Note: The following article, copied from holdings of The Texas State Archives, was originally copied from J. W. Wilbarger’s "Indian Depredations in Texas" published by Hutchings Printing House, Austin, Texas, in 1889.

Note: Lee County organized in 1874 from Washington, Burleson, Bastrop and Fayette Counties.




This venerable pioneer was a native of the State of Alabama. He emigrated to Texas in the year 1835. He it was who opened the first traveled trace to Austin's new colony. He had several persons with him to assist in marking out this trail, which is to this day known as Goacher's Trace. In the performance of this work he encountered many difficulties and dangers. He afterwards settled in what is now Bastrop county. Being an enterprising man of industrious habits, it was not long until he had built comfortable log cabins for the protection and safety of his family and had opened a good farm for cultivation. The new county in which he had settled was an excellent one for raising stock, and he soon had a large stock of cattle and horses around him. Fortune seemed to smile on all his efforts. Others soon moved in and settled in his vicinity, and the country where a short time before nothing was heard but the war whoop of the savage, the tramp of the buffalo and the howling of wolves, resounded with the hum of a busy and prosperous people, pursuing in peace their various avocations.

Alas! How soon were they to be rudely awakened from their dream of peaceful security by the war whoop of a merciless foe.

In 1837, while Mr. Goacher, his son-in-law and one of his sons were away from the house, cutting and hauling fire wood, a large party of Indians surrounded it, approaching it from two directions. One of these parties came across two of Mr. Goacher's eldest children who were playing near the house, and fearing they might give the alarm the brutal wretches thrust a long steel spear through the little boy's body, killing him instantly. After scalping the little fellow they seized the other child, the little girl, and made her a prisoner. After this both parties united and made a furious onslaught on the house. The inmates at the time were Mrs. Nancy Goacher, her daughter Jane, and one or two small children. The Indians seeing there was no man on the premises made a vigorous assault, expecting, of course, an easy victory, but Mrs. Goacher was a lady of great courage and determination, and as there were several loaded guns in the house she resolved to sell the lives of herself and children as dearly as possible. She seized one gun after another and emptied their contents among her assailants. This made the Indians more furious than ever, as they had expected no resistance to their diabolical work. They shot Mrs. Goacher until she was almost literally covered with arrows. Still this brave and heroic woman stood at the door and defended her helpless children to the last. At length one of the savages who was armed with a gun fired upon her and she fell dead upon the floor. Brave, noble woman! A monument should be raised to her memory, on which should be inscribed, “A mother's deathless valor and devotion."

Mr. Goacher and his party heard the firing of the guns and hastened with all possible speed to the assistance of his family. In the hurry and anxiety of the moment they forgot to bring the arms they had with them in the woods, and when they reached the scene of disaster they were unable to render any assistance to the family or even to defend themselves. Their only chance was to make a bold rush for the house, get possession of the guns inside and then defend themselves as best they could. This they attempted to do, but alas, the Indians were too strong for them! Mr. Goacher and his son-in-law were shot down and killed. His little son endeavored to make his escape by flight, but as he turned a corner of the house he was met by an Indian who seized him and gave him a terrible shaking. This little fellow caught one of the Indian's thumbs in his mouth and bit it severely. The Indian endeavored to extricate his thumb from the boy's mouth, but failing to do so, he drew his ramrod from his gun and beat him terribly before the little fellow would let go his hold. Another son of Mr. Goacher, after he had been mortally wounded, crawled away unperceived by the Indians, to some trees, where he laid his head upon a stone and breathed his last.

This was indeed one of the bloodiest tragedies that had ever occurred up to that time in the settlement. A father; wife, son and son-in-law and two children lay cold in death, and mingled together their kindred blood, where but a few hours previously they had assembled in fancied security; within the walls of their once happy home.

But, gentle reader, the sad story stops not here. Mrs. Crawford, the now widowed daughter of Mr. Goacher - the wife of his son-in-law who had just been murdered - her two children, and the little girl who was captured by the Indians before they attacked the house, as previously stated, were all carried off captives. They suffered, as the prisoners of Indians usually do, all the insults and indignities their barbarous captors could heap upon them. One of this lady's children was a little daughter about two months old, and as the Indians were tired of hearing it cry, they determined to kill it. Accordingly one day when the famished little creature was fretting and crying for something to eat, an Indian snatched it from the arms of its mother and threw it in a deep pool of water with the intention of drowning the poor little innocent. The heroic mother, caring more for her tender offspring than her own safety, dashed boldly into the stream to save it from a watery grave. The Indians were amused by her frantic efforts to save her child from drowning, and as soon as she reached the bank with it they threw it in again, and continued the sport until the child was nearly drowned and the poor woman was almost exhausted. At last one of them seized the child, drew back its head and told another to cut its throat. The frantic mother seeing the dreadful order about to be executed, caught up a heavy billet of wood, and with the strength born of desperation, with one blow she laid the Indian who held the knife in his hand prostrate on the ground. The poor woman expected that instant death would be her fate, but on the contrary the Indians seemed to be favorably impressed by her heroic defense of her child. They laughed loudly at their fallen comrade, and one of them stepped forward, picked up the child and gave it to her, saying: " Squaw too much brave. dang you, take your papoose and carry it yourself - we will not do it." They never attempted to injure the child afterwards. Thus by her heroic bravery the lady preserved the life of her infant. No doubt the Indians would have killed both mother and child had it not been that they hoped to get a good ransom for them when they reached the trading house.

After having been a prisoner among the Indians for nearly two years, and treated by them in a manner too shameful to relate, she and her little children were taken to Coffee's trading house, on the Red River, and bartered off for four hundred yards of calico, a large number of blankets, a quantity of beads and some other articles.

These goods were all furnished by Mr. Coffee, the trading agent. Having released the unfortunate lady from her brutal captors, and also her two children, Mr. Coffee furnished them an escort under the control of a Mr. Spaulding, who conducted them safely to Texas. On the journey to Texas, Mr. Spaulding became much attached to the lady and eventually married her.

This brave and heroic woman has long since passed "beyond the river," but her memory still lives fresh and green in the hearts of all who knew her. Mr. Spaulding has also been dead for many years. Her children, born to her after her marriage to Mr. Spaulding, are still living in Bastrop county on or near the old Goacher Trace.

Reader, think of it what indignities, hardships, privations and sufferings this poor woman, tenderly raised as she had been, had to endure. Her hands were tied fast behind her every night and in that condition she was fastened to a tree to prevent her from escaping. Her children also had their little hands and feet tied together every night, and were left upon the ground without any covering to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather, and scarcely received sufficient food to keep them alive. But He who notes the suffering of all His creatures, preserved her and her children and restored them to their friends and relatives. This lady now has two sons living on the identical place where she was captured. They are worthy descendants of a heroic mother.

The writer recently visited the locality where this terrible tragedy occurred. What a change has come over it. As he looked around on that Sabbath morn, and saw in every direction comfortable homes and cultivated fields and people everywhere wending their way to "meeting," in perfect security to the sound of the "church going bells," he could but contrast the present peaceful scene with the one presented in those stormy days when the rude log huts of the pioneers were the only evidences of civilization, when on these same smiling fields, the war whoop of the savage, the scream of the panther and the howling of the wolves were the only sounds to greet the ears of the terror stricken settler in his lonely home.