Main Street Indianola 1873
Images of Indianola Prior to Storm of 1875
In 1853 Indianola was moved from Indian Point (which then became known as Old Town) to Powderhorn Bayou. The decision to relocate made the town more vulnerable to rising waters and storm surge from tropical storms and hurricanes. The elevation at Indian Point is greater by several feet than the townsite of Indianola. Indian Point is also nearer Magnolia Beach which has significant elevation over either of the two and could have offered protection to residents from the storm.
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From: Yellow Fever in Indianola, Texas A Modern-Day Ghost TownBy Jacy Teston and Jeremy Skopal
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John Phillip Smith, son of Henry Smith, was visiting his cousins the Hills on Matagorda Island when the storm hit. 13 people clung to the roof when the house washed away, but only John Phillip and cousin William Andrew Hill, Jr. survived by clinging to boards and debris through the night until they were washed ashore on higher ground 8 miles away. Read the whole story below, along with what houses remained after the storm, as recounted by John Phillip's son, Frederick Joseph Smith.
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Thomas Flintoff - Indianola, Texas and Indianola with Lavaca Point in the Distance 1852, Google Art Project
The homes of Captains Henry Rahtgens and Henry Smith, located at Old Town and Alligator Head, respectively, fared better than most. Harry (son of Henry) provided a first-hand account.
From: Indianola, The Mother of Western Texas, by Brownson Malsch, State House Press, Austin, 1988
1875 Storm, Indianola Hurricane
Heat. Humidity. Mosquitoes. Primitive Conditions. Yellow Fever. Cholera. Texas Blue Northers. And now Hurricanes? How could immigrants, many from verdant Hessian wine-growing areas, have ever predicted what life would be like on the Texas Gulf Coast?
The Storm of 1875, while not as severe meteorologically as the Storm of 1886, was far more devastating and took more lives, as Indianola was a bustling port town on the rise.
SOURCE: Indianola Scrap Book, Page 185. Originally compiled and published by THE VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Victoria, Texas, 1936. Republished: 1974 by Calhoun County Historical Survey Committee, George Fred Rhodes, Chairman, Port Lavaca, Texas. Published by The Jenkins Publishing Company, San Felipe Press, Austin. Reprinted with an index compiled by Leonard Joe McCown
Not every family was so lucky.
Victoria Advocate , September 24, 1875