USA > Texas > Galveston County > Galveston > The great Galveston disaster : containing a full and thrilling account of the most appalling calamity of modern times. > Part 2
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The city, Mr. Timmins averred, was a complete wreck, so far as he could see from the water front and from the Tremont Hotel. Water was blown over the island by the hurricane, the wind blowing at the rate of eighty iniles an hour straight from the Gulf and forcing the sea water before it in big waves. The gale was a steady one, the heart of it striking the city about 5 o'clock in the evening and continuing without intermission until mid- night, when it abated somewhat, although it continued to blow all night.
WORST HURRICANE EVER KNOWN.
The water extended across the island. Mr. Timmins said it was three feet deep in the rotunda of the Tremont Hotel, and was six feet deep in Market street. Along the water front the damage was very great. The roofs had been blown from all the elevators, and the sheds along the wharves were either wrecked or had lost their sides and were of 110 protection to the contents.
Most of the small sailing craft were wrecked, and were either piled up on the wharves or floating bottom side up in the bay. There was a small steamship ashore three miles north of Pelican Island, but Mr. Timmins could not distinguish her name. She was flying a British flag. Another big vessel had been driven ashore at Virginia Point, and still another was aground at Texas City. At the south point of Houston Island an unknown ship lay in a helpless condition.
The lightship that marks Galveston bar was hard and fast aground at Bolivar Point. Mr. Timmins and the men with him on the schooner rescued two sailors from the Middle Bay who had been many hours in the water. These men were foreigners, and he could gain no information from them.
A wreck of a vessel which looked like a large steam tug was
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FIRST NEWS OF THE GREAT CALAMITY.
crew had reported that many bodies were floating, and that they were using every endeavor to get them all out of the water. The water swept across the island, and it is presumed that most of these were Galveston people, though none of them had been iden- tified.
LOST WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN.
One of the refugees who came in on the relief train and who had a sad experience was S. W. Clinton, an engineer at the fer- tilizing plant at the Galveston stock yards. Mr. Clinton's family consisted of his wife and six children. When his house was washed away he managed to get two of his little boys safely to a raft, and with them he drifted helplessly about. His raft collided with wreckage of every description and was split in two, and he was forced to witness the drowning of his sons, being unable to help them in any way. Mr. Clinton says parts of the city were seething masses of water.
From an eye-witness of the vast devastation we are able to give the following graphic account :
"The storm that raged along the coast of Texas was the most disastrous that has ever visited this section. The wires are down, and there is no way of finding out just what has happened, but enough is known to make it certain that there has been great loss of life and destruction of property all along the coast and for a hundred miles inland. Every town that is reached reports one or more dead, and the property damage is so great that there is no way of computing it accurately.
"Galveston remains isolated. The Houston Post and the Associated Press made efforts to get special trains and tugs to- day with which to reach the island city. The railroad companies declined to risk their locomotives.
"It is known that the railroad bridges across the bay at Galveston are either wrecked or are likely to be destroyed with the weight of a train on them; the approaches to the wagon bridge are gone and it is rendered useless. The bridge of the Galveston, Houston and Northern Railroad is standing, but the drawbridges over Clear creek and at Edgewater are gone, and the
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FIRST NEWS OF THE GREAT CALAMITY.
ful nature come from that part of Texas, some of them even intimating that Galveston had been entirely wrecked and that the bay was covered with the dead bodies of its residents. Nothing definite, however, could be learned, as the Gulf city was entirely isolated, not even railroad trains being able to reach it. All the telegraph wires to Galveston were gone south of Houston, and to accentuate the serious condition of affairs the cable lines between Galveston and Tampico and Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, were severed ; at least 10 communication over them was possible.
The Western Union had a large number of telegraph opera- tors and linemen waiting at Houston to go to Galveston, but it was impossible to get them there. San Antonio was being reached by El Paso, in the extreme southwestern portion of the State, a procedure made necessary by the prevailing storm.
WATER BLOWN COMPLETELY OVER THE CITY.
Mr. Joyce, another refugee from Galveston, made the follow- ing statement :
"The wind was blowing Saturday afternoon and night at about seventy-five miles an hour, blowing the water in the Gulf and completely covering the city. The people of Galveston did not think it was much at first and kept within their homes, con- sequently when the wind began blowing as it did and the water dashed against the houses, completely demolishing them, many lives were lost. I have no idea how many were killed, but think there will be several thousand deathis reported, besides many people whom we will know nothing about.
"I was in the storm which struck Galveston in 1875, but that one, bad as it was, was nothing in comparison with Saturday's."
The following account of Galveston will be of interest to readers in connection with the great disaster that has ruined that once prosperous and thriving city.
Galveston is situated on an island extending east and west for twenty-seven miles, and is seven miles in its greatest width north and south. No city could be in greater danger from such a horrible visitation as has now come to Galveston. In no part
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, GALVESTON, AFTER THE STORM
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سصـ
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الصيد
DEEP WATER SALOON. ENKLA -BEER
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T&P
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WRECKAGE OF CARS OF GRAIN-GALVESTON
AVENUF L AND TWENTY-FIRST STREET, SHOWING THE URSULINE CONVENT THE REFUGE CF HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE
RUINS OF THE GAS WORKS AT THIRTY-THIRD AND MARKET STREETS
BURYING BODIES WHERE THEY WERE FOUND
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AVENUE L AND FIFTEENTH STREET-SHOWING DESTRUCTION DONE BY THE HURRICANE
TANGLED MASS OF RUINS ON NINETEENTH STREET
VOLUNTEERS REMOVING DEBRIS ON TWENTY-FIRST STREET, LOOKING SOUTH
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POST OFFICE STREET, SHOWING HARMONY CLUB BUILDING AND MASONIC TEMPLE
DESTRUCTION AT AVENUE I BETWEEN EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH STREETS
TAKING BODIES ON THE RAILROAD SARGE FOR BURIAL AT SEA
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BURNING WRECKAGE TO CREMATE DEAD BODIES
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SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD ON SOUTH TREMONT STREET
WRECK OF THE CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, THE LARGEST IN GALVESTON
WRECKAGE ON THE WHARF, PIER 20-SPANISH STEAMER IN THE BACKGROUND
SCENE AT AVENUE K AND SIXTEENTH STREET-HOUSE OVERTURNED BY THE WIND
CHAPTER II.
The Tale of Destruction Grows-A Night of Horrors-Suffer- ings of the Survivors-Relief Measures by the National Government.
T HE following graphic account of the terrible disaster is from the pen of an eye-witness, written within twenty-four hours after the city was struck by the hurricane : "No direct wire communication has been established between Dallas and Galves- ton, and such a connection is not likely to be established earlier than to-morrow. The gulf coast, back for a distance of approxi- mately twenty miles, is one vast marsh, and in many places the water is from three to ten feet deep, making progress toward the stricken city slow and unremunerative in the matter of direct news.
" Although Dallas is 300 miles from Galveston, all efforts for direct communication centre liere, as it is the headquarters of the telegraph and telephone systems of the State. Hundreds of line- men were hurried to the front on Saturday night and Sunday morning from this city to try to put wire affairs in workable order.
WIND STORM OF GIANT FORCE.
"Less than half a dozen out of approximately half a hundred wires between Dallas and Houston have thus far been gotten inco operation. This is because the wind storm extended inland .. itli terrific force for a distance of 100 miles, and destroyed telegraphic, telephonic and railroad connections to such an extent as nearly to paralyze these channels of communication. With the best of weather conditions, it will require several weeks to restore these systems to anything like their normal state.
" Nothing like definite and tangible information is likely to be received from Galveston earlier than Wednesday or Thursday. All reliable information that has been received up to this hour comes from the advance guard of the relief forces and the linemen sent out by the railroad, telegraph and telephone companies.
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A NIGHT OF HORRORS.
rose steadily from dark until 1.45 o'clock Sunday morning. During all this time the people of Galveston were like rats in a trap. The highest portion of the city was four to five feet under water, while in the great majority of cases the streets were submerged to a depth of ten feet. To leave a house was to drown. To remain was to court death in the wreckage.
"Such a night of agony has seldom been equaled. Without apparent reason the waters suddenly began to subside at 1.45 A. M. Within twenty minutes they had gone down two feet, and before daylight the streets were practically freed of the flood-waters. In the meantime the wind had veered to the southeast.
VERY FEW BUILDINGS ESCAPED.
" Very few if any buildings escaped injury. There is hardly a habitable dry house in the city. When the people who had escaped death went out at daylight to view the work of the tempest and floods they saw the most horrible siglits imaginable. In the three blocks from Avenue N to Avenue P, in Tremont street, I saw eight bodies. Four corpses were in one yard.
"The whole of the business front for three blocks in from the Gulf was stripped of every vestige of habitation, the dwellings, the great bathing establishments, the Olympia and every structure having been either carried out to sea or its ruins piled in a pyramid far into the town, according to the vagaries of the tempest. The first hurried glance over the city showed that the largest structures, supposed to be the most substantially built, suffered the greatest.
" The Orphans' Home, Twenty-first street and Avenue M, fell like a house of cards. How many dead children and refugees are in the ruins could not be ascertained. Of the sick in St. Mary's Infirmary, together with the attendants, only eight are understood to have been saved. The Old Woman's Home, on Roosenburg avene, collapsed, and the Roosenburg School-house is a mass of wreckage. The Ball High School is but an empty shell, crushed and broken. Every church in the city, with possibly one or two, exceptions, is in ruins.
"At the forts nearly all the soldiers are reported dead, they
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A NIGHT OF HORRORS.
having been in temporary quarters, which gave them no protection against the tempest or flood. No report has been received from the Catholic Orphan Asylum down the island, but it seems impossible that it could have withstood the hurricane. If it fell, all the inmates were, no doubt, lost, for there was 110 aid within a mile.
" The bay front from end to end is in ruins. Nothing but piling and the wreck of great warehouses remain. The elevators lost all their superworks, and their stocks are damaged by water. The life-saving station at. Fort Point was carried away, the crew being swept across the bay fourteen miles to Texas City. I saw Captain Haynes, and he told me that his wife and one of his crew were drowned.
WRECKAGE SWEPT ACROSS THE BAY.
"The shore at Texas City contains enough wreckage to rebuild a city. Eight persons who were swept across the bay during the storm were picked up there alive. Five corpses were also picked up. There were three fatalities in Texas City. In addition to the living and the dead which the storm cast up at Texas City, caskets and coffins from one of the cemeteries at Galveston were being fished out of the water there yesterday. In the business portion of the city two large brick buildings, one occupied by Knapp Brothers and the other by the Cotton Exchange saloon, collapsed. In the Cotton Exchange saloon there were about fifteen persons. Most of them escaped.
" The cotton mills, the bagging factory, the gas works, the electric light works and nearly all the industrial establishments of the city are either wrecked or crippled. The flood left a slime about one inch deep over the whole city, and unless fast progress is made in burying corpses and carcasses of animals there is danger of pestilence. Some of the stories of the escapes are miraculous. William Nisbett, a cotton man, was buried in the ruins of the Cotton Exchange saloon, and when dug out in the morning had 110 further injury than a few bruised fingers.
"Dr. S. O. Young, Secretary of the Cotton Exchange, was knocked senseless when his house collapsed, but was revived by
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A NIGHT OF HORRORS.
" It will take a week to tabulate the dead and the missing and to get anything near an approximate idea of the monetary loss. It is safe to assume that one-half the property of the city is wiped out, and that one-half of the residents have to face absolute poverty.
" At Texas City three of the residents were drowned. One man stepped into a well by a mischance and his corpse was found there. Two other men ventured along the bay front during the height of the storm and were killed. There are but few buildings at Texas City that do not tell the story of the storm. The liotel is a complete ruin. The office of the Texas City Company was almost entirely destroyed. Nothing remains of the piers except the piling.
"The wreckage from Galveston litters the shore for miles and is a hundred yards wide. For ten miles inland from the shore it is a common sight to see small craft, such as steam launches, schooners and oyster sloops. The life boat of the life-saving sta- tion was carried half a mile inland, while a vessel that was anchored in Moses Bayou lies high and dry five miles up from La Marquet.
MULTITUDES SWEPT OUT TO SEA.
" From Virginia Point north and south along the bay front, at such places as Texas City, Dickinson, Hitchcock, Seabrook, Alvin and a dozen small intermediate points, the number of dead bodies gathered up by rescue trains and sailing craft had reached at noon more than 700. This is only a small scope of the country devastated, and it is feared the death list from the storm will ulti- miately show not less than 5000 victims. Hundreds have been swept out to sea who will never be accounted for. Two mass meetings were held at Dallas, and many thousands of dollars were subscribed for the relief of the Texas Gulf coast storm sufferers."
The towns of Sabine Pass and Port Arthur, news from which was anxiously awaited, passed through the terrific storm virtually unscathed. At Port Arthur the water spread over the town, but it did not reach a depth sufficient to destroy buildings. The town pleasure pier was washed away completely, as was also the pier in front of the Gales and Elwood Homes. The dredge Florida, prop-
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CHAPTER III.
Incidents of the Awful Hurricane-Unparalleled Atrocities by Lawless Hordes-Earnest Appeals for Help.
ON N September 11th, the Mayor of Galveston forwarded the following address to the people of the United States :
"It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 5000 people have lost their lives here. Approximately one-third of the residence portion of the city has been swept away.
" There are several thousand people who are homeless and destitute. How many, there is no way of finding out. Arrange- ments are now being made to have the women and children sent to Houston and other places, but the means of transportation are limited. Thousands are still to be cared for here. We appeal to you for immediate aid. WALTER C. JONES."
On the same date the following statement of conditions at Galveston and appeal for aid was issued by the local relief com- mittee :
"A conservative estimate of the loss of life is that it will reach at least 5,000, and at least that number of families are shelterless and wholly destitute. The entire remainder of the population is suffering in a greater or less degree. Not a single · church, school or charitable institution, of which Galveston had so many, is left intact. Not a building escaped damage, and half the whole number were entirely obliterated. There is immediate need for food, clothing and household goods of all kinds. If nearby cities will open asylums for women and children, the situ- ation will be greatly relieved. Coast cities should send us water, as well as provisions, including kerosene, oil, gasoline and candles.
"W. C. Jones, mayor; M. Lasker, president Island City Saving Bank ; J. D. Skinner, president Cotton Exchange; C. H. McMaster, for Chamber of Commerce; R. G. Lowe, manager
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INCIDENTS OF THE AWFUL HURRICANE.
Galveston News. Clarence Owsley, manager Galveston Tri- bune."
The white cotton screw men's organization hield a meeting and tendered their services, that of 500 able bodied men, to the public committee to clear the streets of debris. Big forces went to work, and the situation was much improved so far as the passage of vessels was concerned. The city was patrolled by regular soldiers and citizen soldiery. No one was allowed on the streets without a pass. Several negroes were shot for not halting when ordered.
The steamer Lawrence arrived here early on the morning of the IIth, from Houston, with water and provisions. A committee of one hundred citizens were aboard, among them being doctors and cooks. W. G. Van Vleck, General Manager of the Southernl Pacific Railroad, arrived at the same time. He thought it would be possible to establish mail service from Houston to Texas City by night, with transfer boats to Galveston.
BODIES BEING BURIED IN TRENCHES.
It was found to be impossible to send bodies to sea for burial. The water receded so far, however, that it was possible to dig trenches, and bodies were being buried where found. Debris cov- ering bodies was being burned where it could be done safely.
Work on the water works was rushed, and it was hoped to be able to turn a supply on in the afternoon.
Outside of Galveston smaller towns were beginning to send in reports as telegraphic communication improved, and many additions to the list of the dead and property losses were received. Richmond and Hitchcock each reported sixteen lives lost. Alto Loma, Arcadia, Velasco, Seabrooke, Belleville, Arcola and many other towns had from one to eight dead. In most of these places inany houses were totally destroyed and thousands of head of live stock killed.
The railroads alone suffered millions of dollars in actual damage, to say nothing of the loss from stoppage of business. The International and Great Northern and Santa Fe had miles of
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INCIDENTS OF THE AWFUL HURRICANE.
fast at the $4 per day hotel Tremont was served to a fortunate few to-day, and consisted of a small piece of bacon and a single cup of coffee. The hotel was untenable yesterday, and guests were refused. It is jammed to-day with local citizens who have been made lioneless."
G. W. Ware, teacher of penmanship in a Dallas educational institution, was in Galveston during the hurricane, He reached Dallas on Tuesday, the Ith, and made the following statement :
WORK OF HEARTLESS CRIMINALS.
"It was a godsend, the placing of the city under martial law. The criminal elenient began looting the dead, and the cold blooded commercial element began looting the living. The criminals were stealing anything they could with safety lay hands on, and the mercenary commercial pirates began a harvest of extortion. The price of bacon was pushed up to 50 cents a pound, bread 60 cents a loaf, and owners of small schooners and other sailing craft formed a trust, and charged $8 a passenger for transportation across the bay from the island to the mainland.
"Mayor Jones and other men of conscience were shocked at these proceedings, and the Mayor decided that the only protection for the citizens would be to declare martial law, confiscate all food- stuffs and other necessities for the common good, and thus stop the lootings and holdups.
"The price of bread was reduced to 10 cents a loaf, bacon was placed at 15 cents a pound, and the price of a voyage across the bay was set at $1.50 a passenger. A book account is being kept of all sales of foodstuffs, and other transactions and settlements will be made at the scheduled rates."
Mr. Quinlan, General Manager of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, said :
"It is in such cases as this Galveston disaster that the bar- barity in some men is scen. I have seen enough in the last two days to convince me that a large element of civilized mankind are veneered savages. My policy would be to take nobody into Gal- veston except such persons as are absolutely needed to administer
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INCIDENTS OF THE AWFUL HURRICANE.
This was a graceful act of sympathy from the gallant yachts- man who made the spirited attempt to capture the cup from the New York Yacht Club, and although failing, became a universal favorite in this country.
Official reports from Galveston to Governor Sayres at Austin, on the 11th, were that 400 bodies had been identified, 200 minore were in an improvised morgue awaiting identification, and many more were thoughit to have drifted out to sea, and their identity will never be known.
CONDITIONS THAT BEGGAR DESCRIPTION.
A telegram from Adjutant General Scurry, who was at Gal- veston, to the Governor, was as follows:
"Have just returned from Texas City with several Galveston parties, who assure me that conditions there beggar description. Accounts have not been exaggerated. While a portion of the provisions has been destroyed by water sufficient on hand to relieve immediate necessities. The citizens seem to have the situation well in hand. United States troops and Company C., volunteer guard, with citizens, patrol the streets to prevent looting.
"I requested W. B. Wortham to go to Galveston from Texas City for the purpose of advising me of the city's most urgent needs, and I returned here to report and ask for further instruc- tions. I respectfully suggest that the distress is too great for the people of Galveston, even with the assistance of Houston, to stand, and that a general appeal for help would be welcomed. The estimate of 10,000 destitute does not seem to be excessive.
"From reports reaching the Governor this morning it will be necessary to co-operate with the Federal troops to place all the mainland opposite Galveston, as well as the island, under martial law.
" Thieves have begun to enter the city for the purpose of pilfering the bodies of the dead. The Governor has been informed that the commander of the Texas troops has been ordered to Gal- veston by the Federal authorities, and the Governor will lend him 4
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CHAPTER IV.
The Cry of Distress in the Wrecked City-Negro Vandals Shot Down-Progress of the Relief Work -Strict Military Rule.
T HE situation on the third day after the flood was vividly described by a visitor to the city as follows: It is plainly apparent that as a result of the Galveston disaster, a task confronts the public authorities such as neither Texas nor any other State has ever before had to grapple with.
Human nature at its worst has had opportunity for the dis- play of its meanest passions, and relentless measures have been rendered necessary. Looters and vandals have ignored all moral restraints, and gunpowder has had to be used unsparingly to sub- due the savagery being practiced. It is learned on unquestionable authority that the soldiers under Adjutant General Scurry have to-day (Wednesday the 12th) slain no less than seventy-five men, mostly negroes, guilty of robbing the dead.
POCKET FULL OF HUMAN FINGERS.
One of these had in his pocket twenty-three human fingers with costly rings on them. The fingers had been cut from the victims of the storm found on the beach or floating in the waters of Galveston Bay.
W. McGrath, Manager of the Dallas Electric Company, and representing large Boston interests in Texas, returned from Galveston direct. He says: "The only way to prevent an epi- lemic that will practically depopulate the island is to burn the bodies of the dead. The Governor of Texas should call an extra session of the Legislature and appropriate a million or half a mil- lion dollars, or whatever amount is needed. The situation must be taken intelligently in hand to save the State from a possible epidemic. Before I left Galveston about 4,000 bodies had been
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CRY OF DISTRESS IN GALVESTON.
commercial and naval necessities of the country." 'T'he Board con- sisted of Lieutenant Colonels H. V. Roberts, G. L. Gillespie and Jared A. Smith. The Board reported that Galveston was the most eligible point for a deep harbor, but also called attention to the harbors at Sabine and Aransas Passes as being worthy of consid- eration.
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