Galveston

Galveston bay was chosen by Herrera as the most favorable place from which to carry on his privateering enter-

GALVESTON. 931

prises against the Spanish trade. The republic of Mexico was organized, claiming the rights of a regular government, and Louis de Aury was made commander of the fleet and governor of Texas. Mina, a brave, exiled Spanish warrior, and Col. Perry, one of the few survivors of the battle of Medina, fought near San Antonio, Texas, August 18, 1813, joined the adventurers. Spanish commerce on the gulf was seriously crippled, and all seemed to go well for a time. But Herrera, being compelled to return to New Orleans, trouble broke out between the leading spirits on the island, and the entire force, after burning all their buildings, finally sailed away. This was the end of the first settlement on the island of Galveston. Shortly after Galveston was abandoned by the followers of Herrera, Jean Lafitte, a daring, adventurous spirit, who had done loyal service at the battle of New Orleans, took possession of the island. Venezuela had given him papers authorizing him to prey upon the commerce of Spain. A thousand adventurers soon joined his standard. A Mexican republic was again organized on the island, and all who joined Lafitte were required to take the oath of allegiance to Mexico. Lafitte and his followers were so successful in their reprisals upon Spanish commerce that it was almost destroyed. Some of Lafitte 's seamen, failing to obey his commands not to interfere with any other ships than those of Spain, the United States government compelled him and his colony to leave the island. In 1836, when Santa Anna moved upon Harrisburg, which at the time was the seat of government of the republic of Texas, the president and his cabinet withdrew to Galveston island, uninhabited at the time except by a small garrison of troops, where they remained until after the decisive battle of San Jacinto, and Texas had gained her freedom from Mexican rule. On October 4, 1862, Galveston island was captured by Commodore Renshaw of the United States navy and a land force of Federal troops; but on the morning of the first of the following January, it was retaken by the Confederates under Magruder, in a brilliant engagement by both land and sea, remaining in possession

of the Confederates until the close of the war. But the more recent history of Galveston — that relating to

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the destruction by the great storm of September 8, 1900, and the wonderful work being accomplished for the protection of the city against wind and wave in the future — is of more interest to people of today. It will be remembered that on the night of September 8, 1900, a furious wind drove the waters of the gulf over the city and through the channel, piling them up in the bay. In receding, this immense body of water swept over the city, meeting the waters of the gulf near the center of the city, carrying destruction and death before it. Millions of dollars' worth of property and from six to eight thousand lives were lost during that night of horror. One thing of especial interest to the Latter-day Saints, in connection with the storm, is the fact that four of our elders were in the city, doing missionary work —they were Horace L. Johnson, Peter A. Norton, Heber N. Folkman and Samuel Shaw. They all escaped uninjured. As soon as those who remained in the city had recovered from the first effects of the calamity that had come upon them, their attention was turned to the probable effects the storm would have upon the future of the city. It was seen that if Galveston

as a seaport was to attain the importance to which her geographical location and fine harbor entitled her, some means must be adopted to guard against a recurrence of the scenes of September 8. The difficulties that confronted those who took hold of this problem were such as might have discouraged less determined men. The memory of the thousands of lives lost, and the millions of dollars' worth of property destroyed, was still fresh in the minds of the people of the country; a great part of the city had been swept clean of its buildings; the elevation of the city being so low — the highest part being but seven feet above mean low tide — there might be at any time a visitation as destructive as that through which the city had recently passed added to this was the ;

more serious condition of the city's finances. The floating debt January 1, 1901, was $204,974.54; the bonded indebtedness, between two and three millions !of dollars, the interest on which the city was unable to meet when, after the storm, the board of commissioners was given control. It is in times of adversity that we learn the real character of

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Concrete, 102,000 yards, 150,000 tons or 7,500 car loads; granite rip rap, 100,000 tons, or 5,000 car loads; sand, 40,000 yards, 50,000 tons, or 2,500 car loads; cement, 135, 000 barrels, 27,000 tons, 1,350 car loads; round piling, 18, 000, or 1,000 car loads/sheet piling, 4, 000,000 feet, or 750 carloads; reinforcing rods, 10 car loads: total carloads 18,000. This equals one car load of 40,000 pounds,

20 tons, to every foot of completed wall.

The expense of the construction of the wall and making the back fill of one hundred feet, is borne by Galveston county, while the expense of raising the grade of the city is borne by the city. It should be remembered, however, that the city furnishes, approximately, eighty per cent of the taxable property of the county. The cost of the sea wall when completed was $1,300,000. In addition to the between three and four miles of wall constructed by Galveston county, the United States government has built one and a half miles, beginning at the west end of the county's wall at Thirty-ninth street, and extending westward to Fifty-third street. The plan of the government wall is the same as that built by the county, with the exception that the government has used sandstone in place of granite in its corstruction. While the building of the sea wall was under way, preparations were going on for the raising of the grade of the city. May 19, 1903, the governor of the state, acting under a charter amendment provided for by act of the legislature, appointed Captain J. P. Alvery, John Sealy and E. R. Cheesborough members of the grade-raising board of the city of Galveston. Mr. Cheesborough, from whom the writer has gotten much of the information for this article,was chosen as secretary of the board. At the first meeting of the board, May 23, 1903, it was apparent to their minds there were two serious problems to be solved, if the work for which they had been appointed was to succeed.

The first was, that of raising the funds to pay for the work; the second, that of obtaining the material for raising the crade and placing it. The first of these was solved through a plan by which one-third of the cost of the work was to be paid for in cash and the other two-thirds in five-per-cent gold bonds, the bonds to be turned over as they are earned by the contractors. The solution of the second of these problems was in a plan submitted by Messrs. P. C. Gebhardt and Lindon W. Bates, contractors, of New York.

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The plan so submitted by these gentlemen was as follows: The material to be used in raising the grade of the city was to be taken from the bay and the channel between the government jetties. Self-loading and discharging dredges were to be used for the work: a canal two hundred feet wide and twenty feet deep was to be cut back of the sea wall, the earth from which would be used in making the one hundred feet fill back of it. The dredges, propelled by their own machinery, would enter this canal and force the mud and water taken from the bay and the canal through discharge pipes into the districts to be raised; the mud would settle and the water would return through a channel to the great canal. When grade was raised to the required height, the canal would be filled

by the same process to the grade of the city. This plan, it was seen, was entirely feasible, and on December 11, 1903, the contract was awarded Gebhart and Bates by the city at 18i cents per cubic yard for the filling in place, amounting to $1,938,175, and by the county for the one hundred feet fill back of the wall, at 20 cents per cubic yard, amounting to $142,000. In raising the grade of the city, 3, 000 houses will have to be raised, at an estimated cost of $1,000,000, the expense of which is borne by the property owners; many miles of the street railway will have to be reconstructed, the estimated cost of which is

$2,500,000; the water system in the raised districts will have to undergo many changes, which will add another big item to the cost of this remarkable work. Galveston, without her magnificent oleanders and beautiful flower gardens, would not be Galveston; but these will not grow in the salt-soaked sand and mud used in raising the grade of the city; many are, therefore, piling up the soil from the streets and their gardens, to be used for soiling pur-

poses when the filling is completed, but most of the soil to be used for this purpose will have to be brought from the mainland. This work of rehabilitating the city will add another item of expense that will reach a figure of no inconsiderable proportion. The contract for raising the grade of the city provides that the work shall be completed in 1907. There will be no failure on the part of the contractors, unless something unforeseen happens to interfere with the prosecution of their labors, for their four steam

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dredges are working so successfully that they are depositing a sufficient quantity of filling to insure the completion of the work within the specified time. The filling is done by districts, and as each district is completed, the city has men at work surveying and grading the streets. The plan of reconstruction has in view the paving of the streets and driveways with sea shell, and the soiling of the streets, esplanades and parks to the depth of two or three feet, that the city may be beautified with trees, shrubs and flowers. When the plan is completed, Galveston will stand, not only as a monument of the heroism and energy of its inhabitants, but as one of the safest and most artistic seaports of the continent.

Kansas City, Mo.

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an individual or a people. The people of Galveston were now to be put to the test; nobly they were to respond to it. A board of engineers, composed of men of wide experience — Gen. H, M. Roberts, Alfred Noble and H. C. Ripley — was employed to decide upon some feasible plan for the protection of the city. After carefully looking over the situation, the board decided to recommend the construction of a sea wall on the east and south sides of the island — the gulf side — running from a connection with the government jetties to avenue A, and Sixth street to Thirty-ninth street, the wall to be reinforced by a back fill of one hundred feet the height of the wall ;and the raising of the grade of the city. The recommendations of the board were adopted, and the contract for the construction of the was finally let to John M. sea wall O'Rourke and George M. Steinmetz. Work was commenced October 30, 1902, and the great wall was finished July 30, 1904. For a description of the wall we cannot do better than quote from a work published by A. A. Fink & Co. ''The wall is a little over three miles in length, sixteen feet wide at the base, five feet wide on the top, and seventeen feet high above low mean tide. The foundation of the wall rests upon four rows of round piling twelve inches in diameter and driven four feet apart into the ground, forty-four feet down into the clay. There is also a row of sheet piling just inside the outside row of round piling, driven into the ground twenty-six feet below mean tide to prevent undermining. There is also an apron twenty-seven feet wide by about four feet thick, extending seaward in front of the wall, composed of solid granite blocks, as a further protection in case of storms and undermining currents. "The wall proper is composed of solid concrete, made of crushed granite from Granite Mountain, Texas, sand from San Jacinto River, cement from Germany, and water from Alta Loma, Texas, all thoroughly mixed by immense machinery constructed especially for the purpose, and tamped into forms and sections; and to give additional strength, immense steel rods, nine feet in length, are placed in the wall every three feet." That one may judge of the magnitude of this great undertaking, the following figures may prove of interest