The great Galveston disaster, containing a full and thrilling account of the most appalling calamity of modern times including vivid descriptions of the hurricane ...

Front matter

i:KE.:(j-REAr riA T

VESTON

)iSASTE

Preface

the fate that overtook the victims, and the agony of the living. It tells of the heroic efforts of the survivors to save their homes and families, and recover from the terrible blow.

It tells of a thousand of the dead towed out and buried at sea and of many hundreds cremated on shore ; of the vandals who rushed in to strip lifeless bodies, unterrified by the scenes of horror on every hand ; of United States soldiers shooting the robbers on sight and putting an end to their horrible sacrilege.

The story of the appalling horror, the oncoming of the cyclone, the rising waters threatening the city, the inhabitants overtaken by the flood and cut off from escape, thousands hurried to death, chaos everywhere, recovery of bodies ravaged by thieves, all this is vividly told in this volume.

The work contains thrilling stories by eye-witnesses. In this volume the survivors speak for themselves. They tell of the sudden danger that paralyzed thousands and made them helpless against the onslaught of the tempest.

They tell of separation from those who were attempting to afford relief and how futile all efforts were against the fury of the waves. They tell how their homes and places of business, their hospitals, school-houses and churches were swept away as in a moment. There were splendid examples of courage and heroism. The graphic description of the great disaster contained in this book thrills the reader. Amidst the alarm, the threatening death, the overwhelming flood, he sees how nobly men struggled to save their families and their fortunes. He seems to ride on the crest of the waves and witness with his own eyes the terrible tragedy.

Our Government at Washington v/as quick to come to the rescue. It ordered tents to be provided and issued rations by the tens of thousands for the survivors. The chords of sympathy which make all men akin vibrated through every part of the civilized world.

Thousands of helping hands were stretched out toward Galveston. Millions of dollars were given for the relief of the sufferers. This volume is a complete and authentic account of the great calamity told by the survivors.

jr m-<i i IFntrobuctfon i ih-

BY RICHARD SPILLANE.

[RICHARD SPILLANE, editor of the "Galveston Tribune," was chosen by the Mayor and Citizens' Committee to seize any vessel in the harbor and make his way as best he could to such point as he could reach, so as to get in touch with the outside world, tell the story of the tragedy and appeal to mankind for help. He crossed the bay during a squall, the little boat in which he sailed being in imminent danger of swamping, having been stove in during the hurricane. He reached Texas City after a perilous trip, then made his way over the flooded prairie to Lamarque, where he found a railroad hand -car. With this hand-car he managed to reach League City, where he met a train coming from Houston to learn what fate had befallen Galveston. On this train he reached Houston, where after sending messages to President McKinlcy and Governor Sayers, he gave the news in detail to the newspapers of the nation.]

IN THE world's great tragedies, that of Galveston stands remarkable. In no otlier case in history was a disaster met with such courage and fortitude ; in no other case in history were the people of the whole world so responsive to the call for help for the helpless.

There prevails a belief that Galveston is subject to severe storms. That is a mistake. There have been heavy blows, and there have been times when the waters of the bay and the Gulf met in the city's streets, but the storm of September 8, 1900, is without parallel. The best proof of this slatement is furnished by the old Spanish charts of three hundred years ago. They contain as landmarks of Galveston Island the sign of three great trees — oaks — that stood three hundred years ago in what is known as Lafitte's grove, twelve miles down Galveston Island from the city. These oaks withstood the storms of three centuries. They were felled by the fury of the storm of September 8.

vi INTRODUCTION.

The storm of September 8tli did not, as has been supposed, come upon the city without warning. The same storm, less ferocious perhaps, had swept along the South Atlantic coast several days before. It had its origin in that breeding place of hurricanes, the West Indies, and, after swirling along the Florida and Carolina shores, doubled on its tracks, entered the Gulf, came racing westward and developing greater strength with each hour, and centered all its energies upon the Texas coast near Galveston.

On September 7th there was of&cial warning of the approach of a severe storm, but no one expected such a tempest as was destined to devastate the city. Such warning as was given was rather addressed to mariners about to go to sea than to those liv ing on shore.

Simultaneously with the approach of the hurricane was a great wind from the north, known locally as a "Norther." This developed at Galveston about 2 A. M., on September 8th. The approaching hurricane from the east and southeast had been driving a great wall of water toward the shore at Galveston. The tremendous wind storm from the north acted as a counter force or check to the hurricane element.

The north wind blew the water from Galveston Bay on the one side of the city and the storm in the Gulf hurled its battalions of waves upon the beach side of the city.

Barly in the day the battle between these two contending forces offered a magnificent spectacle to a student of scenery of nature. As long as the north wind held strong the city was safe. While the winds dashed great volumes of water over the wharves and flooded some streets in the business portion of the city and the waters of the Gulf on the other side of the city encroached upon the streets near the beach there was no particular fear of serious consequences, but about noon the barometer, which had been very low, suddenly began to drop at a rate that presaged a storm of tremendous violence.

Following this came the warning that the wind would, before many hours, change from the north to the southeast and to the

INTRODUCTION. vh

fury of tlie wall of water being driven upon Galveston by the approaching hurricane would be added all the tremendous force of the wind that had previously acted as a partial check to the Gulf storm.

To those who previously had no fear, the certainty that the wind would change came as the first real note of warning. With the first shifting of the wind the waters of the Gulf swept over the city. Houses near the beach began to crumble and collapse, their timbers being picked up by the wind and waves and thrown in a long line of battering rams against the structures. Men, women and children fled from their homes and sought safety in higher portions of the city, or in buildings more strongly built. Some were taken out in boats, some in wagons, some waded through the waters, but the flood rose so rapidly that the approack of night found many hundreds battling in the waters, unable to reach places of safety. The air was full of missiles.

The wind tore slates from roofs and carried them along like wafers. A person struck by one of these, driven with the fearful violence of the storm, was certain to be maimed, if not killed outright. The waves, with each succeeding sweep of the in-rushing tide, brought a greater volume of wreckage as house after house toppled and fell into the waters. So tremendous was the roar of the storm that all other sounds were dwarfed and drowned. During the eight hours from 4 P. M. until midnight, the hurricane raged with a fury greater than words can describe. What height the winds reached will never be known. The wind gauge at the weather bureau recorded an average of 84 miles an hour for five consecutive minutes, and then the instruments were carried away. That was before the storm had become really serious. The belief, as expressed by the observer, that the wind averaged between 1 10 and 120 miles an hour, is as good information as is obtainable.

Nothing so exemplified the impotency of man as the storm. Massive buildings were crushed like egg shells, great timbers were carried through the air as though they were of no weight, and the winds and the waves swept everything before them until their appetite for destruction was satiated and their force spent.

viii INTRODUCTION.

A remarkable feature about tlie storm is the disparity in the depth of water in different portions of the city, and the undoubted fact that the waters subsided on the north side of the city hours before they did on the south side.

These peculiarities are explained by the topography of the island. Broadway, which marks the center, or middle of the city proper, is on the ridge, from which the land slopes on one side) toward the bay and on the other, toward the Gulf The waters from the Gulf passed over this ridge and swept on toward the bay during the most furious stages of the storm, but the full energies of wind and water were directed upon that portion of the city between the Gulf and the Broadway Ridge. Of the lives lost in the city, 90 per cent, were in the district named.

How many lives were sacrificed to the Storm King will never be known. The census taken in June showed that Galveston had a population of 38,000. Outside the city limits on Galveston Island there were 1,600 persons living. The dead in the city exceeded 5000. Of the 1600 living outside the city limits, 1200 were lost. This frightful mortality — 75 per cent. — outside the city is explained by the fact that most of the people there lived in frail structures and had no places of comparati^^e safety to take refuge in. In the mainland district swept by the storm, at least 100 persons perished. It is safe, therefore, to state that at least 7000 lives were lost.

Of the propert}^ damage no estimate can be considered accurate. The estimates range from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000.

Of marvelous escapes from death, of acts of supreme heroism, of devotion and courage beyond parallel, the storm developed ^any instances. In some cases whole families were blotted out, in others the strong perished and the weak survived. Of the various branches of one family, 42 were killed, while in one household 13 out of a total of 15 were lost.

Such a scene of desolation as met the eyes of the people of Galveston when day dawned Sunday, September 9, has rarely been witnessed on earth. Fifteen hundred acres of the city had been swept clear of every habitation. Every street was choked

INTRODUCTION. U

witb ruins, wliile tlie sea, not content with tearing away a great strip alono^ the beach front, had piled the wreckage in one great long mass from city end to city end. Beneath these masses of broken buildings, in the streets, in the 3^ards, in fence corners, in cisterns, in the bay, far out across the waters on the mainland shores, everywhere, in fact, were corpses. Galveston was a ver-/ itable charnel-house. To bury the dead was a ph3'sical impossibilit}'. Added to the horror of so many corpses was the presence of carcasses of thousands of horses, cattle, dogs and other domestic animals.

To a people upon whom such a terrible calamit}^ had been visited, now devolved a duty the like of which a civilized people had never been called to perform. To protect the living the dead had to be gotten rid of with all speed, for with corpses on every side, Avith carcasses by the thousands, and with a severe tropic sun to hasten decomposition, pestilence in its most terrible form threatened the living if the dead were not removed.

The tumbrels that rumbled over Paris streets with the gruesome burdens that came from Robespierre's abattoir had little work compared with the carts and wagons of Galveston in the days that followed the awful storm. It was at first determined to bury the dead at sea, but the procession of the dead seemed neverending, and the cargoes that were taken to the deep and cast upon the waters came back with the tides and littered the shores. Then it was decided to bum the dead.

Ye who know not the horror of those days, who took no part in the saddest spectacle that man ever witnessed, may well shed tears of sympathy for those whose human tenement blazed on the funeral P3^re in street or avenue, or whose requiem was' sung by the waves that had brought death — but shed tears, too, for the brave men who faced this most gruesome duty with a Spartan, courage the world has never known before.

The dead past has buried its dead.

For a week Galveston was under martial law. There was no disorder. There was some robbing of the dead b}^ ghouls. This was checked by a punishment swift and sure.

X INTRODUCTION.

The city rose from its ruins as if by magic. Street aftei street was cleared of debris. A small army of men worked from early morn until tbe shadows of night descended, to lift the city from its burden of wreckage. Then, when danger of epidemic seemed passed, attention was turned to commerce. The bay was ■ strewn with stranded vessels. Monster ocean steamers weighing thousands of tons had been picked up like toys, driven across the lowlands, and thrown far from their moorings. One big steamship was hurled through three bridges, another, weighing 4,000 tons, was carried twenty-two miles from deep water, and dashed against a bayou bluff in another count3\

The great wharves and warehouses along the bay front were a mass of splintered, broken timbers.

But the mighty energ}^ of man worked wonders. Marvelous to say, under such conditions, a bridge 2% miles long was built across the bay within seven days and Galveston, which had been cut off from the world, was once more in active touch with all the marts of trade and commerce. An undaunted people strove as only an indomitable people can strive, to rehabilitate the city.

The signs of the cripple are still upon the city, but every hour brings nearer the day when the crutches will be thrown away and Galveston, which by nature and by man was chosen as the entreport for the great West, will rise to a loftier destiny and a more enduring commercial prosperity than seemed possible before she was tried in the crucible of disaster. Longfellow says :

Our lot is the common lot of all.

Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.

The dark and dreary days were crowded into Galveston's life with horror unspeakable. It is an inexorable law of nature that after the storm comes the radiance of a glorious sunshine.

CONTE.NTS.

Chapter I. Page

l^irst News of the Great Calamity — Galveston Almost Totally Destroyed by Wind and Waves — Thousands Swept to Instant Death 17

CHAPTER n.

The Tale of Destruction Grovv's — .V Night of Horrors — Sufferings of the Survivors. — Relief Measures by the National Government 29

CHAPTER. HI.

Incidents of the Awful Hurricane — Unparalleled Atrocities

by Lawless Hordes — Earnest Appeals for Help. ... 42

CHAPTER IV.

The Cry of Distress in the Wrecked City— Negro Vandals Shot Down— Progress of the Relief Work— Strict Military Rules 61

CHAPTER V.

Vivid Pictures of Suffering in Every vStreet and House — The Gulf City a Ghastly Mass of Ruins — The Sea Giving Up its Dead — Supplies Pouring in from Every Quarter. S6

CHAPTER VI.

Two Survivors Give Harrowing Details of the Awful Disaster— PI undreds Eager to Get out of Galveston — Cleaning up the Wreckage 107 xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTKR VII. PAGE

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 tiie Dead 129

CHAPTKR VIII.

Fears of Pestilence — Searching Parties Clearing away the Ruins and Cremating the Dead — Distracted Crowds W^aiting to Leave the City — Wonderful Escapes ... . 146

CHAPTER IX.

Story of a Brave Hero— A Vast Army of Helpless Victims — Scenes that Shock the Beholders — Our Nation Rises "^.o the Occasion 167

CHAPTER X.

Details of the Overwhelming Tragedy — The Whole City Caught in the Death Trap— Personal Experiences of Those Who Escaped — First Reports More than Confirmed 191

CHAPTER XL

Galveston Calamity — One of the Greatest Known to History — Many Thousands Maimed and Wounded — Few Heeded the Threatening Hurricane — The Doomed City Turned to Chaos 212

CHAPTER XIL

Thrilling Narratives by Eye-witnesses — Path of the Storms Fury Through Galveston — Massive Heaps of Rubbish — Huge Buildings Swept into the Gulf 234

CHAPTER XHL

Refugees Continue the Terrible Story — Rigid Military Patrol — The City in Darkness at Night — Hungry and Ragged Throngs 257

CONTr.iS[TS. xiii

CHAPTER XIV. PAGE

Dead Babes Floating in tlie Water — Sharp Crack of Soldiers' Rifles— Tears Mingle With the Flood— Doctors and Nurses for the Sick and Dying 273

CHAPTER XV.

Family in a Tree-top All Night — Rescue of the Perish' .ng — Railroad Trains Hurrying Forward With Relief- Pathetic Scenes in the Desolate City 293

CHAPTER XVI.

Startling Havoc Made by the Angry Storm — Vessels Far Out on the Prairie — Urgent Call for Millions of Dollars — Tangled Wires and Mountains of Wreckage .... 318

CHAPTER XVII.

Governor Sayres Revises His Estimate of Those Lost and Makes it 12,000 — A Multitude of the Destitute — Abundant Supplies and Vast Work of Distribution . . 34c

CHAPTER XVIII.

An Island of Desolation — Crumbling Walls — Faces White With Agony — Tales of Dismay and Death — Curious Sights 360

CHAPTER XIX.

Thousands Died in Their Efforts to Save Others — Houses and Human Beings Floating on the Tide — An Army of Orphans — Greatest Catastrophe in Our History . . . . 377

CHAPTER XX.

The Storm's Murderous Fury — People Stunned by the Staggering Blow — Heroic Measures to Avert Pestilence — Thrilling Story of the Ursuline Convent 391 yl^ CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXL

Unparalelled Bombardment of Waves — Wonderful Courage

Shown by the Survivors — Letter from Clara Barton . .416

CHAPTER XXH.

Galveston Storm Stories — Fierce Battles with Surging Waves — Vivid Accounts from Fortunate Survivors — A City of Sorrow 440

CHAPTER XXHL

Heroic Incidents — Arrival of Relief Trains — Hospitals for the

Injured — Loud Call for Skilled Labor 461

CHAPTER XXIV.

One Hero Rescues Over Two Hundred — Traveler Caught in the Rush of Water — Report of a Government Official — How the Great Storm Started 477

CHAPTER XXV.

Storms of Great Violence Around Galveston — Wrecked Cities and Vast Destruction of Property — Appalling Sacrifice of Life 497

Imprisoned by the Storm 509

Names of the Victims of the Great Galveston Horror . . .517

MEMBERS OF THE GALVESTON CENTRAL RELIEF COMMITTEE

JUDGE NOAH ALLEN WILLIAM A. McVITIE RABBI HENRY COHEN

I. H. KEMPNER chairman CLARENCE OUSLEY

REV. J. M. K. KIRWIN B. ADOUE WILLIAM V. McCONN

OF ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAl til a.

I

h

O CO

o z

i^

o o

M. P. MORRISSEY

TRAFFIC MANAGER OF THE WILLIAM PARR & CO., GENERAL STEAMSHIP

AGENTS, WHO FIRST SUGGESTED AND CARRIED INTO EFFECT THE

BURIAL OF BODIES AT SEA AND THE BURNING OF OTHER BODIES

DN SHORE TO SAVE THE SURVIVORS FROM PESTH ^NCE

FIRE DEPARTMENT TAKING BODIES TO A MORGUE

«ODlfcS AMONG RUINS-CMARACTERISTIC SCENE IN GALVESTON

WRECKED RESIDENCES CORNER TWENTY-SEVENTH STREET AND AVENUE M

REMOVING WRECKAGE IN «carcH OF DEAD BODIES

CHAPTER I.

First News of the Great Calamity — Galveston Almost

Totally Destroyed by Winds and Waves.

Thousands Swept to Instant Death.

THE first news of the appalling calamity that fell like a thunderbolt on Galveston came in the following despatch from the Governor of Texas :

" Information has just reached me that about 3000 lives have been lost in Galvestou, with enormous destruction of property'- No information from other points.

"JOSEPH D. SAYRES, Governor."

This despatch was dated at Austin, Texas, September 9th. Further intelligence was awaited with great anxiety in all parts of the country. The worst was feared, and all the fears were mere than realized. Later intelligence showed that the West Indian storm which reached the Gulf coast on the morning of September 8th, wrought awful havoc in Texas. Reports were conflicting, but it was known that an appalling disaster had befallen the city of Galveston, where, it was reported, a thousand or more lives had been blotted out and a tremendous property damage incurred. Meagre reports from Sabine Pass and Port Arthur also indicated a heavy loss of life.

Among those who brought tidings from the sticken city of Galveston was James C. Timmins, who resides in Houston, and who is the General Superintendent of the National Compress Company. After Mr. Spillane he was one of the first to reach Houston with news of the great disaster which had befallen that city, and after all he reported it was evident that the magnitude of the disaster remained to be told.

After remaining through the hurricane on Saturday, the 8th, he departed from Galveston on a schooner and came across the bay to Morgan's Point, where he caught a train for Houston. The hurricane, Mr. Timmins said, was the worst ever known. 2 17

FIRST NEWS OF THE GREAT CALAMITY.

The estimate made by citizens of Galveston was that four thousand houses, most of them residences, were destroyed, and that at least one thousand people had been drowned, killed or were missing. Business houses were also destroyed. These estimates, it was learned afterward, were far below the actual facts.

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 miles an hour straight from the

6-ulf 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 no 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 tat Virginia Point, and still another was aground at Texas City. At the south point of Houston Island an unknown ship )ay 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 observed just before tbe party landed. In tbe bay the carcasses of nearly two hundred horses and mules were seen, but no human body was visible.

The scenes during the storm could not be described. Women and children were crowded into the Tremont Hotel, where he was seeking shelter, and all night these unfortunates were bemoaning their losses of kindred and fortune. They were grouped about the stairways and in the galleries and rooms of the hotel. What was occurring in other parts of the city could only be conjectured.

The city of Galveston waslnow entirely submerged and cut off from communication. The boats were gone, the railroads could not be operated, and the water was so high people could not walk out by way of the bridge across the bay, even were the bridge standing.

Provisions were badly needed, as a great majority of the people lost all they had. The water works' power house was wrecked, and a water famine was threatened, as the cisterns wfii\ all ruined by the overflow of salt water. This was regarded f ', the most serious problem to be faced. The city was in darkness, the electric plant having been ruined.

BODIES FLOATING IN THE BAY.

There was no way of estimating the property damage. The east end portion of the city, which was the residence district was practically wiped out of existence. , On the 'west end, which faces the gulf on another portion of the island, much havoc was done The beach was swept clean, the bath-houses were destroyed, and many of the residences were total wrecks.

Among the passengers who arrived at Houston on a relief .train from Galveston was Ben Dew, an attache of the Southern Pacific. Dew had been at Virginia Point for several hours, and said that he saw loo to 150 dead bodies floating out on the beach at that place.

Conductor Powers reported that twenty-five corpses had been recovered by the life-saving crew, many of them women ; that the crew had reported tliat 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 identified.

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 fertilizing 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 eftbrts 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 Bdgewater are gone, and thf road cannot get trains througli to utilize tlie bridge across the bay.

" Sabine Pass bas not been beard from to-day (September 9tb). Tbe last news was received from there yesterday morning, and at that time the water was surrounding the old town at the pass, and the wind was rising and the waves coming high. From the new town, which is some distance back, the water had reached the ■depot and was running through the streets. The 5)eople were leaving for the high country, known as the Black Ridge, and it is believed that all escaped. Two bodies have been brought in from Seabrooke, on Galveston Bay, and seventeen persons aie missing there.

"In Houston the property damage is great, a conservative estimate placing it at $250,000. The Merchants' and Planters' Oil Mill was wrecked, entailing a loss of $40,000, The Dickson Car Wheel Works suffered to the extent of $16,000. The big Masonic Temple, which is the property of the Grand Lodge of the State, was partly wrecked. Nearly every church in the city was damaged. The First Baptist, Southern Methodist and Trinity Methodist, the latter a negro church, will have to be rebuilt before ihey can be used again. Many business houses were unroofed.

MANY TOWNS DEMOLISHED.

"The residence portion of the town presents a dilapidated appearance, but the damage in this part of the city has not been so great as in some others. The streets are almost impassable because of the litter of shade trees, fences, telephone wires and poles. Much damage was done to window glass and furniture. Many narrow escapes are recorded.