Fischer’s Store was once the largest mercantile store in Texas, with 16 clerks helping customers find everything from pickles to threshers. The store and town were founded by the Fischer family, the descendants of whom still live in the area. Hermann Fischer and his wife Anna Lindemann built the first structure in 1855, followed by Hermann’s brother, Otto. The store Hermann built in 1858 eventually included a post office, bank, and saloon.
Just before the turn of the century, the Fischers built the town’s first dance hall after years of fighting with the people of Crane’s Mill at their dances. Folks still travel to town for dances, parties, and weddings at Fischer Hall, shop at the newly re-opened Fischer’s Store, and bowl at the town’s turn-of-the-century lanes.Fischer Cemetery is one of many in the area with unique shell graves fashioned by H.T. Mordhorst using giant Atlantic cockle shells. Folklorists tie the practice to several cultural traditions that claim “they are meant as a symbol that ensures a safe journey is made to that unknown shore where everlasting life is possible.”