Gotcher Trace

The man behind this road appears under several names, and the record does not settle his story. The Handbook of Texas lists him as James W. Gotier, born in Pendleton, South Carolina, and also written Goacher, Goucher and Gotcher. It says he built the trail from Bastrop to San Felipe in 1831 or 1832 under the San Felipe ayuntamiento and moved to Bastrop County in 1835. It dates the attack to late 1836 or early 1837; the 1936 marker over the family grave in Lee County gives November 26, 1836. His daughter and her children were later released.

What the plaque says

Gotcher Trace Opened about 1828 by James Gotcher from Alabama, a settler on Rabb's Creek in present Lee County, as route from San Felipe, in Stephen F. Austin's original colony, to Bastrop in second or "little" colony. A short, exposed route to the upper settlements, this trace shared with nearby Wilbarger Trace the title of "via Dolorosa" of early Texas, as both were marked by tragedies. Gotcher moved to this area, and in 1836 six people of his family were killed and several captured during an Indian attack. At this point the trace is crossed by a 20th century road. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Round Top and Festival Hill — 7.2 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 11 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 12 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 17 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.

More markers nearby

• Waldeck Cemetery — 4.8 mi
• Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church — 4.9 mi
• Globe Hill Community and Baptist Church — 5.3 mi
• Wandke House — 7.1 mi