The Great Galveston Disaster / Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

THE MOST REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE.

As soon as possible he sent the children to relatives in Houston. In the meantime his wife had been taken to the Sealy hospital suffering from the injuries she had received during the storm. At this time he realized that he was hurt also and went to the temporary hospital at the Custom House, where he stayed for several days under treatment. It was while he was there that the last sad chapter was added to his story. While there confined to his bed, his wife died in the Sealy hospital, and he had to lie at the Custom House without getting a last look at the woman whom he loved, while strangers were burying her body. Of his neighbors who took refuge with him all were saved except the little daughter of Mr. Crowley.

IMPRISONED BY THE STORM.
Thrilling Experience of Colonel Anderson, the Fort Point Lighthouse Keeper and His Wife—In the Face of Death the Light Was Put Up—Isolated for Days in the Wrecked House Without Supplies.

The government reservation of several hundred acres situated at the extreme eastern end of Galveston island met the full force of the storm of September 8th. Unprotected from any side the destructive hurricane and relentless gulf swept the historic spot and the massive concrete fortifications crumbled like so much papier mache. The substantial, double iron-braced barrack buildings and quarters were battered into kindling wood and not a stick stands to mark the place where thirteen buildings stood. Situated within the United States government reservation were the quarantine officers’ home and headquarters; the torpedo casemate, torpedo cable-tank, torpedo warehouse, engineers’ store rooms and wharf leading to the cable tank and casemate.

These structures were located on the bay shore in the northwestern corner of the immense reservation. Following the jetty as it extended eastward and curved to the south were the United States life saving station and the Fort Point light house, each about two hundred yards apart. At the northeastern point of the island are the two rapid-fire batteries pointing over the jetty and commanding the channel in the bay between the two jetties. Around on the eastern and southeastern edge of the point are the 10–inch rifle battery and the 12–inch mortar battery, about 500 yards apart. In the centre of the reservation were grouped the barrack buildings. These buildings were built about eighteen months ago and afforded accommodations for a one-battery post.

The government was raising this reservation by filling in the site about ten feet above mean low tide. The quarters had not been occupied, having been built on piling, high in the air, to allow for the filling which was being distributed in the shape of sand pumped from the bay by the government dredge boat. The detail of twelve men from battery O which cared for the batteries at Fort San Jacinto, which was the new name given to the historic “Fort Point” of early Texas days, occupied quarters in temporary structures erected in the rear of the 10–inch battery.

Before the storm Fort San Jacinto was a most inviting and attractive place. The immense reservation east of the fence, which marked the western boundary, extending across the island from bay to gulf, was a most picturesque section of the island. When the storm had finished its merciless onslaught, Fort San Jacinto and its government structures presented a picture of terrible ruin. The costly coast fortifications, which had been constructed to withstand the attacking powers of the navies of the world, were silenced and rendered helpless by the combined batteries of the wind and sea.

The life saving station, where Captain Edward Haines and nine of his brave comrades stood ready to render succor to the storm-driven wretches, was picked up with its load of boats, beach apparatus and other life saving paraphernalia and crushed like a match box. Only four or five of the long pilings mark the site of the station house. Mrs. Haines, wife of Captain Haines, and one of the crew met their death at the station when the building collapsed.