Braches House
12 mi. SE of Gonzales off U.S. 90A, Gonzales, TXThe Braches Home twelve miles southeast of Gonzales, Texas is a handsome Greek Revival plantation house and stage stop, built while Texas was an independent republic. The building is large and its full two-story Greek Revival gallery was quite advanced in comparison to most of the structures of inland Texas at this time.
In front of the house, there is a large old live oak that is marked by the State of Texas as the site of at least one significant incident in Texas history. It is said to have been Sam Houston's location on March 11, 1836, nine days after the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence, when as Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Army he heard of the fall of the Alamo. It was there that he sent orders to Fannin to retreat from Goliad, and made plans for his men to fall back, in order to induce Santa Anna to divide his forces in pursuit. Panic took the settlers and most abandoned their homes to flee east. This event is known as "The Runaway Scrape", the tree as the "Runaway Speech Oak" and the "Sam Houston Oak". Santa Anna is supposed to have followed and stayed in this same. location for three weeks.
The Braches Home was built between 1839 and 1842 by Bart McClure, an early Texas pioneer and first county judge of Gonzales County. After his death in 1842 his widow, Sara Ann Ashby McClure, married a Prussian immigrant, Charles Braches, who had come to America in 1834. He had taught music briefly in Sharon, Mississippi, before coming to Texas in 1840. In Gonzales he entered the merchandising business with former Mississippian Dr. Caleb S. Brown. From November 14, 1842, to January 16, 1843, Braches represented Gonzales County in the House of the Seventh Congress of the Republic. Until his death in 1889, he was known as a philanthropist, whose contributions to schools and churches ran into the thousands of dollars. The present owners of the Braches Home are descendants of Sara Ann (McClure) Braches.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.