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Sam
Houston Oak
by Mike Cox |
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They
call it Sam Houston's oak.
The ancient tree shades a wide area just east
of Peach Creek, 8.5 miles from Gonzales.
In the vicinity of the tree on March 14, 1836, Sam Houston and several hundred
Texas citizen-soldiers spent one of the worst nights of their lives, albeit a
very short night. |
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The day before, Houston
had dispatched from Gonzales
three of his best scouts, Erastus "Deaf" Smith, Henry Karnes and Robert Handy,
on a dangerous mission. They had orders to ride to Bexar to learn how Col. William
B. Travis and the other defenders of the Alamo
were doing. With Smith in charge, the scouts made it only 20 miles west of town
before they rode up on Susannah
Dickinson, her infant daughter Angelina and Joe, Travis' slave.
Dickinson passed on the grim news that her husband and all the others had died
early on the morning of March 6, their mission fortress overwhelmed by soldiers
under Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Karnes raced back to Gonzales
to report to Houston while Smith and Handy stayed behind to escort the survivors.
The
word Karnes carried threw Gonzales
into a panic. Twenty-five of Houston's soldiers deserted, an enraged Houston ordering
their arrest. Houston's next order, made shortly after Smith and the survivors
arrived about 11 p.m., was to torch the town and retreat.
Houston said
that women and children should leave immediately, assuring the townspeople that
his troops would serve as a rear guard to protect them from the advancing Mexican
army.
Led by Houston, 374 citizen-soldiers marched eastward all night,
crossing Peach Creek at Bartholomew D. McClure's plantation. In the pre-dawn darkness,
the general called a stop for breakfast and rest.
To the west the Texans
could still see the orange glow of the burning town. Soon they started new fires,
and began boiling coffee and cooking breakfast.
"While we were sipping
our unsweetened coffee," private James Kuykendall later wrote, "two or three loud
explosions in quick succession were heard in the direction of Gonzales."
The soldiers grimly assumed the booms came from Mexican field pieces, but Sidney
Sherman had another theory: Houston had said something about leaving poisoned
liquor behind in the hope of killing some unsuspecting Mexican soldiers. They
were hearing the barrels of booze blowing up in the fire, he suggested.
Their bellies full, even the strong coffee did not prevent most of the men from
sinking into an exhausted sleep.
Meanwhile, stragglers continued to arrive
from the burned town - men, women and children on foot, in oxcarts or on makeshift,
horse-drawn sleds to more easily traverse the mud left by recent rains.
"It was a sad thing to see the women and children plodding their way across the
prairie," later wrote David Kokernot, one of the volunteer soldiers. "No tongue
can express the sufferings those fleeing families were called upon to endure."
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A gray granite historical marker placed nearby in 1936 says the oak that was there
when all this happened briefly served as the "headquarters" of Houston's army.
While that is technically true, Houston did not linger. Two hours after arriving,
the weary general, longer days ahead of him, commanded the soldiers to fall in
and continue their eastward march.
At least he had more men than he had
arrived with. A volunteer company organized in San
Felipe by Capt. John Bird had been camped at the creek and readily joined
Houston's army. Now the general had an addition 90 men.
The
owner of the land along Peace Creek, McClure, had settled there in 1831 with his
19-year-old bride, Sarah. They lived in a cabin and made a living off the land
and by providing food to travelers. The McClures fled with the rest of Gonzales
County's residents, but returned after the revolution.
When McClure died
in 1841, Sarah kept the place. "A braver or grander-hearted woman never trod the
soil of Texas," historian John Henry Brown later observed.
Two years
after being widowed, Sarah married Charles Braches, a merchant. Not far from the
huge oak where Houston and his soldiers had napped, Braches built a two-story
Greek Revival plantation-style house for his new wife. |
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The
McClure-Braches House built in 1843
Photo courtesy Sarah
Reveley, February 2008 |
Sarah outlived her
second husband, staying in the house until her own death in 1894. A century later,
the old house still stood, but it was vacant and endangered.
The old
house is still owned by descendants of the Braches family. In 1995, the house
was restored -- a gift to the Braches family and to posterity from an adjacent
property owner.
©
Mike Cox
"Texas
Tales"
March 12 , 2004 column |
Photographer's
Note:Directions
to the Sam Houston OakFrom
the Gonzales
County Courthouse (414 St. Joseph St.) in Gonzales,
go north on St. Louis St. for 2.0 miles. Turn right (east) onto US Alt. 90. and
go 8.0 miles (cross Peach Creek), then left on CR 361 (a centennial marker is
here). Go 0.3 mi. to the entrance for the McClure-Braches House on the left. The
tree, also known as the "Sam Houston Oak," is on the left of the drive to the
old house.. - Sarah
Reveley, February 2008 |
View
of the McClure-Braches House from Hwy 90A right before you reach the marker where
you turn left, head down that road a bit to the house.
Photo courtesy Sarah
Reveley, 2008 |
Sam
Houston Oak and McClure-Braches House
Photo courtesy Sarah
Reveley, 2008 |
McClure-Braches
House Sam Houston Oak sign
Photo courtesy Sarah
Reveley, February 2008 |
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