Fisher, Rebecca J.

Born August 31, 1831 in Philadelphia, Rebecca came to Texas along with her pioneer parents, Johnstone and Mary Barbour Gilleland, and a younger brother, William McCalla in 1836. The family eventually settled in Refugio County. In 1840 Rebecca was orphaned when Comanche Indians killed her parents. Rebecca and her brother William were taken prisoner and later left for dead. The children were rescued by Albert Sidney Johnston and a detachment of Texas soldiers and taken to Victoria, where they stayed with William C. Blair until they could be sent to live with Jane Trimble, an aunt in Galveston.

Rebecca attended school in Galveston and finished at Rutersville, the only girl’s college at that time. She married Rev. Orceneth Fisher, a prominent Methodist minister who was much older than herself. The couple had six children. A missionary, Rev. Fisher took his wife with him on a voyage across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to reach California. For nearly sixteen years Rev. Fisher served as a pastor in California and Oregon. .

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