Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-10-09
A TOWN DESTROYED.
Description of the City of IndianoIa, De-
strOyed by the Cyclone.

Description of the City of IndianOIa, De-
strOyed by the Cyclone.
Indianola is one of the few towns of
Texas that can boast of its antiquity.
There, long before it was ceded to the
United States, large trade in hides,
furs and other products had grown up,
and although in the latter part of the
last century, and in this century, it has
been partially or wholly submerged by
the tidal flow, SO fatal to the gulf cities
and towns, phBnix-like, it has always re-
cuperated from the effects of tide, and
war, and wind, and remained the key of
the inland waterway that extends from
Cony river, in Brazoria county, Texas,
to the Rio Grande del Norte that divides
Texas from Mexico.
This inland sea, or waterway, is form
ed by the Matagorda, Corpus Christi
and Espiritu Santo bays, and the Laguna
of the Madre. It is divided from the
Gulf of Mexico by low, sandy beach,
extending all the way from the mouth of
the Sabine river at Sabine Pass, Louisi-
ana, to Brazos Santiago in Texas. A vast
amount of commerce yearly centers
along the line of this inland sea. Indian
ola and Corpus Christi being the chief
shipping points for exports of the pro-
ducts of all the counties between Austin,
Benham, Balena and the gulf, as we'll as
the chief ports of entry. Indianola is
the chief port of entry of the district of
Salmia, and before the railroads tapped
the towns that fed it, it was place of
considerable Importance commercially
and geographically.
1t is situated on a peninsula, where
the Laiacca river empties into Mata-
gorda bay the county of Calhoun, of
which it is the county seat, forming the
peninsula. Owing to its low situation it
is subject to inundation alike from the
immense body of water that overfows
Matagorda bay and the tidal waves from
the gulf that occasionally sweep over the
narrow beach that separates it from the
gulf.
Indianola is 140 miles southeast by
east of Austin, and 120 miles southwest
of Galveston. In 1870 it had popula-
tion of 2, ,106, which has increased to
5000. Of these nearly 500 are colored
1t is the terminus of the Gulf, Western,
Texas and Pacific railroad completed in
1878 to Cuero, in De Witt county, dis
tance of sixty. six miles,, which is to con-
larly to Corpus Christi and Galveston.
The commerce of the place is quite i'm
portant, there being entered in the year
ending August, 1872, in the country
trade, 242 vessels of 189,453 tons, of
which 149, of ,270, were steamers.
1t cleared in the same time $50 vessels,
of 1914, 1896 tons, of which 146, of 170,-
052, were steamers.
The receipts were 5,SO8,00O feet of
lumber and 2, $50, 900 shingles. It ship
ped 27, 461 head of animals, II, $40 bales
of cotton, 330,9 hides and 1924 bags
of wool in 1870. The value of imports
was in 1870 $82, 1853 and of exports $685.
658. Of the recent gales, that of July
18, 10 and 20, 1866, did the most dam
age. -Four vessels in that storm were
utterly annihilated, and remnants only
of others in port left to tell the tale of
the loss. On land the damage was little
less severe, and, while wharves were
submerged, houses swept from their
foundations and either scattered in frag-
mentary parts over the beach or bodily
swept into the angry torrent, there re-
manned on the afternoon of July 90
1866, sufficient enterprise implanted in
the inhabitants to begin the work of re-
building and reconstruction.
People like the residents of this inland
town, who have been ravaged by war,
pestilence and hurricane, and recupera-
ted from their effects, will not in this
later calamity sit down and weep, but
arise in the consciousness that they have
future before them, and rebuild upon
surer foundation, that will not be af-
fected when the rains descend and the
floods come.