farm and attended the district school and then Cummington Academy. Following Cummington Academy, he briefly taught school in Yates, New York. Then, Josiah joined one of his brothers and enrolled in Hanover College in Indiana.[62] After graduating from Hanover College, Josiah taught school in Gallatin County, Kentucky for a year. He left Kentucky to complete a law course, taught by the Honorary Stephen A. Douglas, in Jacksonville, Illinois. On December 3, 1835, Josiah passed the Illinois bar.[63] Later, he opened a law office in Hillsborough, Illinois. In Hillsborough, he was elected Justice of the Peace. In 1839, he served as a Representative from Montgomery County to the Legislature of the 11th General Assembly in Springfield, Illinois.[64]
After hearing about the many opportunities in Texas from his older brother Greenleaf, Josiah moved there in 1845 or 1846. Greenleaf and Josiah floated to Mina (or Bastrop) via the Ohio and other rivers.[65] In 1846 Josiah enlisted and served as Corporal in the war against Mexico (1846-1848).[66] At the close of the war, he began again to practice law and locate and buy land.[67] He acquired a large tract of land about six miles north of Austin and established a residence. A large spring of cold clear water gushed from the ground on his estate, which was known as “Cold Water Farm.” While in Fiskville, in addition to owning a farm, Josiah worked as an attorney. And as he specialized in land issues, he also worked as a reviewer for a road that ran from the north side of the capitol to the boundary between Travis and Williamson counties.[68] He also acquired and sold land.[69]
His law office specialized in establishing land titles. Texas had operated under three distinct government administrations (Mexico, Texas, and the U.S.), there were overlapping land grants issued by each of the governments in the state.[70] Josiah eventually owned a lot of land because generally, clients who sought and obtained titles paid attorneys who specialized in these matters, like Josiah, some of the claimed tract.
On August 10th, 1848, in Travis County, Josiah married Narcissa L. White.[71] Narcissa was born in Alabama in 1828 and was the daughter of a wealthy planter who possessed a lot of land and some slaves. According to Josiah Fisk’s diary, Narcissa brought to the Fisk estate her maid Aunti Ede and Ede’s two boys, George and Aaron. Josiah and Narcissa lived in a two-story combination rock residence on the west side of Upper Georgetown Road (now very near 8810 North Lamar Boulevard). Their residence also served as the stage coach stop.[72] Within a year of their marriage, when Josiah was about 32 and Narcissa was about 21 years old, Narcissa gave birth to Gideon Greenleaf (1849-1874). In 1850 the Fisk estate was valued at $6,000. The Fisk household included Josiah, Narcissa, and one year-old Gideon, 59 year-old Elizabeth White from Alabama, perhaps Narcissa’s mother, and two German laborers, one 15 and the other 35 years old.[73]
Josiah and Narcissa had five more children together: Irene Rebecca (1851-1854), Josiah Nathaniel (1852-1872), Burr (1853-1854), Mary W. (1854-1858), and Narcissa (born 1858). Irene Rebecca, Burr, and Mary died before the age of five. Narcissa Fisk died while giving birth to little Narcissa on March 30, 1858.
In 1860 Josiah Fisk owned a total of 690 acres of land. His farm, including equipment and livestock, was valued at $10,900. He had 4 horses, one mule, 12 milking cows, 4 working oxen, and 30 other cattle. His farm produced rye and Indian corn.[74] According to the 1860 Census, the Fisk household included 45 year-old Josiah, 11 year-old Gideon, 7 year-old Josiah Nathanial, and 2 year-old Narcissa. Josiah Fisk owned one slave house and three slaves, most likely Ede and her two sons who had come to Fiskville with Narcissa.[75]
In 1861, Josiah Fisk married Vashti Harkness.[76] He met Vashti through her brother, William Harkness. William Harkness, his wife, three children, his two sisters and two invalid brothers worked on Josiah’s farm. Josiah and Vashti had one child, Wilbur, who was born on November 10, 1861.[77]
In the early 1860s, citizens in Texas were holding public meetings where public figures were expected to speak for or against secession. Josiah Fisk argued for remaining in the Union.[78] Texas, of course, joined the Confederacy and began to raise an army. A committee was selected to obtain Josiah Fisk’s enlistment. The committee found Josiah in his office and tried to persuade him to join the Confederacy. Josiah refused. When the authorities learned of his refusal, they sent a detachment from the army to his home, only to find Josiah in bed with a raging fever and dysentery. The soldiers told Josiah that he would be forced to join the Confederacy in two weeks. Sometime during the next two weeks, Josiah, with his nephew Roy Harkness, fled Fiskville.[79]
Josiah and Roy traveled north but were unable to cross the line into Federal Protection. So, they turned back, intending to cross the Sabine River into Louisiana. On the way, Roy accepted the opportunity to haul cotton to the ports as a teamster. Somehow, he reached Brownsville, crossed the Rio Grande, and got passage to New York. Josiah crossed the Sabine River alone, entered Louisiana, and got a job as a teacher.
In New Orleans in the early 1860s, Josiah was an active organizer and leader in the Texas Loyalty League.[80] Its objective was to “unite Texans in the work of restoring the national authority, especially in Texas, and to give aid to loyal Texans who may arrive as refugees in (New Orleans).”[81] In 1863 at a Loyalty League meeting, Josiah spoke out against slavery, wanting to “bring freedom and liberty to (God’s) people of every color.”[82]
According to Josiah’s diary, he taught for some time in New Orleans but became anxious because others who were sympathetic to the Union were being arrested. Josiah decided to flee Louisiana. He advised his students that there would be no class on Monday and left Friday at dusk. After a long, arduous, and dangerous journey, Josiah reached the outposts of the Union army. Shortly after, he was sent to Washington D.C. and remained there until the close of the war.
After the war ended, he returned to Texas to reunite with his family, with whom he had corresponded little. He found devastation and ruin and was seen by many as a traitor, so he decided to leave. Josiah traded a large tract of land for a drove of horses, collected his family, and started off for Kansas.[83]
The families of Fisk and Harkness had two covered wagons, a light carriage, and enough saddles for the boys to ride the horses. Traveling through Oklahoma, or “Indian Territory,” was difficult and unsafe, particularly because drinking water was hard to find. Daniel and Jacob Harkness died during the journey. The group finally arrived in Elevenworth, Kansas and sold the horses. Most of the Harkness family immediately left for Pennsylvania where they made their permanent home. Mary Harkness, Vashti’s youngest sister, married a Union soldier and moved to Iowa. Josiah, Vashti, and the two youngest children, Narcissa and Wilbur, visited Mrs. Fisk’s sister, Mrs. Louisa Gray, in Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, Josiah decided to settle in New Orleans.[84]
Soon after returning to Louisiana, the younger children started school, and the older sons began to study law. Josiah Fisk was appointed attorney of St. Mary’s Parish,[85] and so he, Vashti, the daughter Narcissa, and the youngest son Wilbur moved to St. Mary’s. In St. Mary’s the Ku Klux Klan was active against Blacks, Whites who sympathized with them, and members of the Republican Party. The Klan terrorized the Fisk family and forced them to return to New Orleans.
A Republican governor then appointed Josiah Fisk attorney for Jefferson Parish on the west side of the Mississippi River, but the family continued to reside in New Orleans, where Josiah also ran a private practice during the week and preached on Sundays.[86] Josiah was licensed as a local Methodist preacher and eventually admitted into the Louisiana Conference.[87] From 1872 to 1880, Josiah also served as a public notary in New Orleans (see photo of Josiah Fisk). The majority of the notarized documents were land sales.[88] Josiah’s eldest son, Gideon, became attorney for Jefferson City, formerly a part of Jefferson Parish and now a suburb of New Orleans.[89] In 1880 Josiah, Vashti, and Wilbur lived together in Carrollton (New Orleans), Louisiana. Wilbur was studying law.[90]
While Josiah was attorney for Jefferson Parish, a Democrat became governor, and the government tried to force Josiah out of office by withholding his salary. Josiah Fisk brought suit against the authorities of the Parish. He won, but they refused to pay. Other legal battles ensued. Josiah and his family in the meantime moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1881 where some years previously he had purchased a home.
In December 1885, Josiah brought three suits against Jefferson Parish, Louisiana in December 1885 for salary and fees due him when he worked for the parish of Jefferson as a district attorney from 1871 to 1874. The United States Supreme Court ultimately rendered a decision in Josiah’s favor, ending the long legal controversy.[91] On March 5, 1896, Josiah Fisk received notification that his claim against the city of New Orleans had been settled and he would receive about $4,000.[92]
“After the infirmities of age came upon him, (Josiah) took up his residence with his youngest son in Naperville (Chicago), Illinois.”[93] Josiah died on May 19, 1901 in Naperville, leaving behind his daughter Narcissa Fisk Derby, his son Reverend Wilbur Fisk, and his wife Vashti.[94] He is buried with his wife, Vashti, who died in 1902, in Walnut Hill Cemetery, 1350 East Pierce, Council Bluffs, Iowa.[95]
Edward Zimmerman and Family
The first post office in Fiskville was established in August 1873 with Edward Zimmerman as its postmaster.[96] Edward Zimmerman, a German immigrant, arrived in Texas in 1844 at the age of 27. Before coming to Fiskville, he lived in Fredericksburg and married Regina Reinhard of New Braunfels in 1850. Together, they made their home in Fiskville. In 1854, they built a house (at 9019 Parkfield) on the south bank of Little Walnut Creek on the wagon trail from Austin to Waco and moved in with their baby daughter, Floria(n).[97]
Zimmerman worked to support his family by trading with neighbors, including local Indians, and travelers on the trail.[98] His business prospered and shortly, in 1856, he sold the house and built a larger home of more durable stone construction about one mile southwest at the present 1600 Payton Gin Road. In 1895, Zimmerman reported owning 173 acres of land.[99]
According to the 1870 Census, Floria(n) Zimmerman, who was 17 years old, worked as a clerk at the Fiskville store. Zimmerman was the postmaster of Fiskville until his death on October 12, 1901. Miss Bonita Zimmerman taught at Fiskville School in 1906-1907.[100] Miss Icie Zimmerman taught at Fiskville School during the years 1914 to 1917.[101]
Thomas Owen Maxwell
Thomas Owen Maxwell (1853-1937) and his parents C.A. and Cynthia (Owen) Maxwell moved to Fiskville in 1871. Thomas, after graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1878, returned to Fiskville to practice medicine. He served as physician at the Austin State Hospital and as superintendent of the Southwest Texas Hospital in San Antonio. He died at his home in Austin in 1937.[102]
Dora Dieterich Bonham
Dora Dieterich Bonham (1902-1973), a businesswoman and historian, was born to Annie (Fulkes) Dieterich and Roy Ferguson in Watters, Texas. She attended schools in Fiskville and Austin before entering the University of Texas in 1921. She is buried in Walnut Creek Cemetery.[103]
Historic Buildings
9019 Parkfield
Edward Zimmerman built a fachwerk house in Fiskville that is still standing at 9019 Parkfield. Fachwerk, a common German method of building, involved a light frame of timbers filled in with stone or brick and local materials. On the interior, the timbers and stone were often fully exposed. On the exterior, plaster or whitewash covered all but the timbers. Unlike English settlers in the area who usually built one-room or dog-trot log structures surrounded by additional single-purpose buildings, German settlers built roughly square one and a half story structures with pitched roofs and multiple rooms. Germans would often enlarge the structure as necessary, adding rooms, rather than erect separate out-buildings.[104] The house on Parkfield is the only fachwerk structure in Travis County.[105]
George Washington Davis (1806-1884) originally owned the land on which the fachwerk house at 9019 Parkfield now stands. Davis and his wife, Emiline Wells, moved to Texas in 1835 and settled in Bastrop County in 1838. He fought for the Republic of Texas, and in 1841, the Republic of Texas deeded him the land. Davis and Emiline settled in Austin, and he served the new government of the State of Texas. On June 24, 1854, Davis sold, “for $1,000 in coin dollars…, 320 acres of land situated on the headwaters of the Southern Branch of Walnut Creek, about five miles North of the city of Austin…” to Edward Zimmerman.[106]
In 1854, the same year the first State Capitol Building was constructed, Edward Zimmerman built the house at 9019 Parkfield. The Zimmerman family used the fachwerk house as a home and a trading post. It has limestone rock for fill and originally consisted of two small rooms–a small bedroom on the north and a larger kitchen and living area on the south. Later, the family added a room on the east side and extended the roof line so the house could be used as a trading post. When the Zimmerman family lived in the house, the attic, which had a door, provided storage space for the trading post. Currently, historians know of only three buildings in Austin at their original locations that pre-date the house on Parkfield: the French Legation at 802 San Marcos Street, a log farm house at 4811 Sinclair Avenue dating to the 1840s, and the farm house at Boggy Creek Farm, built in 1840-1841 and located at 3414 Lyons Road.
In the 1950s when Haywood Reese, owner of Reese Lumber Company, and his wife, Zula, lived in the house, Parkfield Drive was known as Reese Road. There was a red barn by the creek, just west of the house, and a large garden outside the kitchen door. Haywood Reese added asbestos siding, electrical wiring, and indoor plumbing. Previous occupants of the house obtained their water from a spring located north of the creek. There was also a porch where Mr. and Mrs. Reese would sit and shoot doves in the front yard. Turkeys, sheep, chickens, guineas, and rabbits also inhabited the front yard.
In 1964 the Reese family made additional renovations when Mr. Reese’s ailing mother moved into the house. They drilled a more reliable well south of the house, the remains of which are in the back yard of a duplex at 9017 Parkfield.[107] They covered interior walls with paneling, erected false ceilings several feet below the original high ceiling, enclosed the long covered porch on the north side to create a huge kitchen and utility room, and extended the 1856 addition to add another bathroom and additional living space.
In the 1980s the house changed hands several times. Glyn Durham, a local builder and the 15th owner of the house, began to convert it to a duplex. In the winter of 1984-1985, he removed the siding to repair pipes, saw the old walls, and notified the Austin Historical Society. Durham stopped remodeling the house and applied for historic zoning, which was granted by the Austin City Council granted on June 7, 1985. Durham later sold the house to Randy and Phyllis Fletcher.
The Fletchers began restoring the house and occupied it for a short time. They repaired damage caused by remodeling, installed new appliances, and refinished the exterior. In 1992, Phyllis Fletcher sold the property to Samuel Williams, the present occupant.
The Settlement Home at 1600 Payton Gin Road
Edward and Regina Zimmerman and their larger family moved from the house at 9019 Parkfield to a new solid stone house at 1600 Payton Road after their trading store prospered. They remained in this home, raising their three children, for many years.
The land at 1600 Payton Gin Road was originally part of a Mexican land grant from the state of Coahuila to Thomas Jefferson Chambers. The house has one-foot thick hand hewn cream colored walls made of stone from nearby hills. The milled wood came from Bull Creek Mills. In the center of the house is the front entrance and a porch with Victorian trim. The entrance opens to a central hallway which runs the depth of the house. On the east side, is a large room with a fireplace. On the west side are two smaller rooms. A long hallway on the north side, which was eventually enclosed, leads down several steps to the root cellar, which was used to store food.
On June 1, 1964, the Settlement Club of Austin purchased the property. They carefully restored and now maintain the building, which serves as the office for the Settlement Home for Children. In 1967, the Texas Historical Survey Committee awarded a bronze medallion recognizing the building’s historic value.
Farms Disappear and Fiskville Becomes Part of Austin
Opportunities available in Austin and elsewhere affected growth in Fiskville. According to Atkinson and Giles (1980), Sprinkle replaced Fiskville as Walnut Creek’s most popular postal and shopping center. Zimmerman’s store burned down and was not rebuilt. The community of Manor, formerly only a store, mushroomed with the arrival of the railroad.[108] Fiskville’s post office closed in 1901. By the early 1930s the number of residents had fallen to 50.[109] The falling prices of cotton in Texas along with rising property taxes in the 1930s may have forced many farmers in Fiskville to sell their farms and leave the area.
After World War II the farming economy in Texas became more diversified. During this era of growth and development, farming became a highly mechanized business, and many farmers left their small farms and moved to larger towns. The part of Fiskville east of Lamar Boulevard was annexed to Austin in the 1950s, but Fiskville retained its identity as a separate community until the mid-1960s, when the portion west of Lamar was annexed to Austin.[110] In 1967, IBM opened its plant site to north Burnet with 500 employees from Lexington, Kentucky.[111] In the 1960s and 70s, many families sold their farms. Developers, such as Nash Phillips and Clyde Copus, created subdivisions with single-family homes and apartment complexes in place of the farms.
Maps
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| Map of Fiskville from marker application |
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| Fiskville on 1880 map of Travis County. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4033t.la001148/ |
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| Zimmerman's fachwerk cabin (today's 9019 Parkfield) shown on 1952 aerial photo |
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Footnotes
[1] Fiskville is an “underdocumented area of interest.” See Riles, Karen. 2001. African American Bibliography: Sources of Information Relating to African Americans in The Austin History Center of the Austin Public Library, Austin, Tex.: Austin History Center, p. 50. Available: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/downloads/afambiblio.pdf. September 2003.
[2] Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., p. 188.
[3] “Fiskville, Texas.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hvf23.html. December 2003.
[4] Travis County Road Book II, Bonham Collection, Box 3G219, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
[5] Bonham Collection, Box 3G219, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
[6] “Fiskville, Texas.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hvf23.html. December 2003 Estimates of population vary. The above source also says that in the 1890s, the “population had grown to 120.” According to the 1895 U.S. Atlas, Fiskville’s population was 43. 1895 Atlas available: http://www.livgenmi.com/1895/. January 2004..
[7] Travis County Directory, 1894-1895. Austin, Tex.: Albert Schutze.
[8] Travis County Directory, 1898-1899. Austin, Tex.: Albert Schutze.
[9] Travis County Directory, 1901. Austin, Tex.: Von Boeckmann, Schutze & Co.
[10] Atkinson, M. Jourdan, and Eugene V. Giles. 1980. Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go! Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press, p. 75-76.
[11] Interview with Giles Lockhart, conducted by William McGarry November 17, 1997 at his business Custom Sheet Metal, Austin, Texas, subject: his life and business experience in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[12] History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee, and Burleson Counties. 1893. Chicago, Ill.: The Lewis Publishing Company, p. 296-7; cited in Starr Barkley, Mary. 1970. A History of Central Texas. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, p. 38.
[13] Travis County Directory, 1894-1895. Austin, Tex.: Albert Schutze.
[14] Starr Barkley, Mary. 1970. A History of Central Texas. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, p. 259.
[15] Starr Barkley, Mary. 1963. History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899, Third Edition, August 1981, Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Press, p. 231.
[16] “Fiskville, Texas.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hvf23.html. December 2003.
[17] Atkinson, M. Jourdan, and Eugene V. Giles. 1980. Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go! Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press, p. 75-76.
[18] Travis County Directory, 1894-1895. Austin, Tex.: Albert Schutze.
[19] Travis County Directory, 1898-1899. Austin, Tex.: Albert Schutze.
[20] Travis County Directory, 1901. Austin, Tex.: Von Boeckmann, Schutze & Co.
[21] Atkinson, M. Jourdan, and Eugene V. Giles. 1980. Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go! Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press.
[22] Shields, Rana. “Urbanization Buries Fiskville Memories,” The Austin Citizen, Saturday, November 15, 1975, p. 12. Interview with Giles Lockhart, conducted by William McGarry November 17, 1997 at his business Custom Sheet Metal, Austin, Texas, subject: his life and business experience in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[23] Blazek, Cathy. 1973. Fiskville: The Misplaced Community, unpublished manuscript that includes interview with Mrs. Dick Tisdale, interviewed by C. Blazek in November 1973, Fiskville File, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas. Interview with Giles Lockhart, conducted by William McGarry November 17, 1997 at his business Custom Sheet Metal, subject: his life and business experience in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry. In 1957, Giles Lockhart found evidence of a blacksmith shop when he laid the foundation for his sheet metal business at 8821 North Lamar Boulevard. “Fiskville, Texas.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hvf23.html. December 2003. Interview with Fiskville resident Mary Belle Burris, conducted by William McGarry July 15, 1997 at Walnut Creek Library, Austin, Texas, subject: her family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[24] Interview with Fiskville resident Mary Belle Burris (Harvey), conducted by William McGarry July 15, 1997 at Walnut Creek Library, Austin, Texas, subject: her family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[25] Atkinson, M. Jourdan, and Eugene V. Giles. 1980. Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go! Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press, p.170. Interview with Pauline Payton Johnson conducted by William McGarry April 4, 1997 at Johnson’s home, subject: her family in Fiskville, notes are available through William McGarry. Interview with Murray Robinson conducted by William McGarry November 19, 1997 at Walnut Creek Library, Austin, Texas, subject: family and life in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[26] Interview with Giles Lockhart, conducted by William McGarry November 17, 1997 at his business Custom Sheet Metal, Austin, Texas, subject: his life and business experience in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[27] Travis County Road Map, 1902, Texas General Land Office, Archives, Austin, Texas. Austin Street Guide, 1964, Austin, Tex.: Miller Blue Print Co.
[28] Interview with Tommy Kramer, conducted by William McGarry and Gina Almon September 19, 1996 at Kramer’s home, subject: family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[29] Austin Telephone Directory. 1935. Austin, Tex.: Southwestern Bell, p. 20. Interview with Fiskville resident Mary Belle Burris, conducted by William McGarry July 15, 1997 at Walnut Creek Library, Austin, Texas, subject: her family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[30] Texas Teachers’ Daily Register for Travis County Public Schools, State Department of Education, State of Texas, Fiskville Common School District, No. 11, FP J5, boxes 3 and 4, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas.
[31] Interview with Giles Lockhart, conducted by William McGarry November 17, 1997 at his business Custom Sheet Metal, Austin, Texas, subject: his life and business experience in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry. Interview with Tommy Kramer, conducted by William McGarry and Gina Almon September 19, 1996 at Kramer’s home, subject: family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[32] Felter, Rosalia. The Administration of Rural Schools, Chapter 1, Felter Papers, Literacy Productions, 1934-1936, Travis County School Superintendent Records, box 2, folder 17, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas.
[33] “History of Travis County School Superintendent Records,” Travis County School Superintendent Records, AR.R.017, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas.
[34] Felter, Rosalia. The Administration of Rural Schools, Chapter 1, Felter Papers, Literacy Productions, 1934-1936, Travis County School Superintendent Records, box 2, folder 17, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas.
[35] Texas Teachers’ Daily Register for Travis County Public Schools, State Department of Education, State of Texas, Fiskville Common School District, No. 11, FP J5, boxes 3 and 4, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas.
[36] Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co. See p. 30 on Bonham’s book for deed from Travis County Land Records, Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas.
[37] Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co.
[38] Travis County School Annual: A Circular of Information, Vol. III, 1907. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company.
[39] Travis County School Annual: A Circular of Information, Vol. III, 1907. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company.
[40] Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co.
[41] Ibid.
[42] Interview with Tommy Kramer, conducted by William McGarry and Gina Almon September 19, 1996 at Kramer’s home, subject: family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[43] Interview with Fiskville resident Mary Belle Burris, conducted by William McGarry July 15, 1997 at Walnut Creek Library, Austin, Texas, subject: her family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[44] Austin’s Schools, 1881-1954: Origin, Growth, Future, Vol. II. 1954. Prepared by Centennial Committee on Instruction and Research, Austin, Tex.: Austin Public Schools, p.16.
[45] “Fiskville Looks Forward after Thanking Veterans.” The Austin American Statesman, Sunday, May 19, 1957, Austin, Texas, A-7. “T.A. Brown: Dedication and Open House,” Announcement, March 2, 1958, available through Brown Elementary, Austin, Texas, December 2003. Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co.
[46] Starr Barkley, Mary. 1963. History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899, Third Edition, August 1981, Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Press, p. 151.
[47] Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co.
[48] Inventory of Internments, January 1860-April 1998, Walnut Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Walnut Creek Baptist Church Cemetery Association, Austin, Texas.
[49] Atkinson, M. Jourdan, and Eugene V. Giles. 1980. Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go! Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press, p. 88.
[50] Telephone interview with Deacon Horace Dixon, St. Paul’s Baptist Church, conducted by William McGarry September 28, 1998, subject: St. Paul’s cemetery and African Americans in Fiskville, transcription is unavailable.
[51] American Statesman, March 26, 1939; cited in Starr Barkley, Mary. 1963. History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899, Third Edition, August 1981, Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Press, p. 288.
[52] Deed Records, Travis County, Texas, “Josiah Fisk to Trustees of Little Walnut Camp Ground,” filed July 27, 1857, Book L, p. 512-513.
[53] Personal email communication with Glenda Black, descendent of Jesse Burditt and author of application for a Historic Designation for Fiskville Cemetery, copy of email available by contacting Lisa Kerber, December 23, 2003.
[54] Travis County Land Records, August 1854, cited in Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., p. 31-32.
[55] Personal email communication with Glenda Black, descendent of Jesse Burditt and author of application for a Historic Designation for Fiskville Cemetery, copy of email available by contacting Lisa Kerber, December 23, 2003.
[56] Travis County Cemeteries. 1986. Austin, Tex.: Travis County Historical Commission. “Fiskville Cemetery, Austin, Texas.” Austin Genealogical Society. Available: http://www.austintxgensoc.org/cemeteries/fiskville.html. October 2003. Wilke-Clay-Fish Funeral Home Records, February 4, 2002, Travis County Mortuary Records. Available: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/. September 2003. About 95 percent of all grave sites in Fiskville Cemetery (n=885) include the full name of the deceased.
[57] Interview with Tommy Kramer, conducted by William McGarry and Gina Almon September 19, 1996 at Kramer’s home, subject: family in Fiskville, notes available through William McGarry.
[58] Brown, Frank. Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin (from the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875), Chapter 27, Index 1868, “Josiah Fisk,” p. 32-33.
[59] “Obituary of Josiah Fisk,” The Clarion, Naperville, Illinois, May 22, 1901. State of Texas Federal Population Schedules, 7th Census of the United States, 1850, Vol. IV. 1969. Huntsville, Arkansas: Century Enterprises, p. 1887. Travis County, Texas, The Five Schedules of the 1860 Federal Census, compiled by Alice Duggan Gracy and Emma Gene Seale Gentry, November 1967, Austin, Texas. Udell, Marcia and Susan. 1995. According to these Censuses, Josiah Fisk was born in 1815 or 1817. Noah Briggs of Allegan County, Michigan: His Ancestors and Descendents, Marshall, Mich. Deed Records, Monroe County, New York, “Greenleaf Fisk and Josiah Fisk to Joseph Fisk,” filed February 20, 1854, Deed Book 118, p. 271-272. Vital Records, Worthington, Massachusetts, Map. 32, New England Historic Genealogical Society library, Boston, Mass. Affidavit signed by Nathan Fisk, Nathan Fisk’s death, August 1829, Surrogate Office, Town of Ogden, Monroe County, New York. See also National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, Application for Membership, Rose Mary Fisk Smith, National No. 033677, October 3, 2001.
[60] Starr Barkley, Mary. 1970. A History of Central Texas. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, p. 38, 220; “Fisk, Greenleaf.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/ffi25.html. November 2003.
[61] “Obituary of Josiah Fisk,” The Clarion, Naperville, Illinois, May 22, 1901. Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time.
[62] Ibid.
[63] Ibid.
[64] Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1917-1918, “Roster of Members of the General Assembly from 1818 to 1918,” p. 455, Louis L. Emmerson, Secretary of State (ed.), Danville, Ill.: Illinois Printing Company. Available: http://eli.sls.lib.il.us/00001_00/pdf/BB/1917/file62.pdf . January 2004. Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, December 9, 1839, Springfield, Ill.: Wm. Walters, Public Printer. Pierce, Frederick Clifton. 1896. Fiske and Fisk Family: Descendants of Symond Fiske, Lord of the Manor of Stadhaugh, Suffolk County, England, from the time of Henry IV to Date, including all the American Members of the Family, Chicago, Ill.: W.B. Conkey Company.
[65] Bryson, Gordon, or Pete Shady. 1964. Culture of the Shin Oak Ridge Folk. Austin, Tex.: Firm Foundation Publishing House, p. 214.
[66] Spurlin, Charles D. 1998. Texas Veterans of the Mexican War: Muster Rolls of Texas Military Units, Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, p. 245.
[67] Pierce, Frederick Clifton. 1896. Fiske and Fisk Family: Descendants of Symond Fiske, Lord of the Manor of Stadhaugh, Suffolk County, England, from the time of Henry IV to Date, including all the American Members of the Family, Chicago, Ill.: W.B. Conkey Company.
[68] Minutes of the Travis County Commissioners Court, Vol. A, p. 1-2; cited in Starr Barkley, Mary. 1963. History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899, Third Edition, August 1981, Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Press, p. 267.
[69] See Lucas, Silas Emmet Jr. 1979. Some Early Travis County, Texas Records, abstracted and compiled by Jane Sumner, Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press. Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., p. 28-33.
[70] Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time. See also Deed Records, Travis County, “Josiah Fisk to Trustees of Little Walnut Camp Ground,” filed July 27, 1857, Book L, p. 512-513.
[71] Marriage Records, Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, Vol. I, 1840-1857, p. 39, Josiah Fisk to Narcissa L. White, filmed by the Genealogical Society Salt Lake City, Utah, 1975.
Narcissa Lucinda White was daughter of Gideon White killed by Indians at Seiders Oaks / Springs. Her sister Elizabeth Ann White married Martin Moore as in the historic Moore-Hancock house.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=100088
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=100082
Martin Moore, Fisk's brother-in-law, purchased land for timber from Fisk thought to have been used in the construction of the Moore-Hancock house.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth491727/m1/25/?q=josiah%20fisk
[72] Starr Barkley, Mary. 1970. A History of Central Texas. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, p. 38.
[73] State of Texas Federal Population Schedules, 7th Census of the United States, 1850, Vol. IV. 1969. Huntsville, Arkansas: Century Enterprises, p. 1887.
[74] Travis County, Texas, The Five Schedules of the 1860 Federal Census, compiled by Alice Duggan Gracy and Emma Gene Seale Gentry, November 1967, Austin, Texas.
[75] Travis County, Texas, The Five Schedules of the 1860 Federal Census, compiled by Alice Duggan Gracy and Emma Gene Seale Gentry, November 1967, Austin, Texas.
[76] Marriage Records, Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, Vol. II, 1857-1870, p. 108, Josiah Fisk to Vashti Harkness, filmed by the Genealogical Society Salt Lake City, Utah, 1975.
[77] Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time.
[78] Ibid. See also Brown, Frank. Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin (from the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875), Chapter 27, Index 1868, “Josiah Fisk,” p. 32-33.
[79] Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time.
[80] “Meeting of the Workingmen’s Union National League of State of Louisiana, at Lyceum Hall” The New Orleans Times, Friday Morning, December 4, 1863.
[81] “Texas Loyal League of New Orleans,” The New Orleans Times, Wednesday Morning,
February 24, 1864, p. 5, col. 2. “Texas Loyal League,” The New Orleans Times, Tuesday, March 15, 1864, p. 5, col. 3.
[82] Minutes of the Loyal National League of Louisiana, Containing an Abstract of the
Proceedings Held on Canal Street, New Orleans, Fourth of July, 1863: Speeches by T.J. Earhart, Maj. Dais Alton, Dr. Maas, Josiah Fisk, and Rev. James Keelan, New Orleans, La.: H.P. Lathrop, 74 Magazine Street, p. 11.
[83] Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time.
[84] Ibid.
[85] Louisiana 1870 Census Index. 1987. ed. Ronald Vern Jackson, Salt Lake City, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems International, Inc. Pierce, Frederick Clifton. 1896. Fiske and Fisk Family: Descendants of Symond Fiske, Lord of the Manor of Stadhaugh, Suffolk County, England, from the time of Henry IV to Date, including all the American Members of the Family, Chicago, Ill.: W.B. Conkey Company. Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time.
[86] Brown, Frank. Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin (from the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875), Chapter 27, Index 1868, “Josiah Fisk,” p. 32-33.
[87] These two sources also refer to Josiah work as a minister. Brown, Frank. Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin (from the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875), Chapter 27, Index 1868, “Josiah Fisk,” p. 32-33. Record of Deaths, 1897-1904, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
[88] “Sale of Property, Leon Redon to Maria Michell, wife of said Leon Redon, No. 5, 1873,” New Orleans Notarial Archives. Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana. Available: http://www.notarialarchives.org/Notaries/listef.htm. March 2004.
[89] Diary of Josiah Fisk, transcribed by Wilbur Fisk and Jan Muff, possession of descendant Bruce Muff, Auburn, California, not available to public at this time.
[90] Census 1880, “Schedule 1. Inhabitants in Carrollton, in the County of Orleans, State of Louisiana, June 3, 1880.”
[91] Fisk vs. Jefferson Police Jury, 116 U.S. 131 (1885), U.S. Supreme Court Records, submitted November 18, 1885, filed December 21, 1885. Available: http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/getcase/us/116/131.html. November 2003.
[92] Pierce, Frederick Clifton. 1896. Fiske and Fisk Family: Descendants of Symond Fiske, Lord of the Manor of Stadhaugh, Suffolk County, England, from the time of Henry IV to Date, including all the American Members of the Family, Chicago, Ill.: W.B. Conkey Company.
[93] “Obituary of Josiah Fisk,” The Clarion, Naperville, Illinois, May 22, 1901.
[94] Certification of Death, Josiah Fisk, No. 78-01-181, Department of Health, Division of Death, Iowa State Vital Records Office, Des Moines, Iowa. Record of Deaths, 1897-1904, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Burial Records, Walnut Hill Cemeteries (Walnut Hill Sections 1-20), 1350 E. Pierce, Council Bluffs, Iowa, September 1997.
[95] Burial Records, Walnut Hill Cemeteries (Walnut Hill Sections 1-20), 1350 E. Pierce, Council Bluffs, Iowa, September 1997.
[96] “Fiskville, TX.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hvf23.html. September 2003. Starr Barkley, Mary. 1970. A History of Central Texas. Austin, Tex.: Austin Printing Company, p. 38
[97] History of Peyton Gin Property, unpublished manuscript, Austin, Texas.
[98] Ibid.
[99] Travis County Directory, 1894-1895. Austin, Tex.: Albert Schutze.
[100] Travis County School Annual: A Circular of Information, Vol. II, 1906-1907. Austin, Tex.: Von Boeckmann-Jones Company.
[101] Bonham, Dora Dieterich. 1958. Merchant to the Republic, San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., p. 18.
[102] “Maxwell, Thomas Owen.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/fma87.html. September 2003.
[103] “Bonham, Dora Dieterich.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/BB/fbo70.html. September 2003.
[104] “German Vernacular Architecture.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http:www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/cbgl.html. November 2003.
[105] Personal communication between Samuel Williams and Dr. Terry G. Jordan, Geography Department, University of Texas, communication took place at 9019 Parkfield Drive, June 1992. No transcription exists.
[106] Abstract of Title, provided by Glyn Durham, owner of property at 9019 Parkfield from 1984 to 1985. Baker, Betty. 1984. Application for Historic Zoning in the City of Austin, includes “Survey form for Historic Landmark Inventory, City of Austin, Texas” for First Zimmerman Home, 9019 Parkfield Drive,” City of Austin Historic Landmarks (not state recorded), Austin, Texas, File No. C14h-84-003, Parcel No. 2-4114-0508.
[107] Interview with Zula Reese, conducted by Samuel Williams and William McGarry in June 1998 at Reese’s home, subject: her life and house in Fiskville, notes available through Sam Williams.
[108] Atkinson, M. Jourdan, and Eugene V. Giles. 1980. Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go! Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press, p. 88, p. 135.
[109] “Fiskville, TX.” The Handbook of Texas Online. Available: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/hvf23.html. September 2003.
[110] Ibid.
[111] “Austin Site Overview,” provided by IBM Austin, March 2004.
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