The Gonzales Tour
Day Trip
The house a 'True Woman' called home at Braches plantation.
It's easy to imagine you're back in the early days of Texas.
By Kendall Klym
One of the "True Women" of Janice Woods Windle's historical novel, real-life heroine Sarah Ann Ashby McClure Braches, roughed it through the Runaway Scrape in 1836, endured the death of a number of her children and lived to inhabit the home of her dreams, still standing on a lonely patch of land outside Gonzales. The Greek Revival plantation home, built between 1839 and 1842, is open to the public the last Saturday of each month April through November. At the McClure Braches House, you can still see the earth beneath the floorboards.
In some areas, the mortar (made of limestone, sand and hair of various sorts, including human) is exposed along the walls. The house is empty of furniture but filled with photos of its renovation, which is still in progress, and a Historical Marker describes the significance of the home and its inhabitants in the birth of the Republic of Texas.
"They came here at 4 a.m. (March 11, 1836) -- Sam Houston and his small army of 300 after the Alamo had fallen," said tour guide Polly Fink. She noted that refugees including Sarah McClure and her family, among them her little sister Euphemia, joined Houston at the large live oak, which still stands in front of the home, before heading east on the Runaway Scrape. "They left together, but the Army cut off, and in the end defeated Santa Anna."
Sarah McClure went on to serve as a leader during the Runaway Scrape, planning the crossing of the rain-swollen Brazos River and threatening dissenters with the barrel of her shotgun. Despite the loss of her own children during the ordeal, she managed to endure.
If you go:
To reach the McClure Braches House, take U.S. 183 from Austin south to Gonzales. Take U.S. 90-A east for about 8 miles and then go north on County Road 361 for a half mile.
Tours by appointment only.
For more information, call Gonzales Chamber of Commerce at 830-672-6532.
Braches' first husband, Bartlett McClure, was a Texas Ranger who froze to death during a Blue Norther. Later she married Charles Braches, with whom she built the plantation home. He was a Prussian immigrant of elite status who served in the Seventh Congress of the Republic of Texas.
Of particular interest in the home are a photograph of Sarah McClure Braches in a rocking chair, estimated to have been taken in 1893, and a copy of her diary, which chronicles the family's agricultural pursuits.
The second half of the tour takes place a short walk from the house at the family cemetery, where visitors can see how difficult it was to live during the Republic period. It reminds visitors just how strong-willed Sarah McClure Braches must have been, having buried baby Martha, who was stillborn, Johnnie, less than 5 when he died on the Runaway Scrape, five more stillborn children and other loved ones in that small plot.
"This shows what our ancestors were, how strong and dedicated these people were to come to this area in hopes of a better life," Fink said.
Special to the Austin American-Statesman 2-25-01
Edit 10-1-02
The house a 'True Woman' called home at Braches plantation.
It's easy to imagine you're back in the early days of Texas.
By Kendall Klym
One of the "True Women" of Janice Woods Windle's historical novel, real-life heroine Sarah Ann Ashby McClure Braches, roughed it through the Runaway Scrape in 1836, endured the death of a number of her children and lived to inhabit the home of her dreams, still standing on a lonely patch of land outside Gonzales. The Greek Revival plantation home, built between 1839 and 1842, is open to the public the last Saturday of each month April through November. At the McClure Braches House, you can still see the earth beneath the floorboards.
In some areas, the mortar (made of limestone, sand and hair of various sorts, including human) is exposed along the walls. The house is empty of furniture but filled with photos of its renovation, which is still in progress, and a Historical Marker describes the significance of the home and its inhabitants in the birth of the Republic of Texas.
"They came here at 4 a.m. (March 11, 1836) -- Sam Houston and his small army of 300 after the Alamo had fallen," said tour guide Polly Fink. She noted that refugees including Sarah McClure and her family, among them her little sister Euphemia, joined Houston at the large live oak, which still stands in front of the home, before heading east on the Runaway Scrape. "They left together, but the Army cut off, and in the end defeated Santa Anna."
Sarah McClure went on to serve as a leader during the Runaway Scrape, planning the crossing of the rain-swollen Brazos River and threatening dissenters with the barrel of her shotgun. Despite the loss of her own children during the ordeal, she managed to endure.
If you go:
To reach the McClure Braches House, take U.S. 183 from Austin south to Gonzales. Take U.S. 90-A east for about 8 miles and then go north on County Road 361 for a half mile.
Tours by appointment only.
For more information, call Gonzales Chamber of Commerce at 830-672-6532.
Braches' first husband, Bartlett McClure, was a Texas Ranger who froze to death during a Blue Norther. Later she married Charles Braches, with whom she built the plantation home. He was a Prussian immigrant of elite status who served in the Seventh Congress of the Republic of Texas.
Of particular interest in the home are a photograph of Sarah McClure Braches in a rocking chair, estimated to have been taken in 1893, and a copy of her diary, which chronicles the family's agricultural pursuits.
The second half of the tour takes place a short walk from the house at the family cemetery, where visitors can see how difficult it was to live during the Republic period. It reminds visitors just how strong-willed Sarah McClure Braches must have been, having buried baby Martha, who was stillborn, Johnnie, less than 5 when he died on the Runaway Scrape, five more stillborn children and other loved ones in that small plot.
"This shows what our ancestors were, how strong and dedicated these people were to come to this area in hopes of a better life," Fink said.
Special to the Austin American-Statesman 2-25-01
Edit 10-1-02