DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Gotcher Trace — and friend, this one earns its keep. Somewhere around 1828, a man named James Gotcher came up from Alabama and set about making himself useful in a very particular way. He was a settler out on Rabb's Creek, over in what is now Lee County, and he opened a route — a trace, in the language of the time — that ran from San Felipe, the heart of Stephen F.
Austin's original colony, all the way to Bastrop in the second colony, sometimes called the little colony. Straight, direct, and about as exposed as a man could get out on that open land. Now, the Gotcher Trace had a neighbor of sorts — the Wilbarger Trace ran nearby — and together those two routes earned themselves a name that ought to stop you cold.
They called them, both of them, the Via Dolorosa of early Texas. The Way of Suffering. That's not a title you pick up for being a pleasant afternoon stroll.
The marker says both were marked by tragedies, and it means it. James Gotcher eventually moved to this very area — the land the marker stands on — and then comes 1836. In 1836, six people of his family were killed and several more were captured during an Indian attack.
Six. And several taken. On the same ground he had opened up, the same route he had cut through to connect the colonies.
At this spot, right here, a twentieth century road crosses the old trace. Two paths through time, laid one on top of the other. The old one still carrying its history underneath.
The Via Dolorosa of early Texas. Now you know why they called it that.
What the marker says
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.