18
Grandeur of Gonzales
1843
Located eight miles southeast of Gonzales on the banks of Peach Creek, this historically significant Greek
Revival plantation house was completed in 1843 by Charles Braches and his wife, Sarah Ann Ashby McClure
Braches. The house replaced a log cabin built by Sarah and her first husband, B.D. McClure, when they settled
the property in 1831. Strategically located on the old San Antonio-San Felipe road, the house became a
stopping place for wagon trains, stage coaches and mail hacks. Nearby is a pioneer cemetery where Sarah and
both her husbands are buried. In front of the house, the Sam Houston Oak stands today, as it did when Houston,
Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Army, set up headquarters there on March 14, 1836, during the "Runaway
Scrape." His march ended at San Jacinto where the Texans won freedom for Texas.
THE CHARLES BRACHES HOUSE
Photograph by Leslie Jannsen, Gonzales Camera Club
