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THE STORM
TERRIBLE RAVAGES
(From our Full
Sheet Extra of Wednesday)
Not feeling justified in depriving our subscribers Saturday of their paper
at the usual time, we overcame the influence of the weather as it affected
the types, and Charlie not being daunted by the storm, delivered the Valley
on time. We now give the fullest and most complete connected narrative of
the great storm yet published.
We have waited until the morning before giving an account of the terrible
storm that has visited our city with unexampled fury during Friday evening,
though out Saturday, and late into Sunday morning, that we might survey the
whole field, and state with accuracy the history of the storm and attendant
flood, and losses suffered by those who were subject to its tremendous power
and fury.
Heretofore
Corpus Christi
has been exempt from desolation by the elements almost beyond any town off
the Texas coast—noticeably so. We have had no general fire even–none beyond
an occasional single building. The storms that swept over and swept down
portions of the towns and cities from the Rio Grande to the Sabine, have
hardly been felt here. We seemed to be out of their circle. We were
mercifully spared. But now our time has come, and we have had by far the
most severe storm ever felt since this place was known as Kinney’s Rancho
and had a single house and barricade.
Fire and wind and water are excellent servants when kept under control by
human foresight, careful preparation and an all over-ruling Providence; they
are all severe masters when they overleap human agency and are allowed
temporary sway by a wise Providence.
Friday morning dawned dull and gloomy, with lowering clouds throughout the
day, and a gradually falling barometer that filled many with forebodings of
disaster to come. But not until Saturday did the storm burst in its
strength, and prove how vain and futile were all the efforts of puny man as
compared with the transcendent and omnipotent powers of the Almighty.
THROUGHOUT SATURDAY
The wind blew a gale, accompanied with rain, gradually increasing in
intensity and power toward evening, with the sky to the northeast of an inky
blackness. About
ten o’clock
in the morning we made a trip along the beach, as far down as
Central
Wharf,
and up as far as Headon’s. The scene presented beggars description. At the
shore end of the wharf, the drifting timbers from the wrecked bath-houses
and breakwaters and wharves above were beating with pitiless fury against
the strong wood work, the winds and waves contending in mad fury for mastery
in the work
of destruction. We walked out to the T-head, the rain driven with such force
as to seem like hail, and when there found a scene sublime and grand. To
stand against the overpowering fury of the gale was impossible. The bay
itself was one wild expanse of raging waters, with waves “mountains high”,
to the left was the threatening northeast, with clouds that seemed as though
the earth and the waters thereof were hung with trapping and insignia of
woe, and that the Almighty himself had arisen in his might to visit upon
erring people the thunderbolts of his
avenging wrath. Tied to the wharf with triple cables of strong rope were the
St. Joseph and Alfred and Sammie schooners, their captains-Steinhardt and
Hughes—hoping to withstand the power of the Storm King. But at
ten o’clock
that night their fastenings parted like whip cord, and, as Steinhardt
graphically describes, “before I knew my cables had parted—I was ashore,
beam ends on.” Facing the pitiless
blast we retraced our way, with the waves breaking over us at every step.
Going along the beach, Lott’s wharf was noticed, the waters making a clean
sweep over the whole structure, and with a giant’s strength every now and
then ripping off a section of the floor, lifting the iron rails that held it
down as though they were but straw and
sending them far away on some furious billow. It was but a question of time
when the whole massive wharf would be torn up and destroyed.
Arrived at Evans warehouse we found Mr. Evans, with a crowd of Mexicans,
making almost superhuman efforts to save the fine building just completed,
that had been erected at much cost of time and money. Standing in the water
up to his waist, with the waves dashing over him, Mr. Evans was endeavoring,
with hogsheads and sacks full of sand, to break the force of the waves as
they washed over the ________ building. Though saving it for a while his
efforts were futile and about
nine o’clock
Saturday night the whole structure undermined and eaten into by the water,
gave way and fell. As it went down a furious gust of wind torn the roof from
it fastenings and carried a section forty feet square full a hundred feet
away, over fences and intervening houses, landing it against one end of the
custom house, and driving a beam clear into that structure.
At about three
o’clock
Saturday evening the wind lulled and the rain almost ceased, and all hoped
that the fury of the gale was spent. Delusive hope! It had only stopped to
gather its mighty force for a stronger and more terrible effort, reserving
the night close at hand to illustrate its awful and sublime strength.
At about half past nine o’clock the writer, exhausted and worn out by the
day’s duties, had to retire, when the dread alarm of the fire-bell was heard
above the wild sound of the winds and waves, filling the heart with terror
and apprehension that to the horrors of an unexampled storm was to be added
the presence of a fellow fiend—Fire. But to the relief of all hearts the
alarm was found to be only the call for help for those who were distressed
and in danger. And right promptly was this call responded to by strong arms
and brave hearts. What a sight was witnessed as foot was put outside out
gate! Water—phosphorescent and sparkling, unmistakably water of the Gulf—was
above our knees and as we plunged through it on our course down town ever
and anon ran against large piles of driftwood, torn from some of the
buildings along the bay. Then, and not till the, did we realize the full
force of the elements
that seemed hungering for our lives. Down along Chaparral street, enveloped
in pitchy blackness, with no lights save that which the phosphorescent
waters themselves cast upon surrounding objects, and an occasional light in
some building where the inmates were hastily packing up what could be saved
and removing it to some place of security, we groped our way, wondering what
hew disaster would meet our eyes.
At Capt. Berry’s
corner we found the water five inches deep on his parlor floor, and the
Captain himself, sitting in a rocking chair, composedly smoking, and
declaring that when the water rose four feet higher he would leave, and not
till then. The Captain’s opinion was that he had lived here since ’43 and
never saw half such a rise as this. He was a veritable “patience on a
monument smiling at grief.” At Meuly’s we found the inmates removing to the
hill and safety. At DaCamara & Atlees we found the two Atlees taking it
composedly, four inches of water in their bedroom, and one of them writing a
letter—he said it was to a gentleman—but we have our doubts. The current
from the Arroyo just beyond was flowing by the doors at the rate of seven
miles an hour. Going up
Chaparral street, we
found high water until Gussett’s corner was reached, where from that up to
French’s we found dry land, owing to high ground.
The beach was the next place visited, and there we found the angry waves
beating against the doors of Mrs. Wyatt’s, Maltby’s, Anderson’s, and other
houses, but the inmates had removed before dark to a place of safety. Fences
and all traces of gardens and streets were gone, and the bay was sweeping
with relentless energy under and around the houses, destroying improvements
that had taken years to complete.
Fully satisfied that no good could be accomplished, we wended our way
homeward, determined to wait and see what the morning brought forth.
SUNDAY MORNING
Beginning at the old Red House below Central Wharf, we commenced our
investigations. There were found Capt. Steinsmedt’s schooner, St. Joseph,
tied to the steps and fully a half-mile inland. Close by lay Charley Hughes,
Alfred and Sammie, stranded. A view about the old house disclosed fences and
walks, out-sheds blown down, and the water over everything.
But the wreck and destruction in and about Huffman’s and the shore-end of
Central Wharf was indescribable. Here was gathered the debris of the wharf
itself, commingled with fences, lumber from Moelling’s yard, planking of
numerous little houses and out buildings that clustered about that locality,
several skiff-boats—all completely blocking up the street and making a
picture of utter desolation.
Not a vestige, save a few scattered pots—where the T-head used to be, was to
be seen of Lott’s wharf. All had been swept away.
Between the Central and Lott’s wharf, in the neighborhood of Dunn and
McManigle, all was gone save the “main” buildings themselves.
Passing Lott’s wharf, Moelling’s lumber pile had endeavored to see how much
space it could occupy with __________ taken the piles by piece-meal and
scattered them for blocks around.
At Mrs. Wyatt’s was found a sloop tied to a cedar tree in the yard, and a
skiff against the gate, the waves breaking over all.
Further up and beyond Maltby’s, was Evans’ new warehouse, with one brick
hardly upon another, doors one place, roof another, and wonder of wonders,
the window glass over the doors not even cracked! Resting against the east
wall of the warehouse was a section of the flooring of Anderson’s wharf.
At Anderson’s was general destruction. His wharf, costing a thousand
dollars, was gone; a large number of cords of wood, several small boats, and
many other articles of value had been swept away.
Up above Woessner’s corner we fund a large schooner jammed in against a
house, partly under the gallery, the foundation of the building gone, and a
yawl boat half way under the house.
At John Hall’s were found a sloop tied to his gallery post, fences gone—as
everywhere else along the beach. But John had a roaring fire in the house,
at which chilled limbs and bodies were warmed before proceeding.
At the Dix House, Foster’s Murphy’s and beyond, was the same scene of dreary
destruction; everything pretty and inviting obliterated from existence, from
torn up shrubbery laid level with the ground, no traces of the bath-houses
that on Thursday were so inviting—everything gone—disappeared.
Water street is a thing of the past—“gone glimmering among the misty dream
of things that were.” Seventy-five to a hundred feet have been eaten up by
the hungry waves, and not even a foothold is left between some of the houses
and the water. And in this consists an almost irreparable damage, for it
gives us opportunity, unless remedied, for the next storm to take half the
buildings that remain.
THE RINCON
The Rincon, which we visited Monday morning, presents much the same
appearance as the lower portion of town.
The T-had of Gussett’s wharf is swept away, and much of the flooring.
Headen’s wharf is badly damaged, the T-head also being gone, with a large
quantity of bones that were on both wharves. A lumber schooner, moored at
Gussett's wharf, is planted fairly in the middle of the road, half a mile
from her proper place.
The warehouses of both the wharves were not damaged.
Deavalon’s new house had the south end started (?) out, and a large cistern
at Gussett’s thrown over, Zeigler’s place, shared in the general destruction
as far as fences were concerned.
The Bayou between
Corpus Christi
and Brooklyn is not wadeable, there being twelve feet of water in it, and
the current running like a mill-tail.
Scattered over the whole face of the earth about the Rincon is Sidbury’s
lumber yard. The best part of it is there, but its dispersed condition is
marvelous.
THE HILL
A room adjoining the Convent had it tin roof torn completely of and thrown
in the street.
The tine roof of the east side of the public school building is also torn
off, and hangs by a portion of that remaining.
A new building in the rear of Col. Lovenskiold’s was blown down and utterly
wrecked.
A Mexican in one wrecked jacal on the hill was injured quite seriously by
the roof falling upon him.
Mr. L. A. Duck, back of town, had his stable and carriage house blown down.
Mr. Ward suffered considerable damage to his property. The star, vane and
indicator on the tower of the Congregational church broke off and sailed a
long distance. Pricila captured some of them.
THE INTERIOR
The Market gardeners, Mr. Bailey and Mr. Dunn, estimate the damage to their
crops, ground and fences at $500 each.
Mr. Frost Allen, who came in late Saturday night, reports a world of water
between this place and his rancho. Everything is flooded. The arroyo near
the Britton ranch is overflowed, and the house is yielding to the pressure.
Col. Moore’s place, at
Tula
lake, is reported as five feet under water.
To conceive of the condition of things in the country, remember the locality
of the ranches, imagine them as surrounded by two feet or more of water,
fences down, gardens washed away, trees uprooted—and the idea will not be
wide of the truth.
ABROAD
By Capt. Cleaveland, who arrived yesterday from Indianola and Rockport, we
learn that no damage has been done either of those places, the storm passing
to the south almost entirely. This is good fortune that was not anticipated.
Mr. Albert Allen, arriving last night from M. Kenedy’s reports great damage
to stock, fences, etc. over the routes he came. He also reports a Mexican
drowned off Flour Bluff.
There is a loss of one trip of all land mails certain—perhaps more, as
Laredo and Brownsville are not yet heard from. The mails from
San Antonio
and Rio Grand
City came in forty –eight hours behind time, and were greatly damaged.
Brownsville mail, leaving Saturday morning was still at the Petronilla,
yesterday morning. The mail boat leaving last Thursday morning was at Shell
Bank yesterday, and none have arrived since Thursday. A through mail was
sent yesterday by private boat, Capt. Steinhardt in charge.
If the storm struck Indianola and Galveston and other places as severely as
here, the damage will be immense. We hoped they have escaped as we have
heretofore, when our neighbors suffered.
On Padre Island, near the Peaeseal, a large warehouse belonging to Captain
Kenedy was blown down level wit the ground, five or six miles below that
another warehouse was badly damaged, with considerable loss of salt.
At Padre Settlement, twenty five miles from here, 25,000 bushels of salt on
the beach were washed away. The wind was terrible in its strength, and the
water rose over ten feet. Trees ten inches in diameter were snapped like
reeds.
THE BAY
Every vessel in port parted all cables and went ashore during the storm.
By Mr. Wm. Anderson, of the schooner Flour bluff, just in from the Infernio
Rancho, on Laguna Madre, about seventy miles from Corpus, we learn of great
damage. Two vessels were lost, and several hundred ton of bones; also
several thousand bushels of salt. At Flour Bluff Capt. Kenedy lost about
10,000 bushels of salt. Below the Bluff two schooners, are sunk, one, the
Sea Highland, loaded with 600 bushels of
salt. His fences and cattle pens are all down.
Capt. Dick Jordan ran jut before the storm from Sabine, with his vessel
loaded with shingles, hold and deck. He encountered the beast in its fury on
entering Aransas Pass. He lost both his anchors—the cables parting with a
snap, his sails burst, and his craft ran upon Hog Island, near shell Bank,
where the waves broke over and felled her, but where the storm was passed
other wise in safety. Yesterday he took off his deck load, pumped out his
boat and came home. He expected to find things worse than they are and is
sure the gale was more severe outside. He says it all seems to him like a
dream.
ITEMS
The goods in the bonded warehouses were all saved uninjured excepting five
sacks of rice, worth about $40. To the energy, industry, strength and
faithfulness of Maj. Jas. Downing is owing the safety of the large quantity
of good in bond there. Having to break in the doors late Saturday afternoon,
when the danger became imminent, because one of the keys could not be
obtained, he gathered a force and worked all night to put the goods above
the water, packing a large portion of them up stairs
for that purpose, and standing firmly to his post when there was danger that
the house itself would be undermined by the flood, one door having been
broken in. To him it is owing that the large proportion of the goods brought
in bond from
Germany and in
transit to Mexico, were saved; and to him Mr. Buckley, in whose care they
were, wishes special thanks rendered for the favor. Such faithfulness merits
special mention.
Col. Gusset sent about sixty Mexicans to his wharf Monday morning, to repair
damages, with directions to stay there, camped, until it was repaired. A
calamity is half overcome when it is so met. A woman was seen rafting
through the overflowed streets Monday.
The Central Wharf Company, with commendable energy, have commenced
rebuilding.
Both steamships stayed inside the bay, keeping up a full head of steam for
emergencies, and so rode out the gale.
A colored man named Sidney Page dropped upon a pretty deep hole at Hoffman’s
corner on the __________, and not being able to swim came near drowning.
Several of the iron rails of Lott’s wharf were found under the T-head of
Central Wharf.
It is not all bad, for the gale that shattered the Central Wharf T-head
deepened the water so that steamers can come along side easily. Sixteen feet
are reported.
Per contra, the soil washed from the bluff fills the streets on the
__________ leaving the Wharf. Saturday as resembling a flight of birds. A
whirlwind struck one pile and melted it away in a few seconds.
Messrs. Westervelt and Blanc, telegraph operators, are busy repairing lines.
SUGGESTIONS
The experience of Saturday night and Sunday shows the need of having a
government building here suitable for the custom house, with its bonded
warehouse, and the other public offices, all placed above the reach of any
flood and made storm proof. It is the opinion of Maj. Downing that, had the
storm lasted a little longer the bonded warehouse would have been
undermined. It would not be safe to give it another such a trial.
It is an immediate necessity that the sluices be opened to let off the sea
of water, now that the bay has receded. This is the interest of health. If
this flood is left to subside on its own will, much sickness will be added
to the calamity.
We need to have Prof. Meyer extend his weather observations to Corpus
Christi. Danger signals would have been in place all day Saturday. We need
a sea-wall along the whole front of the city, hemmed in in a pocket, as we
are, where a storm drives the sea right upon us. More of this anon.
It is suggested that a portion of the bluff be leveled to fill up Chaparral
street. We will have to come to that at last.
A breakwater will cost but a few thousand dollars, and all our people will
willingly bear the expense.
MISCELLANOUS
There was a fire last night at Meuly’s , on the hill, destroying a large
building on the premises. It occurred about three o’clock in the morning,
and no help was to be obtained. The building was the store of Mr. John Meuly,
with all its contents, and was the work of an incendiary, it is supposed.
Our object in keeping this extra open until to-day was the hope of hearing
from abroad—inland and onward. It (was) in vain. Nobody who came from the
country except it was under compulsion. The wires are
down everywhere and we can hear nothing. Mr. Westervelt thinks it will take
a week to re-establish telegraph communication, in some places as the
__________ a numb of poles are down.
But for the active and untiring exertions of Mr. Southaral (?), in charge of
the large and costly stock of D. Schwartz & Co., much loss would have been
suffered by that firm.
Mr. John Fogg receives heartfelt praise for his active exertions to avert
disaster Saturday night. He was untiring in his labors and did not spare
horseflesh whenever called upon. John always comes right side up.
The wharf men will reclaim the wharf timbers wherever found.
The railroad question is drowned out for the present. Will take it up again
soon.
No church bell rang Sunday to call the people to thanksgiving for life
preserved and for the abating storm, suitable as that would have been. He
must be an atheist, or worse, who was not thankful at home, and who failed
to express that thankfulness.
The pecuniary damage—actual destruction of property, cannot be less than
$50,000. Against such loss there is no insurance.
Fences and trees were the special sport of the storm. They went down like
autumn leaves before a gale.
Human charity will doubtless be needed for some of the sufferers of Saturday
and Sunday.
We cannot be too grateful that no human life was lost in the storm. The loss
of property, heavy as it is, is as nothing in the comparison.
At three to four o’clock Sunday morning the hurricane was simply fearful. It
was fortunate that it did not, as often it does, shift its direction and
redouble its fury.
It is not pleasant to have to remove families from inundated houses in the
darkness of a storm-enveloped night, as on Saturday night, it is pleasant
that they can be removed, and that safe places can be found.
Everybody was glad to have day break Sunday morning; danger seems less
terrible when it can be seen.
The postoffice was as much demoralized as the other business places on
Saturday and Sunday. No mails went nor came, and just one whole letter was
dropped in the office between sunset Saturday and the same time Sunday; card
by eight o’clock Monday. Nine letters in forty hours—that’s business.
It was comfortable to get out of doors again Monday morning. Concrete brick
melt down under such storms as that, unless they are old and covered with
cement.
The whole town went prospecting Monday morning, to see what was left. The
outlook was not pleasant.
The bay is retiring to its proper limits. Yesterday it was not easy to tell
where the water ended and the land began.
If anybody finds a pair of gold rimmed spectacles in or near the sluice
about Mr. Caldwell’s on Chaparral street, when the “waters are assuaged” we
will pay him well to let us know. They found a watery grave through the
untimely and unpremeditated capsizing of a horse on Monday.
It is a melancholy proof of human obliquity when men and boys take advantage
of such a time to steal property, even going in the night for that purpose.
It almost reconciles one to the rigid Calvinistic definitions of total
depravity.
Capt. Jordan
is sure Galveston must have suffered greatly. He thought of running in there
to save himself, but resolved to try the Pass, and is glad he did so. He
says the shipping at Galveston must have had a hard time.
There are rumors that
Brownsville
was under water and Indianola washed away; but nothing is or can be known
till somebody can come from those places.
The Gazette local knows what mud is and all about it. He got stuck in it
twice Monday.
THE DAMAGES
We have taken pains to ascertain the damage done by the storm consulting
when we could with the business men as to their individual losses, in the
main taking their estimates, and the best data we could obtain in other
cases. The T-heads of all the wharves are gone or badly battered, and the
storehouses of such as had them. The Lott wharf is gone entirely, and the
others more or less broken. The injury to the wharves is nearly or quite
one-half the loss of private property in the city. Men reported as heavy
losers assure us that a few score, or at most a few hundred dollars will
make them good. Below we give such facts as we could gather and for the most
part they are the owners own estimates. Some others have suffered more or
less, no doubt, but these are the heavy losers.
We do not include the damage to the lot fronts and gardens on Water street,
nor to the public roads; it is impossible to estimate it. Aside from that,
the loss will probably come within $50,000and we believe all repairs will be
made for considerable less than that sum. Of course this kind of damage has
no insurance.
Doddridge, Lott & Co. Central Wharf $5,000
Staples & Lott Wharf 6,000
Gussett’s or Merchants’ Wharf 10,000
E. D. Sidbury & Co., lumber 3,000
Moelling & Co., lumber 2,000
Geo. F. Evans, warehouse, bones, etc. 2,000
Anderson, wharf, wood, etc. 1,000
Headen’s wharf 2,000
P. Gueydam, damage to goods 300
J. Henry “ “ 300
P. Henry “ “ 200
E. Frank “ “ 100
Wm. DeRyee “ “ 100
T. Carlen “ “ 300
Ed Buckley “ “ and residence 200
Capt. Foster, bath house and residence 250
J. B. Murphy, bath house & breakwater 300
Roberts & __________ 100
H. W. Berry, residence 250
Geo. French, “ 400
J. M. Hunter “ 300
Deavolons “ 200
L. D. Brewster, tobacco, etc. 250
R. W. Archer, tools 300
Total approximate loss $37,050
Fifteen per cent general damages about town 5,500
Grand total $42,550
Source: Nueces Valley, September 12, 1874, p.1, col. 1
Research by: Msgr. Michael A. Howell
Transcription by: Geraldine D. McGloin, Nueces County Historical Commission
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