In This Grave Rest James Goucher and Five Members of His Family

Duane's take

The State of Texas put these words on the marker, and now I'm passing them on to you. November 26, 1836. Hold that date in your mind for a moment.

Out here in Lee County, beneath the soil you might be standing close to right now, rest James Goucher and five members of his family. Not one. Five.

The marker doesn't soften it, and neither will I. They were murdered by Indians on that November day in 1836, and this grave has held them ever since. But here's the thing about James Goucher — before that terrible end, the man had already carved something lasting into the Texas landscape.

With what the marker calls the true pioneering spirit, he had opened the first road from San Felipe to the settlements on the Colorado. Just went out there and did it. Hacked and traced a path through country that didn't welcome roads, and folks took note.

For many years after, people called it Goucher's Trace. His name on the land itself. There's a hard poetry in that, if you're willing to sit with it.

A man opens a road so others can find their way, and the road outlives him, carrying his name forward while he rests in this ground with the family he lost. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936 — exactly one hundred years after that November. Some rememberings take a long time coming.

But they come.

What the marker says

In this grave rest James Goucher and five members of his family murdered by Indians November 26, 1836. With the true pioneering spirit he had opened the first road from San Felipe to the settlements on the Colorado known for many years as "Goucher's Trace." Erected by the State of Texas 1936