Nicaragua 1988, part 2

The Witness for Peace travelers began to see a little of the city of Managua on their first day on the ground. I found that a group of Benedictine Monks also chronicled a similar trip in 1988. A photo on this site, unidentified for location, looks like the "violent murals" that my mother refers to in her notes. This is what she said about that Sunday:

Sunday a.m.
Up early and no water. A man brought me a can full and a plastic bowl, my shower for today.

General orientation with Don:

•        Buddy system, I am paired with Kate Adams
•        Clayton and I to do daily health checks
•        Ask to take pictures of people
•        Shake hands, hello and good by
•        Water is ok in Managua
•        Water is off here on Monday and Thursday about 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. from two tanks, may get some
•        Carry passport and yellow paper visa at all times

Breakfast of rice, two fried eggs, hot bread, and mango juice. Off to the Cardinal’s church. Bad streets, houses have open doors but barred windows, loud music, abject poverty to our eyes.

The cathedral was destroyed in the earthquake of ’72. This church is used by the Cardinal (Abano). He did not say this Mass. Church was nearly filled, all doors wide open. The music was surprisingly up-beat, a structured liturgy with communion on the tongue. The sermon was on the Gospel, but somewhat political with applause at the end, anti-government (so say those who understood.) It was a medium sized church, not at all ornate.

Lunch at a restaurant, then a city tour. No real sense of “city,” very spread out, many shells from the earthquake, grassy spots then normal looking buildings. None are very tall, only two hotels and a bank are.Videotaped by a TV crew on us TV added to push to get rid of Samoza. Huge statue of a peasant/soldier, gun in one hand and ? in other. Children’s park, a memorial for 12 year old boy martyr. Many families in the park, food vendors, rides. We walked through to the Grand Plaza. National on one side, Cathedral, memorials, graves of ?, eternal flame. Also a Buddhist monk from Japan on a 40 day fast in solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and in memory of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, begun on August 6^th. When it began to rain he covered his shrine and continued to sit there.

Then we went to a new church for the 5:30 Mass. Music was quieter than I expected. Church is almost round, with violent murals, people coming and going, crowded. Again the homily was on the reading and the priest was applauded but his reflection was different, then two women and a man spoke. At the offertory the congregation went to the altar with their contributions. We sang “We Shall Overcome” and the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Back to the hotel after for supper of chicken, rice, and beans with yucca, tomato, coleslaw salad and a fruit drink.

Reflection turned into a wrangle over the man we took from the cathedral to Mass and sent home in a taxi.

Last night was punctuated by a thunder storm, then the roosters. Another long day.

Nicaragua, An Experience Like No Other

This is more introspective than most of my posts that deal with the more distant past. I grew up in a small town where my parents associated with like-minded people and supported anti-war causes during the Vietnam War. Dad ran for U.S. Congress in 1970 against a long time “hawk” in a conservative, rural district and was defeated soundly. We followed the Watergate hearings on our small, black and white TV during the summer of 1973 and cheered when Nixon resigned. 

My mother enjoyed being socially conscious. She demonstrated for peace at a nearby air base. A letter to the New York Times that was printed in the Sunday Magazine was one of her greatest achievements. When she traveled to Nicaragua with Witness for Peace from August 20^th to 29^th, 1988 she was 64. She wrote a diary that I read now with my own 60-year-old eyes. We are in strange times these 30 years later. How will I, how will each of us, make a difference?

Brief background: Daniel Ortega was President of Nicaragua in 1988, leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front which had successfully overthrow the dictatorial Somoza government. While supplying economic aid to Ortega’s government, the U.S. under Regan continued to back the opposition right-wing Contras in the continuing civil war. Daniel Ortega was reelected in 2006 and rules today. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Level 3 advisory issued 6 July 2018 by the U.S. State Department lists crime, civil unrest and limited health care availability as significant deterrents to travel. Non-emergency U.S. government personnel have been brought home. My son wisely decided against crossing into Nicaragua this summer as he toured nearby countries.

These are the words of Betty Simmons as she entered this war zone as a Witness for Peace:

This was an experience like no other. I answered a notice in the Sun in May. Went to a planning meeting in June where I met many of my fellow travelers. It seemed like a real mixed group: two Syracuse University students, a language teacher, a photographer, a Maryknoll priest and a nun, a social service worker, two retired men, a Witness for Peace young man; one or two who plan to go were not able to attend. We hope for 16.

Joe is supportive; Hugh thinks I am insane; representative of reactions. Solidarity from true friends. 

July and August, time for preparation: shots, ordering medications, thinking of what to pack and what not to pack. Collected antibiotics, soap, pens, etc. to leave there. Many well wishes, calls, just before time to leave.

Final meeting at Larry Tetler’s in Fayetteville on Friday night. Joe took me. Proud to have two carry-on sized bags and my small backpack. We talked of money – I am to carry ¼ of our funds for Nicaragua. We labeled a number of cartons: dental, medical, and school supplies.

The participants:

Sharon Souva

Sr. Chris Slomiliski

Barb deFrancqueville

Bonnie Windfield

Kate Adams

Mary Sopchak

Sophie Oldfield

Dennis Nett

Rev. Ted Sizing

George Burton

Ben Tupper

Clayton Koontz

Peter Wirth

Larry Tetler

Sim Doherty

Jack Pelletier

and me!

August 20

Overnight with Clayton. Fitful sleep. Good hot shower. Coffee and fresh peaches for breakfast. His wife drove us to the airport where (all but Sophie) met. Boxes checked through. Off at 7:00 with a stop in Cleveland and long wait in Miami. On to Honduras. Two stops for fuel. Then at Tegucigalpa to change planes. Can see many U.S. helicopters and planes and many armed soldiers at the airport, a duty-free shop, a woman selling drinks from a make-shift bar and sitting on a carton. In less than an hour aboard our second TAM-Sasa flight for about ½ hour flight to Managua. Too dark to see much of anything. Took quite a while to change our money ($60 each, 380 c. to $1) and get our yellow visa. We all adopted a woman and her baby (months old) coming from Miami to visit her family in Managua. No soldiers here!

We were met by Michelle, a long-term Witness for Peace, and Don Reasoner, Center for International Dialogue. Our bus is far from new. The owner and a driver go with it. Off to our hotel Colibri. Bonnie, Mary, Sophie and I volunteer to sleep next door. Introduction to the third world: dim light, people at a table near the entry, clothing drying, shower and latrine, stationary tubs. Down the hall to our room: four cots, no window, very warm (like Hong Kong). It was a long, long day. Paper thin walls: two young men talking over their evening.

Transcription, Handwriting and a Queen

Compiling the list of the Galveston 1900 Storm dead by GTHC has been a herculean task that continues to this day. It is understandable that inconsistencies persist. Several individuals with the surname Terrell are found on the on-line list: "Mrs. M.E.," "Queen age 33," and "Mrs. Q.V." with four children, all African American.

The entry for this family in the 1900 census in Galveston has been indexed incorrectly, but close reading of the names reveals their identities. The Terrells are indexed at Ancestry as Manny and Susan Terrall. At first look, it could be "Maurice."

Cross-referencing with the 1899 City Directory, we see that Manny is Morris E. Terrell, pastor of St. Luke's Missionary Baptist church at 1510 15th Street. This corresponds with the location of the family shown on the census. 

St. Luke's Missionary Baptist Church is still active in Galveston. The "history" portion of their web site at www.slmbc-gi.org reveals that this church was established in 1894 by 36 members of the Union Baptist church located at 11th and K. They name Rev. E.M. Terrell as their second pastor. The early church is described: These faithful members saved nickels, pennies and dimes to purchase property where they could assemble together for worship. Over a period of time, a lot and two buildings were purchased at 15th Avenue and Avenue N. One building served as the house of worship; the other was used as the parsonage. In 1900, a storm destroyed both buildings. 

The marriage of M.E. Terrell and Queen Alexander took place in 1890 in Waller, Texas, northwest of Houston. This corresponds with the births of the children listed in the 1900 census, born between 1892 and 1898. If the pattern of births every two years continued, Queen may have been pregnant when the storm hit.

Although "Susan" may be a more common name and the transcriber can be forgiven for the error in identifying Queen, the origin of her name can be better understood by reviewing the 1870 census.

Philip and Harriet Alexander, living in Hempstead, Texas, named their daughter Queen Victoria during the reign of Victoria in Great Britain. Queen named her oldest daughter Beatrice, the name of Victoria's youngest child and companion after the death of Prince Albert. In 1880 the Alexander family was enumerated about 10 miles away in Waller. The name of Philip's second daughter, Proserpine, also had royal origins, being  a daughter of Zeus and Demeter in classic mythology. In 1880 she was enumerated simply as "P."

Morris E. Terrell can be found in Galveston's tax records in 1894 as paying his poll tax. No records in Morris' name are found after 1900, leading to the conclusion that it is not Mrs. but Mr. M.E. Terrell who should be in the list of storm dead, and that his wife was counted twice as Mrs. Q.V. and as Queen, age 33.

Jennie Summers Livingston

In many cases, large families were lost as their homes washed away in the 1900 Storm in Galveston. However, a single line entry in the 1900 census at an address in the "danger zone" near the Gulf has another story to tell.

Jenny, or Jennie, Livingston was a widow at 26, and working as a music teacher in 1900. She lived in a rented home on Avenue T at 39th Street and had been employed consistently for the past 12 months. She had been married for 9 years, which corresponds with a marriage licence filed in Harris County by William G. Livingston on 27 October 1891. He swore that he was over 21 years of age, and that his bride, Jennie A. Summers was over 18.

In the 1891/2 City Directory for Galveston, William G. Livingston was listed as a fireman for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad. His residence was at 3202 Avenue R, with a Frances E. Livingston, widow of Edward. These appear to be his parents, based on their entry in the 1880 census in Galveston. In 1893 William paid his $1.50 poll tax in Galveston. In 1895/6 he resided at 4308 Church Street and was again employed as a fireman at or by Santa Fe.

The 1896/7 directory lists Jennie A, widow of W.G. Livingston, living at the southeast corner of 40th Street at Avenue T. where she was still living when the 1899/1900 directory recorded her as a teacher at a private school. A listing in the Lakeview Cemetery in Galveston at Find-a-Grave has W.G. Livingston dying in 1895 at Alvin.

Although Jennie states that she had two children who were both living when the census was taken in 1900, they did not live in her household. Between her husband's death about 1895 and 1900 she must have found herself unable to care for her children. After five years of marriage she had to earn a living, which may not have been enough to provide for three. Her mother-in-law Frances, age 48, was supporting herself and her 17-year-old daughter by teaching as well.

Jennie's boys are likely the Livingston children listed in 1900 among the 43 "inmates" in the Galveston Orphans' Home at 21st and M. Willie was reported on the census to have been born in October of 1892, about a year after Jennie and William's marriage. Next in the listing is Stanley Livingston, born September of 1894. Although she must have been pained to place her sons in the care of others, this action saved their lives. The orphanage, now the Bryant Museum, was damaged in the hurricane of September 1900, but suffered no casualties. The children were moved to Houston during reconstruction, to the Buckner Baptist Children's Home.

Young Willie may have been living independently back in Galveston in 1910, when a William G. "Levingston," age 17, was boarding on 24th and H, and working as a laborer on a ship. There is a Stanley Livingston whose Baltimore WWI draft registration states that he was born in Galveston. At that time, he had a wife and child. Frances Livingston is on the list of the storm dead, but not her daughter, Frances. The younger Frances does not appear to be in Galveston in 1910, but if she survived, she may have married and changed her name by then. The rest of the Livingston legacy is as yet undiscovered.

Jennie's short life had its joys and sorrows. She deserves to be remembered.

Memorial Day 2018 - Wendell War Memorials

Wendell's war memorial sits on the old town common. Bronze plaques have been affixed to millstones as uniform monuments to the 20th century conflicts. I will check back in the future and see if the fourth stone will also hold names from the earlier wars. This transcription is part of The Honor Roll Project

The first plaque reads:

In Memory of Those Who Served in The World War from Wendell, Massachusetts

*Frank E. Richards

Edwin D. Austin

Clarence C. Begor

Frank Betters

Edith F. Bowen R.M.

Webster M Brown

John E. Burkhardt

George A. Cogswell

Frank H. Day

Marvin N. Ellis

Jesse L. Haskins

Gustoff A. Hook

Ralph L. Jennison

Arthur Parent

Carl J. Sandberg

Gustav L. Sandberg

Leon O. Taylor

Erected by Wendell Grange 1930

On the 150th Anniversary

Of the Incorporation of the Town

World War I Monument

In Memory of Those who Served in World War II From Wendell Massachusetts

*George H Gardner

* Calvin P. Merchant

Raymond E. Avery

Edward J. Bezio

Clayton J. Bezio

Leon Bezio

M. James Bowen

Kenneth W. Clarkk

Adam Drozdowski

Joseph Drozdowski

Robert E. Ellis

Andrew J. Fox

Myron A. Gibbs

Rubert V. Goddard

Avery H. Harrington

Eugene A. La Valle

Arthur B. Lewis, Jr.

Dale W. Lewis

Donald G. Lewis

Ralph E. Lewis

Ruth V. Lewis

Albert H. Hulholland

Merrill A. Noyes

Lewis E. Powling

Merle O. Powling

Clarence H. Pratt

Jesse W. Pratt

Charles F. Reed

John L. Van Rensselaer

Earl E. Sabot

Sherman W. Sadler

Roland L. Sears

Charles M. Wetherby

Francis E. Wetherby

Clarence O. Wetherby

Raymond C. Wirth

Erected by Town of Wendell and Grange

World War II Monument

In Memory of Those Who Served in the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts from Wendell, Massachusetts

Korea

Elmore Andrews

Richard Bezio

Edward Duhaime

Donald Ellis

Harry Lewis

Roy Sampson

Merrill Wetherby

Robert Ashley

Kenneth Clark

Theodore  Lewis

Edward Wirth

Stephen Clark

Richard Hurtle

John Peettit

William Starkey

Myron Bowen

Vietnam

Joseph Bagdonas

John Carey

Donald Cornwell

Gary Cornwell

David Hisdreth

Arthur Taylor

David Wilder

Leonard Wirth

Anthony Diemand

Joseph Diemand

Ray Chevalier

Edward Chase

Robert Durkee

Kenneth Wing, Jr.

Dennis Lewis

Erected by the Town of Wendell and Through the Generous Donation of Many Private Citizens

Allison Update - Good News

The Allison family of Galveston and New Orleans, profiled earlier, was not completely wiped out in the 1900 storm. The eldest son, Walter, survived!

Walter was born in December of 1881, according to the 1900 census of Galveston, recorded just a few weeks before the storm. At 18, he was employed as an apprentice machinist at a foundry. We can speculate that he was at his job when the storm began, and was prevented from returning to his home near the Gulf. Several iron works were listed in the city directories, the largest being Lee Iron Works, near the railroad station on the north side of the island. He may have been the informant that enumerated eight children of his parents among the storm dead, including his two uncles, Edward and Archie Reagan.

In 1910, Walter can be found still living in Galveston, in the household of Lewis Cook on Avenue F near 12th Street. He married Katie Beagor(?) soon after and had a daughter Ethel in 1911, and a son, Walter, jr. in 1914. Walter Allison died in San Antonio on 19 October 1918 of influenza at the peak of the epidemic there. The disease had spread very quickly through the city. and its Army installations. See more details here.

Walter was buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Galveston, near the Gulf. His wife, Kate, returned to Galveston and remarried to Gustov Hoff, a German tailor. They moved to Washington, D.C. by 1930 where they had a shop. Ethel married and had a son whom she named Walter. Her brother, Walter, had married and was working for the Treasury Department, but had no children at the time of the 1940 census. Several more generations of Allison descendants could be alive today, far removed from the horrific storm of 1900.

Helen and Wylie Smith

Included among the Galveston storm dead from 1900 are Wylie Smith, with his wife and child. They are designated as African Americans with the notation (c) next to their names on the Galveston and Texas History Center list. We can add a few details that characterize them beyond their listing among the many Smiths who died that day.

The 1900 Galveston census names Wylie's wife, Helen, whom he had married four years earlier. She was 45, born in 1855 in Texas. She states that her parents were born in Virginia and Alabama, respectively. She didn't give a month for her birth, although Wylie did: February of 1848. He was a "drayman" in 1900, transporting goods with a horse and wagon. He was born in Alabama, as were his parents. Although both Helen and Wylie could have been born into slavery, in 1900 they owned a home without a mortgage at 3314 Q Street. They were older parents of one-year-old Helen F. who was approaching her second birthday.

This snapshot in time on 8 June 1900 cannot give more than a hint of their past lives. Had they raised or lost more children or spouses in their younger years? Carrying a surname like Smith makes further investigation even more difficult.

He Was an Inventor

The Galveston and Texas History Center at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston maintains a database of the storm dead from the hurricane of 1900. There are 5,132 individuals tabulated. Estimates are that 8,000, or even as many as 12,000 were killed. Only 215 names were available to be taken from the coroner's records. It was truly "the worst of times" and so many individuals could not be identified, or were never found. We are reminded that only those who were killed during the storm are listed on the GTH Center web site: "This list does not include victims who died of illness apparently received as a direct result of the 1900 Storm, such as insanity, exposure, skull fracture, tetanus, trauma and suicide. Many deaths through the months after the 1900 Storm were a result of malarial fever, dysentery, pneumonia, and tuberculosis."

Each of the victims had a story, although many did not leave records or descendants to tell that story. Many can be found in the census of 1900 in Galveston, taken at the end of June. City directories can add details for some. Some may have arrived on the ships that came to the harbor after June, or were transient workers. The family of Samuel B. Allison is one that leaves us enough clues to stimulate further exploration.

The census tells us that they lived at 2532 35th Street in Galveston in a home they owned without a mortgage. They had also been in Galveston in 1880, living in the heart of downtown on the Strand. Samuel was 29, with his wife Mary at just 19. Their first child, Daisy, was an infant. Their next child, Walter, was also born in Texas, two years later. Sometime between 1882 and 1886 they moved to Louisiana, where their younger children were born: Clarence, Arthur, Herbert, and Alberta. Mary stated in the 1900 census that she had borne 7 children and 6 were still living. They had adopted another son, John, aged 11, who had been born in Louisiana. Mary's Texas-born brothers, Edward and Archie Reagan, were also in their household.

It is the occupation Samuel gave on the 1900 census that led to another discovery: mechanical inventor. He had applied for two patents. In 1898 and again in early 1900 he submitted applications for machines that would more efficiently separate fiber from stalks, such as flax. Both were granted in 1902 and acknowledged that he was deceased.

A few details about Samuel's appearance are found on his application for a passport in 1892: 5 feet 7 inches tall with hazel eyes and graying hair. In 1897 he can be found a the passenger list returning from a trip to Belize to New Orleans. 

When the storm came to Galveston on 8 September 1900, the Allison family had only been in residence again for a short time. Their youngest child had been born in Louisiana in August of 1898. Further research into their life in New Orleans could add more details to their narrative. A C. A. Dorrestein was acting in his behalf when the patents were granted in 1902.

Jaques Ardisson, Carpenter

So many families huddled in their homes during the 1900 hurricane in Galveston, hoping to ride out the storm. They may have raised the structures on stilts to stay dry above the high tides of past storms. The homes near the Gulf of Mexico on S Street were relatively small frame residences on lots that were 40 feet wide. The family of Jaques Ardisson, a French-born carpenter, lived in such a home on S 1/2 Street near 37th Street. The 1899 Sanborn map shows no other homes on the block between their front porch and the Gulf. They could enjoy the view of sunrise over the water.

The census that was taken in Galveston in June of 1900 enumerates the residents of the neighborhood. Jaques was 41, living in a mortgaged home that he owned. His wife was Josphine Falco, who had been born in Louisiana, but stated that her parents were of German and Spanish origin. Her brother Joseph Falco was living with them and was also working as a carpenter at 24, likely assisting his brother-in-law. Josephine said she had given birth to 10 children, of whom 8 were living. At 33 she had a 15-year-old, Joseph, who had left school and was working as an office boy. Did they have an older child, who had already married and left home? The younger six children are listed in sequence: Annie G. 13, James S. 11, Francis M. 9, Russie F. 6, Viola, 4, and Louis 2.

The Ardisson family are all counted on the official list of storm dead, as well as J. A. C. Falco. It is unlikely that any of the small homes could have withstood the power of the hurricane, virtually on the beach, and at sea level before the construction of the seawall.

Bulanek of Brevnice

Galveston has been called the "Ellis Island of the West," a significant port of entry for Eastern Europeans at the turn of the 20th century. One of the families who sailed to this southern port, seeking a new life, was Vincenc Bulanek, with his wife Anna and six children.

The Bulaneks were Bohemian. They arrived on the steamship Ellen Rickmers on 28 December 1898. They had left the port of Bremen more than three weeks earlier. The manifest of the ship lists their last residence as Brevnice, 50 miles southeast of Prague in what is now the Czech Republic. Vincenc called himself a farmer and stated that their destination was Houston. He had $66 in his pocket.

Their new homeland was not kind to this immigrant family. Within eighteen months, the children had lost their parents and were living in St. Mary's Orphanage, where they are found in the 1900 census of Galveston. Although most of the children in residence were Texans, there were a few others who were foreign-born. The Bulaneks were the largest sibling group found in the list of over 70 children. Had they struggled to learn their new language? Their father reported that the oldest children, Fransiska and Fransisek, were able to read and write upon arrival. They were 13 and 11 in 1900. Then came their father's name-sake, Vincenc, at 9, Marie, who was 8, Josef 6, and Stepan, 2.

There is no reason to assume that the Bulanek children had found another home within the next few weeks, before the devastating hurricane in September. They would have been among the children who died with their protectors at the orphanage that day.

The Sisters of St. Mary's Orphanage

A monument in Galveston's Cavalry Cemetery memorializes the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. The first listed is Sister Mary Blandine Mathlin, named as a foundress of the order. With Sister Joseph Roussin and Sister Mary Ange Escude', she volunteered for a new mission in Galveston. They had been invited by the French-born bishop of Galveston, Claude Marie Dubuis, and came from Lyon in 1866.

The Bishop supported the construction of a charity hospital, St. Mary's, and the sisters began nursing in the community. It was an outbreak of yellow fever that took Sister Blandine in 1867. Many children were orphaned by the epidemic, and were taken in by the sisters. An orphanage grew by necessity and was later moved to the west, outside of the City where the sea breezes blew, as a buffer against future epidemics.

A group of ten sisters are listed on the cemetery monument as 1900 storm victims:



















Sister Mary Catherine Hebert 1855-1900
Elizabeth Ryan 1865-1900
Camillus Treacy 1865-1900
Evangelist Sullivan 1865-1900
Raphael Elliott 1873-1900
Genevieve Devalos 1820-1900
Felicitas Rosener 1866-1900
Benignus Doran 1877-1900
Finbar Creedon 1879-1900
Vincent Cottier 1853-1900


The hurricane of September 8th is still called the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. Sea level rose over 15 feet, and as buildings were dislodged from their foundations, became battering rams for those still standing. The dormitories of the orphanage collapsed.

History tells us that the sisters died protecting the children in their care, the orphans of St. Mary's orphanage. Each secured a group of children to her waist with clothesline, and all perished. Only three of the over 90 children in residence were found alive later, washed into the branches of a tree.

The 1900 census was taken just a few weeks before the hurricane, on June 27. Eight of the ten nuns listed above were enumerated at the orphanage on that day. The census tells us that Sister Vincent had come from France. Sister Catherine was French Canadian, as was Sister Genevieve. They listed their occupation as "needlework." Sister Elizabeth Ryan and Sister Evangelist Sullivan were as Irish as their names, both teachers, as were Sister Finbar and Sister Raphael. Sister Benignus was the cook for the home. There were also two servants listed.

There were 78 children meticulously enumerated, with real or estimated birth dates for all. Most were Texas-born. They ranged from 3 to 17 years of age. There was a family of six children who were Bohemian, three Germans, three Scots, who must have been newly arrived. A few were from other states: Louisiana and Pennsylvania.

A Texas state historical marker keeps the story alive to beachgoers who may pause to read its words: 

Children orphaned by a yellow fever epidemic in 1867 were cared for temporarily in Galveston's St. Mary's Infirmary by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. In 1874, Galveston Bishop Claude Dubuis bought the 35-acre plantation and home of Farnifala and Laura Green located between this gulf front and Green's Bayou for use as a permanent orphanage. In early 1874, the sisters of St. Mary's Infirmary founded St. Mary's Orphan Asylum by housing 28 children here at the site of the Green's former residence. A two-story facility for orphan girls was built nearby in October 1874.

The girls' dormitory was all that remained of the orphanage after the storm of 1875. A new residence for boys was built by 1879. St. Mary's was caring for orphans from throughout Texas at the time it was granted a Texas charter in 1896.

The catastrophic storm of 1900 completely destroyed the orphanage. Ten nuns and at least 90 children were tragically killed despite the nun's valiant efforts to save the children by securing them to their own bodies with clothesline. Three orphan boys rescued at sea were the only survivors. St. Mary's orphan Asylum reopened at 40th and Q Streets in Galveston City in 1901 and remained there until closing in 1967.

Drowned, Sept. 8, 1900

I have been accused of becoming obsessed with those who don't have descendants to carry their memories. Without a doubt, the Great Storm of 1900 in Galveston, Texas, truncated the stories of thousands of individuals. So many died in the hurricane on that September night that hundreds couldn't even be counted. Recent immigrants or whole families were swept away without a trace. Estimates of the dead range from 6,000 to 12,000, as much as 1/3 of the population of the booming city known at that time as the "Queen City of the Gulf."

This monument called out to me as I wandered around Lakeview Cemetery, which occupies the area between 57th and 59th Streets, just a block from the Gulf of Mexico. The stained marker reads:

In memory of 

JAMES N. WALSH

Born 1874

EMA WALSH

BORN 1882

Drowned Sept. 8, 1900

I was able to locate them on the 1900 census taken in Galveston in June of that year, listed as James and "Ama." He was a painter, born in Illinois, aged 25. She was only 17, and born in Texas. They were newlyweds, married the previous November. They were living in a rented single-unit home at 4110 M Street. Marriage records indicate her name was Emie Bentinck, likely the daughter of Henry and Eliza Jane (McHugh) Bentinck. Her parents and siblings are also interred in Lakeview Cemetery. They would have erected this memorial in her name, and lived out their lives in Galveston, fearing each storm that came on the horizon.

Chain Migration?

What happened when our ancestors made that decision to leave the land where they were born and make a leap into the unknown? Patterns of migration can be traced to the historic events of those regions: famine, pogroms, wars, feelings of despair over the economic future. Even the earliest settlers of this land that would become the United States were escaping debt, imprisonment, or religious persecution.

My known ancestors came to the US from England, Ireland and Poland. They came with not much more than the clothes on their backs. What they left behind might be considered "shitholes."

Few immigrants traveled alone. Passenger manifests from the mid-1800s often show groups of young Irish men and women in their teens and twenties. They had few career aspirations, most calling themselves "laborers," or "domestics." Passage may have been paid by pooling the family's resources to send one to the "Land of Opportunity" where they might improve their lot.

Let's be clear: before immigration laws were enacted in the early 1900s people from foreign countries needed no visas, no papers, no legal permissions to enter the United States. The boat docked at a port and the immigrants freely disembarked. Where there were screenings, as long as the immigrants were not obviously spreading disease, as long as they professed not to be anarchists nor polygamists, they were allowed entry.

Often new immigrants lived here in squalid conditions until they could earn enough money to afford better housing. And as soon as they had established themselves they paid passage for another relative, brother, sister, wife, parent. The family continued to pool their resources to provide for each other. Ethnic groups in their new country huddled together and provided comfort and support, a sense of familiarity, and financial support through ethnic mutual aid societies.

Now, to our family. When Piotr Szymanowicz, my father's father, arrived in New York Harbor in 1910 his destination was Easthampton, Massachusetts. His country did not exist as a political entity; they were under the rule of the Russian czar. Piotr had served his time in the Russian Army and didn't see a bright future as a fisherman. His brother-in-law Witold Zawacki was already in Easthampton, working in the mills, and paving the way for him. He traveled on the steam ship Kroonland from Antwerp. His sister-in-law was his travelling companion. Five months later, he sent for his wife and young son. Two more of the Zawacki brothers also immigrated. Witold later returned to Poland with a son who was born here and, therefore, an American citizens.  Sound familiar? These days the term "chain migration" is used pejoratively to describe families who reunite in the United States. It can take years, and sometimes decades to receive permission to resettle family members. This is not a vague concept; this is a reality that people I know well are dealing with.

Our Irish ancestors also left the dirt-poor "shithole" of western Mayo. My maternal great-grandparents, Dominick Meeneghan and Ellen Broderick, married in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1887. The Irish census of 1911 describes a family whom I believe to be Dominick's parents still living with 4 adult children in a single room home. That is what they left behind. I have yet to definitively make the connection between  Ellen and a likely older sister, Margaret, in Ohio, and the link between Dominick and his cousin in Springfield, New York. Dominick and Ellen settled in Springfield soon after their marriage. Within 5 years they were able to buy a home on an acre and a half of land where they raised eight children. They had land and education for their children that they could never have aspired to in Ireland. Ellen's sister also came to Springfield and lived across the street from them. Dominick's sister, Sarah, also lived nearby.

Meeneghan Wedding at their Home in Springfield, 1919

We all came from somewhere, and likely some of our ancestors had reasons for not looking back. What they found in the US was hope, if they could overcome prejudices and language barriers. They had family support and they worked hard. Not much has changed.