USA > Texas > Galveston County > Galveston > The great Galveston disaster : containing a full and thrilling account of the most appalling calamity of modern times. > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
STORM TRAVELED OVER THREE THOUSAND MILES.
Under date of September 13th a prominent journal commented as follows on the great storm ;
"Fast disappearing into the Atlantic by way of Cape Breton Island the great West Indian hurricane is passing into history so far as the United States is concerned.
" For twelve days this storm has been under the surveillance of the Weather Bureau. During this time it has traveled more than 3,000 miles, and has described in its course a perfect parabola. When the storm began its "swing around the circle " at Galveston its intensity was greater than it has been since, although as it goes to sea to-night it is reported to be again assuming terrific propor- tions.
"Its course now lies directly in the path of the North Atlantic Liners, and what future destruction it may wreak remains to be seen from reports of incoming vessels. Until the West Indian hurricane made its appearance the United States had been for ex- actly two months without a storm, which is. the longest period on record since the establishment of the Government Weather Bureau. With the disappearance of this storm, another disturbance is re- ported near the west Gulf coast, with an arm of barometic depres- sion extending northward into Western Tennessee."
NOT MEN ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE DEAD.
Further details of the great disaster were as follows: The citi- zens of Galveston are straining every nerve to clear the ground and secure from beneath the debris the bodies of human beings and animals and to get rid of them. It is a task of great magni- tude and is attended with untold difficulties. There is a shortage
78
CRY OF DISTRESS IN GALVESTON.
ROBBERY AND MUTILATION OF THE DEAD.
A reporter has telegraphed front La Porte the story of the robbery and mutilation of the dead in Galveston and death of the offenders.
Ghouls were holding an orgie over the dead. The majority of these men were negroes, but there were also whites who took part in the desecration. Some of them were natives and some had been allowed to go over from the mainland, under the guise of "relief" work. Not only did they rob the dead, but they inutil- ated bodies in order to secure their ghoulishi booty. A party of ten negroes were returning from a looting expedition. They liad stripped corpses of all valuables, and the pockets of some of the looters were fairly bulging out with fingers of the dead, which had been cut off because they were so swollen the rings could not be removed.
Incensed at this desecration and mutilation of the dead, the looters were shot down, and it has been determined that all found in the act of robbing dead shall be summarily shot.
During the robbing of the dead, not only were fingers cut off, but ears were stripped from the head in order to secure jewels of value. A few Government troops who survived have been assisting in patrolling the city. Private citizens have also endeavored to prevent the robbing of the dead, and on several occasions have killed the offenders. Singly and in twos and threes the offenders were thus shot down, until the total of those thus executed exceeds fully hity.
A REFUGEE'S STATEMENT.
J. W. B. Smith, who went to Galveston from Denver, was in Saturday night's storm, and reached Houston, after having an ex- perience which he will remember the remainder of his life.
He started from the city on Monday afternoon, and in walking from the foot of Broadway to the Santa Fe bridge, counted two hundred dead bodies hung up on wire fences, to say nothing of those floating in the water. He constructed a raft out of planks,
80
CRY OF DISTRESS IN GALVESTON.
through a cablegrani to give $10,000 for the distressed. The an- nouncement was greeted with applause.
GREAT TIDAL WAVES IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY.
The tidal wave along the Texan coast will rank among the most disastrous in history. History is deficient in the record of such tragedies in human life, but the records are written in physi- cal geography, and are found in the conformation of shore lines, here and there, around all the continents. It is impossible to esti- mate the number of lives lost through inundations since mankind began, for purposes of commercial intercourse, the development of seaports. Doubtless the total would run into the hundreds of thousands, and might reach into millions.
Geology is quite sure that the rough Norwegian coast, pierced at intervals of every few miles with the fiords or estuaries which penetrate in many instances leagues into the land, tell the story of many cataclysms such as that which has just occurred along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Science, however, taking no note of the traditions or folklore of a people, antedates all human life on the Scandinavian peninsula in setting the time when this great rising of the sea against the land took place.
Scientists are agreed on putting the formation of the Norwe- gian shore lines as far back as the glacial period. But in the songs of the skalds, as late as the reign of Harold Hardrada, there are allusions to the valor of olden heroes over whom the seas had swept, but whose spirits rode upon the winds which blew the Nor- man galleys to other shores. In the Norway of the present day there are traditions, handed down through countless generations, from the remotest antiquity, telling how, but not when, the seas came in.
OLD AND CHARMING TRADITION.
One of the oldest and prettiest traditions in the world is that which tells of a submerged city somewhere on the Scandinavian coast, the minarets and towers of which poets can see reflected in the waters at sunset, and the bells of which musicians, with ears
CHAPTER V.
Vivid Pictures of Suffering in Every Street and House-The Gulf City a Ghastly Mass of Ruins-The Sea Giving Up Its Dead-Supplies Pouring in from Every Quarter.
A S more definite information came from Galveston and the other coast towns of Texas that were in the path of the storm, the horrors of the situation increased. Most people were inclined to look upon the first reports, made in a hurry and in intense excitement, as grossly exaggerated, but the first reports from Texas, far from being overdrawn, greatly understated the destructive effects of the storm.
Thousands of persons lost their lives, and many thousands more lost all their homes and all their possessions. A large popu- lation was without shelter, clothing, food and medicine, in the midst of scenes of wreck and ruin. The sanitary condition of Galveston was appalling and threatened a season of pestilence.
TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF THE SURVIVORS.
The people were undergoing a period of the sharpest depriva- tion, sickness prevailed, and intense suffering was in store for them. The plight of the city and its inhabitants was such that it would be impossible to exaggerate the picture, and demanded from the prosperous and humane everywhere the promptest and most abundant outpouring of gifts.
Food, clothing, household goods, provisions of every kind, household utensils, medicines and money were needed by the stricken city and its impoverished men, women and children. There has been no case in our history which appealed more strongly for sympathy and aid.
Former State Senator Wortham, who went to Galveston as the special aid to Adjutant-General Scurry to investigate the condi- tions there, returned to Austin and made his report. He said:
"I am convinced that the city is practically wrecked for all
86
87
THE GULF CITY A MASS OF RUINS.
time to come. Fully seventy-five per cent. of the business portion of the town is irreparably wrecked, and the same per cent. of dani- age is to be found in the residence district.
" Along the wharf front great ocean steamships have bodily bumped themselves on to the big piers and lie there, great masses of iron and wood that even fire cannot totally destroy.
"The great warehouses along the water front are smashed in on one side, unroofed and shattered throughout their length, the contents either piled in heaps on the wharves or on the streets. Small tugs and sailboats have jammed themselves half into build- ings, where they were landed by the incoming waves and left by the receding waters. Houses are packed and jammed in great confusing masses in all of the streets.
BODIES PILED IN THE STREETS.
"Great piles of human bodies, dead animals, rotting vegetation, household furniture and fragments of the houses themselves are piled in confused heaps right in the main streets of the city. Along the Gulf front human bodies are floating around like cordwood. Intermingled with them are to be found the carcasses of horses, chickens, dogs and rotting vegetable matter.
"Along the Strand, adjacent to the Gulf front, where are located all the big wholesale warehouses and stores, the situation almost defies description. Great stores of fresh vegetation have been invaded by the incoming waters and are now turned into gar- bage piles of most defouling odors. The Gulf waters, while on the land, played at will with everything, smashing in doors of stores, depositing bodies of human beings and animals where they pleased and then receded, leaving the wreckage to tell its own tale of how the work had been done. As a result the great houses are tombs wherein are to be found the bodies of human beings and carcasses alinost defying the efforts of relief parties.
"In the piles of débris along the street, in the water and scattered throughout the residence portion of the city, are masses of wreckage, and in these great piles are to be found more human bodies and household furniture of every description.
90
THE GULF CITY A MASS OF RUINS.
" Galveston is beginning slowly to recover from the stunning blow of last week, and though the city appears to-night to be piti- lessly desolated, the authorities and the commercial and industrial interests are setting their forces to work, and a start has at least been made toward the resumption of business on a moderate scale. " The presence of the troops has had a beneficial effect upon the criminal classes, and the apprehension of a brief but desperate reign of anarchy no longer exists. The liquor saloons have at least temporarily gone out of business, and every strong-limbed man who has not his own humble abode to look after is being pressed into service, so that, first of all, the water service may be resumed, the gutters flushed and the streets lighted.
BODIES CONSTANTLY COMING TO LIGHT.
" The further the ruins are dug into the greater becomes the increase in the list of those who perished as their houses tumbled about their heads. On the lower beach a searching party found a score of corpses within a small area, going to show that the bul- wark of débris that lies straight across the island conceals more bodies than have been accounted for.
" Volunteer gangs continue their work of hurried burial of the corpses they find on the shores of Galveston Island, at the many neighboring points where fatalities attended the storm. It will probably be many days yet, however, before all the floating bodies have found nameless graves.
"Along the beach they are constantly being washed up. Whether these are those who were swept out into the Gulf and drowned or are simply the return ashore of some of those cast into the sea to guard against terrible pestilence, there is no means of knowing. In a trip across the bay yesterday I counted seven bodies tossing in the waves, with a score of horses and cattle, the stench from which was unbearable. In various parts of the city the smell of decomposed flesh is still apparent. Wherever such instances are found the authorities are freely disinfecting. Only to-day, a babe, lashed to a mattress, was picked up under a resi- dence in the very heart of the city and was burned.
96
THE GULF CITY A MASS OF RUINS.
who are injured or destitute should come, but it included every- body. He wished it distinctly understood that Houston was pre- pared to care for all of those who left Galveston, whether they were sick or well, rich or poor. It was his belief and the belief of those associated with him on the General Relief Committee that Galves- ton must be depopulated until sanitation can be completed, and all people have been urged to come from that city to Houston.
THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF TWO HOUSTON WOMEN.
Mrs. Bergman, wife of Manager Bergman, of the Houston Opera House, gave a thrilling account of her escape during the Galveston storm. She was summering in a cottage on Rosenberg avenue, two blocks back from the beach, at 10 o'clock on Saturday. The water was up about three feet, and she donned a bathing suit and proceeded to the Olympia to talk over the long distance phone to her husband at Houston. At the Olympia she was waist deep in water. At 2 o'clock the water about her house was so deep she became alarmed, and in a bathing suit she and her sister evacuated the high cottage they occupied.
The neighbors living in the next house, being old Galves- tonians, laughed at them. Out of that family of fifteen there were saved three, and they only because they were down town. Mrs. Bergman and her sister started for the Central Telephone office, the water being from waist to armpit deep. Both are expert swimmers, and they buffeted the winds and waves for several blocks. Finally they spied a negro with a dray. They chartered him for two dollars to take them to the Central Telephone Station. After proceeding two blocks the mule was drowned, and all were washed off the dray, the negro being lost.
Mrs. Bergman and her sister, by wading and swimming, reached the telephone station, and found refuge until the firemen commenced to bring dead bodies into the building. Then they concluded to go to Belton's livery stable, where Mr. Bergman kept his horse. This was the hardest part of the trip, although the distance was only 600 yards. It was in the heart of the city, and glass, bricks, slate and timbers flew in showers.
1
HON. JOSEPH D. SAYRES GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
SHOWING TERRIBLE DEVASTATION ON AVENUE I, BETWEEN TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH STREETS
THE JOHN SEELY HOSPITAL, GALVESTON,
A RESIDENCE CARRIED FROM ITS FOUNDATION BY THE RUSH OF WATERS
REMOVING DEAD BODIES TO THE BARGES FOR BURIAL AT SEA
--
GENERAL VIEW ALONG THE GALVESTON BEACH AFTER THE FLOOD
1
CREMATING BODIES EXCAVATED FROM THE RUINS
-
-
4
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, GALVESTON, DESTROYED BY THE FLOOD
MOTHER AND CHILDREN IN PERIL FROM THE FLOOD
SHOOTING VANDALS ENGAGED IN ROBBING THE BODIES OF THE VICTIMS
-- -
DESTRUCTION OF GALVESTON GARDEN VEREIN, TWENTY-SEVENTH STREET AND AVENUE O
1
CHINESE RESIDENCE SECTION-TENTH STREET .BETWEEN WINNIE AND AVENUE H, GALVESTON
117
ST. MARY'S INFIRMARY, GALVESTON, AFTER THE FLOOD
--
1
WHARVES OF GALVESTON BEFORE THE GREAT TIDAL WAVE.
STEAMSHIPS WERE DRIVEN ASHORE AND WRECKED
PHOTO BY COURTESY CHICAGO AMERICAN.
CARING FOR THOSE INJURED BY THE STORM AT GALVESTON.
1
PHOTO BY COURTESY- CHICAGO AMERICAN.
TRAIN BLOWN FROM TRACK SHOWN BY DOTTED LINE.
101
THE GULF CITY A MASS OF RUINS.
lowing hopeful estimate of the business future and prospects of Galveston was received :
"Although in the middle of our overwhelming disaster, the full extent of which can only be approximately estimated, the citi- zens of Galveston hield a meeting on Sunday afternoon, as soon as they possibly could after the great storm. At this meeting the sentiment expressed was a grim and undaunted resolution to re- build the island city. They said :
"'Galveston must rise again.'
" They fully realize the vastness of their misfortune and the magnitude of their task to repair it, yet, amid all the wreck and havoc that the elements have wrought they say, with determination, that as soon as they bury their dead and provide for the immedi- ate necessities of their living and destitute ones, they will set about to clear away the debris, and begin anew their lives of toil and energy on their storm-stricken island.
"They are inspired with the sentiment that Galveston must rally, must survive and must fulfill a glorious destiny, as the great entry port of the Southwest. As in the case of the great Johns- town disaster, in 1889, the whole American people have responded with alacrity to their cries for help, and with such aid to assist and such sympathy to inspire them, they will surely meet the success that their patriotic efforts so richly merit. A. H. BELO."
STORY OF DEATH AND RUIN.
Reviewing the situation it may be said that again were heard the cries of those in the wilderness of devastation asking for succor, for again, as a score of times before, Galveston and sur- rounding coast towns are the scenes of death and desolation. Homes · razed and washed away by the waters that have claimed their occu- pants as victims of death and horror, has more than once been the story from the shores of the Gulf.
History is now repeating itself, and the repetition has become frequent since 1860. While severe storms sweep the Atlantic coast between the mouth of the Savannah River and the Chesa- peake, still the resultant damage is far less north of Savannah and
106
THE GULF CITY A MASS OF RUINS.
in understanding the two-fold movement in cyclonic storins-the translation of the storm as a whole along its track and the circula- tion of the winds in the whirl itself-the idea that clear weather is part of a storm movement will seem strange, and yet such is the case.
" If you are in the right quadrant and far enough from the vortex, or storm center, though it will control the winds in your vicinage, cloudless and rainless weather may easily be your lot. And this was our experience, for the cyclone at 8 A. M. was cen- tral over Quebec, whither it liad traversed from Des Moines, Iowa, over 1200 miles, in a direct line, northeast from where it was cen- tral on Tuesday morning the 11th, at 8 o'clock.
TERRIBLE VELOCITY OF WIND.
" The rate at which it made this jump, taking in the lakes in passing, was at the speed of fifty miles an hour, while the cyclonic winds kept blowing into the centre at a velocity of seventy miles an hour. That these two motions have nothing in common is shown by the fact that on Saturday, when the vertical velocities were at their height, ninety-six miles from the northeast and 100 from the southeast at Galveston, the cyclone was moving on its track from the Gulf to the interior of Texas at the sluggish pace of ten and one-half miles an hour. It was this slow rate which had prevailed ever since August 5 that accentuated all the evils of the rotary circulation, for as the centre passed slowly over Galveston it gave the cyclonic winds full opportunity to pile up the waters and buffet and wreck the buildings.
" Fortunately we were over 400 miles from the vortex, and, though we were within the sphere of its southern winds, they merely proved an annoyance through the excessive dust and were not disastrous. On the New England coast, as well as over the lakes, the winds were stiffer, and we are yet to hear the full story of the cyclone's journey from gulf to gulf. Meteorologically, it is now a closed record, so far as the United States goes, but, unfor- tunately for Galveston, the horror of the visitation grows as access to the stricken town reveals the full extent of the devastation.
--
-
CHAPTER VI.
Two Survivors Give Harrowing Details of the Awful Disas- ter-Hundreds Eager to Get Out of Galveston. Clearing up the Wreckage.
A LEXANDER and Stanley G. Spencer, the two sons of Stanley G. Spencer, of Philadelphia, who was killed in Galveston, reached Philadelphia Monday afternoon, the 17th. Mrs. Spencer was to come north later when their affairs in the stricken city are settled, and would bring the body of Mr. Spencer, which was embalmed and placed in a metallic coffin in a vault in Galveston.
The two boys left Galveston at 9 o'clock Friday morning. It took them until 3.30 in the afternoon to reach Houston, which is only about fifty miles distant front Galveston. " All the society ladies of Houston met the train," said Alexander, the older of the two boys. "They brought clothes and food for the people."
The boys told a remarkable story of their experiences during the flood. "Storm warnings were sent out on Friday," said Alexander, "but nobody paid much attention to them ; only a little blow was expected. This did not come until Saturday after- noon. It first started with a chilly wind. Things looked rather dark and hazy and black, rapidly moving clouds sped by. Papa had finished work at the office and was getting ready to come home, when he received a telegram from the North telling him to meet Mr. Lord, with whom he was to conduct business relative to the buying of property.
Papa telephoned us that he would not be home for several hours on account of this business. That is why we were not worried about him. He and Mr. Lord met in Ritter's cafe, and it was there that he was killed. He was sitting on a desk, with his hands clasped over his head, a favorite position of his, talking to Mr. Lord and a Greek, named Marcleitis.
"Ritter's cafe was in a strongly-built brick building, which was thought to be very safe, but, unfortunately, it was at the foot
107
110
HARROWING DETAILS OF THE DISASTER.
written in her house and the table on which it was written is still there. We had a hard time getting to Mrs. Brown's. We walked part of the way. A colored man with a bony horse hitched to a rickety little delivery wagon-'dago carts,' we call them-hauled us the rest of the way for a dollar a piece. All through the streets: we met hysterical women and dazed-looking 111e11.
" The wife of Dr. Longino, an ariny surgeon, was at a friend's house, with her little baby, when the storm commenced. During the storm, from fright or something else, the baby lost its breath. Everybody thought the child was dead and tried to persuade Mrs. Longino to leave it and try to save herself but she would not do so. She caught hold of the baby's tongue and held it so it cor ld not retard the passage of air in the windpipe.
TRYING TO SAVE THE CHILD'S LIFE.
"She blew her own breath into the baby's body. After work- ing for a long time, during the most terrible part of the stormn, the baby was revived and is still living. She kept her invalid aunt alive by pinching her cheeks. The next day she reached a place of safety in the city. She said she could hardly walk along the beach for the bodies of children. There was a Catholic orphanage about five miles down the beach, in which were a hundred children and ten nuns. All of these but three boys were killed.
"One woman who was trying to save a child was pinned down by a piano. She was just about to give herself up for lost when a big wave came and washed the piano off of her. She and the child were both rescued. We kept a little pet lamb alive, which afterwards we thought we would have to kill for food. But. Mrs. Brown got a calf somewhere. It was killed and cleaned, but the ladies themselves had to cut it up. This served for food for two days. The two big cisterns in the cellar were full of salt water; there was a small one on the roof which furnished us with water for a little while. After that we had to beg it from the neighbors.
"The only clothes we have are what we have on and one change of underclothes, which we took with us when
CHAPTER VII.
Not a House in Galveston Escaped Damage-Young and Old, Rich and Poor, Hurried to a Watery Grave-Citizens with Guns Guarding the Living and the Dead.
T HE all-absorbing story of the great flood is continued in the following pages, with new and thrilling incidents. Best- informed residents of Galveston who have been over all por- tions of the city estimate that from 1200 to 1300 acres were swept clear of habitation. It can be said that not one Galveston home escaped without some damage.
Galveston's great open-air show-place was the Garten Verein. There were various structures devoted to recreation which stood on about seven acres of ground that had been brought to a degree of perfection in gardening hardly credible when the foundation of sand was remembered. Hundreds of oleander trees and flower- beds adorned the park. The Garten Verein was wiped out of existence. Among the débris have been found many bodies.
SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM THE STUNNING BLOW.
Galveston is now beginning slowly to recover from the stun- ning blow of last week, and though the city appears to-night to be pitilessly desolated, the authorities and the commercial and indus- trial interests are setting their forces to work and a start has at least been made toward the resumption of business on a moderate scale. Plans for rebuilding the city are also discussed. The pres- ence of the troops lias had a beneficial effect upon the criminal classes, and the apprehension of a brief but desperate reign of anarchy no longer exists.
The liquor saloons have at least temporarily gone out of busi- ness, and every strong-limbed man who has not his own humble abode to look after is being pressed into service, so that, first of all. the water-service may be resumed, the gutters flushed and the streets lighted,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.