The Horrendous History of Galveston, Texas

By Rich Grant
GoNOMAD Senior Writer

Does Galveston Island, Texas, have the most horrific history of any place in America?

Well, on a visit today, you’d be hard-pressed to think so.

The south shore of the island has 32 miles of sand beaches lined with family-friendly amenities — ice cream shops, amusement park rides, mini golf, and cool sea breezes, as well as acclaimed restaurants serving fresh seafood from the Gulf.

Fourth Largest Cruise Ship Port

The north shore is already the fourth largest cruise ship port in the United States with a fifth dock under construction.

Century-old buildings around the docks have been converted into trendy restaurants, hotels, boutiques, and, of course, T-shirt shops and bars.

A magnificent tall ship graces the waterfront. The sidewalks of the main street, The Strand, are shaded by verandas giving it sort of a “French Quarter” feel. 

Nearby are delightful neighborhoods of gardens and one of the nation’s largest collections of Victorian houses painted in pastel colors, all perfect for a stroll under a canopy of palm trees.

Haunted Wal-Mart

But Galveston’s history is not like any other beach town. During the black night of the monster 1900 Hurricane (more on that later), the ten sisters of St. Mary’s Orphanage gathered 93 children and herded them to the second floor.  The first floor was already underwater.

In the dark, with the wind howling at 150 miles per hour and the water still rising, to calm the excited children, the nuns had them sing their favorite song, Queen of the Waves. Fearing some children might wander off, the nuns tied them together with a clothesline. Their plan didn’t work.  All ten sisters and all but three of the children drowned. Their dead bodies were found on beaches and in the wreckage, groups of them still tied together with rope.

Years later, a Walmart was built on the site of the orphanage. Today, legend says, employees arriving at the store in the morning can hear scampering feet run away, and when the workers get to the toy department, toys have been left on the floor, as if someone played with them in the night.

America’s Worst Disaster

Because you can’t write a sentence about Galveston without mentioning the hurricane that struck here on September 8, 1900.  It was the worst natural disaster in American history.  In a matter of hours somewhere between 6,000 to 9,000 people were killed, about a third of the island’s residents.

The horror is incomprehensible. The hurricane struck with almost no warning. In one evening, the death toll was three times larger than the 9-11 attacks and twice as high as the death toll on D-Day.

Thousands of the dead were entangled in the wreckage of more than 3,200 homes that were demolished, their bodies lying under tons of timber and stone, rotting in the hot Texas sun. Rescue ships talked of the stench of death that could be smelled seven miles away.

Hospitals were overwhelmed. Galveston was only seven feet above sea level. Burying that many bodies was out of the question. African American dock workers who survived the hurricane were forced at gunpoint to stack 700 bodies in a ship, laying them out like cordwood. 

The ship then sailed 18 miles into the Gulf and dumped the dead, but they lacked enough loose iron to sink them.  Most of the corpses floated back to the beaches of Galveston.

Fire became an answer. Fires burned day and night across the island. The men charged with throwing bodies, including young children, into the blazing pyres were offered as much free whiskey as they could drink.

But despite the horror, it is Galveston’s history – and the town’s recovery – that makes it so fascinating. Your first stop should be the Galveston Bookshop. Don’t be put off by the drab exterior, this is a wonderful bookstore.  And the book to buy is Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm.

A clerk assured me that, beyond being a bestseller, this is the book that every BOI has read. BOI (Born on the Island) is a great distinction in Galveston, and you will meet many people who were born and lived their entire lives here. All six of my Uber drivers were BOI. And they all had stories about their relatives in the 1900 hurricane and the many other storms that followed.

So here are some sites to discover the unusual history of Galveston.

Founded by Pirates

In the early 1800s, Galveston was a 32-mile-long sandbar with little shade, known for a large population of rattlesnakes. But the island had a protected harbor making it perfect for pirates. At least, that’s what Jean Lafitte thought.  He was one of the last and most colorful pirates of the Gulf and Caribbean.

He and his brother Pierre operated for years in the swamps of Barataria Bay south of New Orleans, capturing ships (mostly Spanish, never American) and selling the booty and smuggled goods at ridiculously low prices out of a blacksmith shop.

This is now open as Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar, one of the most legendary bars in New Orleans.

Lafitte hated the Spanish and British and became famous for offering cannons, men, and powder to Andrew Jackson to help win the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. His reward?

The new American authorities threw him out. So the brothers Lafitte moved a small army of a thousand pirates to Galveston, where using fast, well-armed boats, they lived off Spanish ships.

Though little known today, in 1808, the United States banned the importation of slaves from any other nation. The domestic slave trade continued, but the importation of foreign slaves was illegal.

This was good news for pirates because the Gulf was still filled with ships of enslaved Africans being dragged to Cuba and South America.

Lafitte’s pirate band would capture these ships and sell the illegal slaves on Galveston for one dollar a pound. They also stole rum, silks, timber, cotton, guns — whatever they could get their hands on – and sold them for wildly discounted prices on Galveston, which became the center of illegal slave trade and piracy in North America.   

This story is told in the Pirates! Legends of the Gulf Coast Museum. It’s somewhat hokey and created mostly for kids who can fire a cannon and walk the decks of a re-created pirate ship.  But there’s enough real history here to tell the story of the Lafitte brothers and this dark chapter of Galveston’s history. 

Don’t miss A Pirates Life, Pirates Plunder, a short walk away on The Strand.  This is one of the best pirate stores in the nation where you can buy pirate costumes, pirate books and every pirate knickknack in creation. Nautical Antiques on Mechanic Ave. also has top-notch seafaring items. And since pirates and witches go hand in hand, fly over to The Witchery – a beautiful downtown shop filled with spells and witchcraft.

Galveston Under Eight Different Flags

The first inhabitants of what became known as Galveston were the Karankawa Indians, who spent part of the year fishing here in the 16^th century. It’s doubtful they – or the pirates – raised flags, but everyone else who controlled the island did including Spain, 1519-1685 and 1690-1821; France, 1685-1690; Mexico, 1821-1836; Republic of Texas, 1836-1845; Confederate States of America, 1861-1865; and the United States of America, 1845-1861 and 1865-present.

The new national holiday Juneteenth, originates in Galveston. News of the Civil War traveled slowly to the isolated island, and although the war ended in April 1865, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Confederate Galveston and raised the U.S. flag, that the enslaved people living here learned they were free with the same rights of citizenship as their former masters. 

The ensuing celebration on June 19 is now a national holiday, and its history is told in a special exhibit, And Still We Rise, housed at the historic Ashton Villa.

The rest of the crazy history of Texas jumps off the walls at The Bryan Museum, located in the old Galveston Orphans Home of 1895. The museum houses the private collection of J.P. Bryan, who has assembled an eclectic assortment of all things Texas, from a gigantic 320 square foot diorama of the Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, with hundreds of model soldiers fighting it out, to the actual sword used at that battle to capture Mexican dictator Santa Anna.

Walking from gallery to gallery, you’ll see tales of Davy Crocket, the Alamo, Spanish ships, and Texas Rangers. There are saddles, guns and even paintings by Andy Warhol. It’s fun.  And for kids, there’s a full pirate ship in the basement to play on.

Ellis Island in Galveston

Strolling down Galveston’s main street, The Strand, you can’t miss the elegant 1877 Tall Ship Elissa.  It is one of the oldest ships still sailing today. On board, you can run up and down the decks, take a turn at the wheel, and burrow down into the hold. Afterward, you should take the museum’s Historic Harbor Tour + Dolphin Watch.

There are lots of harbor tours in town, but this one comes with historians explaining how Galveston (before the 1900 Hurricane) was one of the biggest and fastest-growing harbors in the United States with more millionaires than New York. It was called the “Wall Street of the South” and was second only to Ellis Island as a place where immigrants arrived in the U.S.

The wealth generated from the harbor was the reason Galveston has so many mansions to tour, such as the 1892 Bishop’s Palace. On the museum’s historic harbor tour, you’ll see sunken ships, a World War I Dreadnought, dolphins, and huge oil tankers in the channel waiting to sail to Houston.

Ironically, before the 1900 Hurricane, Houston barely existed. Galveston was the most important city in Texas. After the storm, Houston dredged their harbor and took over most of the sea trade. Galveston needed a new economy.

Queen of the Gulf

With shipping investments hard to find, Galveston turned to tourism. However, it was tourism with a slight nod to the days of piracy. Being an island, Galveston police found it easy to “look the other way,” and the town developed a notorious reputation for its Red-Light District, illegal gambling and during Prohibition, rum running. Luxurious hotels served a wealthy clientele. You can still experience this “gilded age” at Hotel Galvez, known as the Queen of the Gulf.

Lavishly restored, today the hotel is an embodiment of what it was like when regular guests included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, as well as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who stayed for weeks at a time and had troops practice the D-Day invasion on Galveston’s beaches.

Enjoy the luscious lobby decked with potted plants and wicker chairs, stroll the palm-covered grounds with its cooling ocean breeze, and have a cocktail at the Founder’s Bar under the brilliant red chandeliers.

But be careful you don’t see Sister Katherine.  They say her ghost is here, along with some of the children she once cared for at St. Mary’s Orphanage. So if you hear a child’s laugh float through the open French-door windows or see a whisp of black cloth robe disappearing around a corner, remember, the Founder’s Bar is just a short walk away.

  Visit Galveston