by Al Roker
Galveston resurgent: The beach draws swimmers, the seawall draws crowds. LoC
“. . . slurry pumped from the dredgers in the canal came blasting out of those pipes. It flowed into empty spaces under the buildings, filling the space and leveling itself.” COURTESY OF THE ROSENBERG LIBRARY, GALVESTON, TEXAS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to the Galveston and Texas History Center of the Rosenberg Library, with special thanks to Travis Bible, Special Collections Project Coordinator, for help in navigating the Edward Weems archive, and for noting the possibilities of the Boyer Gonzalez-Nell Hertford story. Thanks to Gene Morris of the Textual Reference Branch of the National Archives. And thanks to Nikki Diller, Curator, and the staff of the Galveston County Historical Museum. Closed by the violence of Hurricane Ike in September 2008, the museum has continued to make its important archive available to researchers; happily, its exhibits and artifacts will soon reopen to the public in new space in the Galveston County Court House.
I’d like to thank Bill Hogeland, whose enthusiasm is only surpassed by his attention to detail. Thanks to my agent, Mel Berger, a steady analog hand in a vibratory digital world. And to my editor, Peter Hubbard, a guy who saw the real drama in a story that needed to be told.
A NOTE ON FURTHER READING
Two earlier narrative works for general readers recount events of the 1900 hurricane: John Edward Weems’s A Weekend in September and Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm. Both served as sources for this account and helped point the way to primary sources. An excellent secondary source of a more scholarly nature is Galveston and the 1900 Storm by Patricia Bellis Bixel and Elizabeth Hayes Turner.
Readers who wish to dig into the hurricane’s primary record will be interested in the eyewitness accounts collected in Through a Night of Horrors, edited by Casey Edward Greene and Shelly Henley Kelly. The book presents many compelling stories and characters, some included in this book, others beyond its scope. A trove of survivor stories, collected for the National Public Radio program “Remembering the Galveston Storm of 1900,” is available online at www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/000908.stories.html. Also online is the Galveston and Texas History Center’s rich collection of the 1900 hurricane oral histories, photographs, manuscripts, death lists, and so on: www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1900/index .html.
Powerful accounts fill Paul Lester’s book The Great Galveston Disaster, a fascinating grab bag of early press reports from the scene itself. And Isaac Cline’s and Joseph Cline’s memoirs, covering their entire careers—Storms, Floods, and Sunshine and When the Heavens Frowned, respectively—give special attention to the events of 1900 in Galveston.
The Storm of the Century is the first book on the 1900 storm to make use of the invaluable oral histories collected in Island of Color (2004) by Izola Collins, which preserves the history of Galveston’s African American community from Juneteenth to the post-segregation era. The book’s sections on the hurricane give voice to perspectives rarely acknowledged in standard treatments. For an overall history of Galveston, Gary Cartwright’s Galveston: A History of the Island is highly readable and informative; a better-documented source is Galveston: A History by David G. McComb.
On weather, weather technology, and the U.S. Weather Bureau, accessible sources include John D. Cox’s Storm Watchers; Divine Wind by Kerry Emanuel; and the amazingly comprehensive collection available on the website of the library of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www .lib.noaa.gov/), which makes available a multitude of historic documents, including reports written by both U.S. and Cuban weathermen before, during, and after 1900. Both NOAA (www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/) and the National Weather Service itself (www.weather.gov) offer handy histories of the service.
Complete citations for all of those sources, along with others consulted for this book, appear in the bibliography.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARCHIVES
Galveston County Historical Museum, Galveston, Texas.
Galveston and Texas History Center, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas.
National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
SELECTED PUBLISHED WORKS
Barton, Clara. A Story of the Red Cross: Glimpses of Field Work. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1904.
Bixel, Patricia Bellis, and Elizabeth Hayes Turner. Galveston and the 1900 Storm: Catastrophe and Catalyst. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000.
Black, Winifred. “Rambles Through My Memories.” Good Housekeeping 102, nos. 1–5 (January–May 1936).
Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. Fort Worth, TX: TCU Press, 1998.
Cline, Isaac Monroe. “Special Report on the Galveston Hurricane of September 8, 1900.” NOAA History: Galveston Storm of 1900. http://www .history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/cline2.html.
_________. Storms, Floods and Sunshine. New Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 1945. Reprint 2000.
Cline, Joseph Leander. When the Heavens Frowned. Dallas: Mathis, Van Nort & Co., 1946. Reprint, New Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 2000.
Cox, John D. Storm Watchers: The Turbulent History of Weather Prediction from Franklin’s Kite to El Niño. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
Emanuel, Kerry A. Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Garriott, E. B. “West Indian Hurricane of September 1–12, 1900.” Monthly Weather Review 28 (September 1900).
Grade Raising: Manuscripts. Edmund R. Cheesborough Papers, 1902–1958. www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/graderaising/Manuscripts/Cheesborough/index.html
Greene, Casey Edward, and Shelly Henley Kelly, eds. Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.
History of the National Weather Service. www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/.
“The Hurricane in the Gulf: Graphic Pen Picture by a Lady Passenger on the Louisiana.” Times Picayune, September 11, 1900.
Larson, Erik. Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. New York: Crown Publishers, 1999.
Lester, Paul. The Great Galveston Disaster: Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times, Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane. Beaver Springs, PA: American Publishing Co., 1900. Reprint, New Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 2006.
“The Louisiana’s Trip: She Had a Tussle with the Hurricane in the Gulf.” Times Picayune, September 11, 1900.
McComb, David G. Galveston: A History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
Nasaw, David. The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Boston: Mariner Books, 2001.
“1900 Storm: Oral Histories Online.” www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1900/Oralhist/index.html.
“1900 Storm: Manuscripts.” http://www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/storms/1900/Manuscripts/index.html.
Ousley, Clarence. Galveston in Nineteen Hundred. Atlanta: William C. Chase, 1900.
Pietruska, Jamie L. “US Weather Bureau Chief Willis Moore and the Reimagination of Uncertainty in Long-Range Forecasting.” Environment and History 17 (2011).
Rappaport, Edward N., and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. “The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492–1996.” NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC 47. www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdeadly.shtml.
“Remembering the Galveston Storm of 1900.” www.npr.org/programs/lnf sound/stories/000908.stories.html.
“Rides through a Hurricane: The Louisiana’s Experience in the Center of the Storm.” New York Times, September 11, 1900.
“Seawall.” www.gthcenter.org/exhibits/seawall/index.html.
Simmen, Edward. With Bold Strokes: Boyer Gonzales, 1864–1934. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.
“They Recall Days of Texas Badmen: Henry and Arnold Wolfram Have Seen Texas Develop from Wilderness to Empire.” Galveston Daily News, August 27, 1939. http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/t/e/Scharl-S-Stewart/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0121.html.
Turner, Elizabeth Hayes.
“Clara Barton and the Formation of Public Policy in Galveston, 1900.” http://www.rockarch.org/publications/confer ences/turner.pdf.
Udias, Augustin. Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories. Dordrecht: Springer, 2003.
Von Herrmann, C. F. “A National Weather Service Publication in Support of the Celebration of American Weather Services . . . Past, Present and Future.” http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/herrmann.php.
Weems, John Edward. A Weekend in September. New York: Holt, 1957.
Whitnah, Donald R. A History of the United States Weather Bureau. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961.
INDEX
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Abbe, Cleveland, 99
Abilene, Texas, 66, 70, 71, 72–73, 77
Abilene Daily and Weekly Reporter, 72–73
Abilene weather station, 70, 71
Abrolhos, 27
Adamson, Robert, 198–99
AddRan Male and Female College, 78
African Americans, in Galveston, 11, 48–49, 230–33
African easterly jet, 27–28
African savannah rainy season, 25–27
Agriculture, and forecasting frost conditions, 79
Agriculture Department, U.S., 74, 76
Air pressure (barometric pressure), 62–65
Galveston readings, 116–17, 119, 142, 153, 164–65, 241
American Red Cross, 198–99, 261–65, 268, 271, 274–75, 276, 290–91
Anemometers, 59–60
Anthony, Susan B., 263
Antigua, 87, 89
Apache Wars, 68–70
Army Coastal Artillery, 46
Army Signal Corps, U.S., 56–57, 68–70, 74–75, 92
Arthur, Chester A., 263
Art Students League of New York, 292
Assmann, Richard, 62
Atmospheric pressure, 62–63
Austin, Moses, 38
Austin, Stephen, 38, 39
Avenue J (Broadway), 12, 45, 135, 137, 139–40, 178, 183–84, 214
Barometers, 62–65
Barometric pressure (air pressure). See Air pressure
Barton, Clara, 261–65
arrival in Houston, 270–72
background of, 198–99, 261–64
management style of, 261–62, 264
post-storm life, 290–91
relief efforts of, 199, 265, 272, 274–75
travel to Galveston, 198–99, 265
Battle of Antietam, 199
Battle of Galveston, 43
Battle of New Orleans, 36
Battle of San Jacinto, 39, 40
Battle of the Alamo, 39
Beadles, Walter, 246
Beagle, HMS, 64
Belen Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory, 89–90, 92, 95–96, 102
Biloxi, 32, 33–34
Bixel, Patricia Bellis, 298
Black, Winifred, 252–60
background of, 253
journalism of, 253–55, 290
post-storm life, 289–90
relief efforts of, 199, 265–68, 275
reporting on Galveston, 257–61, 267–68
travel to Galveston, 197–98, 252–53, 255–57
Blagden, John, 104, 117, 125, 165, 180, 241
Blum, Leon, 51
Bodies. See Corpses, disposal of; Corpses after the storm
Bolenick, Francis, 237
Bolivar Peninsula, 32, 141
Bowie, James, 39
Brazos River flooding of 1900, 79
Bristol, Cassie
aftermath of storm, 217, 239
before the storm, 7–9
impact of storm, 138, 155–56, 179–80
post-storm life, 288
post-storm rebuilding, 278–79
Bristol, Lois
before the storm, 8
impact of storm, 155–56, 179–80
post-storm rebuilding, 278–79
Bristol, Mary Louise
aftermath of storm, 216–17, 239
before the storm, 7–8, 9
impact of storm, 137–38, 143–44, 155–56, 179–80
post-storm life, 288–89
post-storm rebuilding, 278–79
British Royal Navy, 64
Broadway (Avenue J), 12, 45, 135, 137, 139–40, 178, 183–84, 214
Brooke, John R., 100
Bryan, William Jennings, 45, 254–55
“Calm before the storm,” 117
Campbell, Albert, 237
Cape Verde Islands, 24–25
Cape Verde-type hurricanes, 24
Carnegie, Andrew, 260, 268
Cartwright, Gary, 299
Central High School, 48
Central Relief Committee, 219–24, 225, 227–28, 231–32, 238, 268, 275
Chicago Board of Trade, 74
Chinook, 27
Chisholm Trail, 66
Cirrostratus clouds, 90–91
Civil War, 11, 13, 42–43, 262
Cleveland, Grover, 50, 253
Cline, Cora May Bellew
burial of, 293
death of, 189–90, 242
impact of storm, 131, 181–83, 184–87, 189–90
marriage and family, 77
Cline, Isaac, 54–59
aftermath of storm, 211–12, 241–44
assignments to weather stations, 65, 66, 70–71
assignment to Galveston, 65–66, 71, 73–74
background of, 57–58
discipline and regulation of, 55, 67–68, 76–77, 78–79
impact of storm
cable to Washington, 157–59, 199–200, 243
issues storm warnings, 120, 122–23, 124–25, 136–37, 243–44
loss of Cora, 189–90
Friday waves, 129–30, 131
Saturday morning storm tide, 132–34, 136–37
Saturday afternoon flooding, 157–59
Saturday night horrors, 1–2, 164–65, 181–83, 184–87, 189–93
marriage to Cora, 77
medical training of, 71–72
in meteorology training program, 56, 58–59, 65
newspaper business of, 72–73
post-storm life, 292–93
pre-storm predictions of safety, 81
public trust in, 55
recommended books, 299
weather expertise of, 54, 65–66, 70–71, 72, 79
weather observations and readings, 54–55, 66–67, 79, 104–5, 118–19, 132–33
Cline, Joseph
aftermath of storm, 211–12, 241–42, 244
background of, 77–78
hiring for weather office, 77–79
impact of storm
cable to Washington, 157–59, 160–61, 199–200, 243
issues storm warnings, 122–23, 125
Friday waves, 129–30, 131
Saturday morning storm tide, 132–34, 142
Saturday afternoon flooding, 153, 158–59, 160–61
Saturday night horrors, 180, 182–83, 184–87, 189–93
post-storm life, 293
recommended books, 299
weather observations and readings, 104–5, 116–17, 129, 132–33, 142, 153
Cloud formations, and hurricane prediction, 90–92, 106–7
Cohen, Henry, 126–28
aftermath of storm, 219, 231–32, 277
background of, 127–28
impact of storm, 140–41, 153–54
post-storm life, 289
Cohen, Mollie
aftermath of storm, 219
family life, 128
impact of storm, 141, 153–54
Collins, Izola, 299
Colorado River flooding of 1900, 79
Comanche Indians, 31, 39
Congregation B’nai Israel, 126–27, 128, 140, 289
Corbett, James “Gentleman Jim,” 254
Corpses, disposal of, 218, 223–24
burial at sea, 227–28, 230, 233–34
pyres, 238–39, 240, 242, 248, 257
Corpses after the storm, 171, 207–8, 209, 215–16, 217, 223–24
Corsicana oil field, 48
Cox, John D., 299
Crockett, Davy, 39
Cromwell Shipping Line, 82–83
Cuba, 29, 86–87, 89–96, 99–100
Cuban hurricane forecasting, 86–87, 89–92, 95–97, 99–104, 106–7, 121–22, 294–96
Cuban Revolutionary Party, 92–93, 100
Cuban War of Independence, 93–95, 99
Darwin, Charles, 64
D’Aury, Louis-Michel, 36–37
Da Vinci, Leonardo, 60
Deep Water Committee (DWC), 50, 51, 80–81, 218, 279
Delz, Anna, 237–38
Detroit Free Press, 93
Dew-point temperature, 61
Disposal of bodies. See Corpses, disposal of
Divine Wind (Emanuel), 299
Douglass, Frederick, 263
Dredging sand, 285–87
Dunwoody, Henry Harrison Chase, 99–103, 294, 295–96
E. S. Levy Building, 54–55, 62, 104, 117, 153, 164–65, 241, 277
Edison, Thomas, 44
Electricity, 44–45
Emanuel, Kerry, 299
Embargo Act of 1807, 35
Eye of a hurricane, 112–13
“Eyewall” of hurricane, 112
Fandangos, 10
Fayling, Lloyd R. D., 220–27
authority of, 224, 225–27, 238–39, 268–70
background of, 220
bigotry of, 231–32, 271
disposal of corpses, 230, 233, 238–39, 257
greeting Clara Barton in Houston, 270–72
impact of storm, 220–21
militia formation, 221–24
relieved of command, 270
First Order Weather Observation Station, 70–71
FitzRoy, Robert, 64–65
Flooding, 147–93
Florida Keys, 83–85, 113
Florida Straits, 24, 91–92, 104–7, 111–12
Force Six winds, 29
Forecasting, 23, 58–65, 75. See also Weather Bureau, U.S.
military operations and, 56–57
shipboard weather observations, 23, 27, 28–29, 64–65
Fort Concho weather station, 66, 70
Fort Crockett, 46, 221
Fort Myer training school, 56, 58–59, 65
Fort San Jacinto, 46, 221