Charles Braches family papers

The Ashby, Braches, Jones, and Kennard families moved to present-day Texas before the establishment of the Republic of Texas. John Miller Ashby, (1788-1839), was born in Faquier County, Virginia. He married Mary Wolkfork Garnet (1795-1835) in 1810; the couple had 12 children. Ashby fell ill aboard a ship in Matagorda Bay, Matagorda County, Texas, and was buried at sea.

Miller's daughter Sarah Ann Ashby McClure Braches (1811-1894) was born in Lexington, Kentucky, she married Bartlett McClure (1805-1841) and moved with him and her parents to Texas in 1830. The families settled at Peach Creek in Gonzales County. They were part of the “Runaway Scrape” in 1836, when the Mexican Army attempted conquest of Texas.

After McClure’s death, Sarah Ann married Prussian immigrant Charles Braches (1813-1889) in 1843. Braches was a teacher, merchant, and public official who emigrated from Prussia to America in 1834. He operated a literary and music school in Sharon, Mississippi, before settling in Gonzales, Texas, in 1840. There, he opened a business and later represented Gonzales County in the House of the Seventh Congress of the Republic of Texas from 1842 to 1843. Sarah Ann and Charles Braches had four children; the couple were buried in Gonzales, Texas.

Sarah Ann and Charles Braches' granddaughter Anna Ashby Jones Kennard (1868-1962) the daughter of Mary Frances Braches Jones (1846-1919) and Hartwell King Jones (1840-1916). Anna Ashby Jones married James Blake Kennard (1861-1936) in 1893. She was buried in Gonzales, Texas.