The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-10-21
AN OCTOBER HURRICANE.
Swept by Wind and Flood, No
Trace Is Left Of Sabine
Pass.
Scores of Families Perish in the
Settling Waters Of the T
Gulf.
Galveston Texas, dispatch

storm at Sabine Pass come in slowly,
though they all agree that there has been
great loss of life and property. The waters
began TO invade the town from the gulf and
the lake together about 2 o'clock, and rose
with unprecedented gapidity. Citizens Of
the doomed place did not realize the i'm
minent danger until it was too late to es-
cape, when safety by fight was out of the
question. The water kept rising, and be-
tween and o'clock the smaller houses
began to yield to the resistless force
OF the waves, and not only
moved from their foundations but
turned on their sides and tops. little
later the large houses began to give way,
and death by drowning seemed inevitable
for every citizen of the place. With the
yielding of the smaller houses several per-
sons who had remained in them were
drowned, and when residences and bust
ness places began to crumble the fatality
began to double. The following incom-
plete list of the drowned was obtained:
Miss Mahala, Jim Vondy and family of
six, Mrs. Otto Brown and two children,
Homer King, wife, and child Mrs. Junker
and son, Mrs. Pomeroy and family OF FIVE,
Mrs. Stewart, daughter, and son; WI
son, Mrs. Arthur McReynolds, Mrs. Nc
Donald and daughter, Frank Mulligan and
family, Columbus Martee and family.
About twenty five colored people, whose
names could not be learned, were also
drowned This list comprises over sixty
souls, -mong them some of the leading
families of the place. There are many
others, and it is feared that whole families
in different parts of the place have been
swept away without leaving a person or
yestige to indicate their horrible fate. 1t is
said that the situation during the latter
part of the afternoon beggars description
the manifestation of terror and agony by
people looking death III the face and real
izing that there was no escape, the diving
cries of women rendered almost inaudible
by the roar of the sea, the hoarse voice of
pallid men trying TO save those dear to
them, all combined, made a scene too hor-
rible to be described.
The damage to property ut Sabine is very
great. The wharf property of the town was
owned by New York capitalists, who also
own the adjoining lands and were aiming
TO make Sabine Pass an important port on
the Gulf coast. The citizens of Beaumont,
on receipt of the news, Immediately made
preparations for relief. The East Texas
Railroad placed an engine at their disposal,
and party of men have gone TO Orange to
procure boats and start for the scene.
Another dispatch says the damage Gone
bv the storm at Beaumont is also consider
able, number of houses being blown down
and many of the principal lumber mills
damaged. The track of the East Texas
and Sabine Railway is washt d away for
miles in a numb of places. besides dam
age being done to bridges AMI depots.
According to the most experienced navi-
gators on this coast, it was Lake SabineT
which destroyed the town, which lies only
four feet above mean low water, and is
bounded on the west by great swamp.
The hurricane OF last Sunday in the West
Indies blew the waters with great vic$
lence toward the Texas coast. This hurri-
cane wave was first noticed on this coast on
Sunday morning, attaining its maximum on
Tuesday afternoon, and was maintained at
a high point by the impetus of the waters
behind. The hurricane itself did not reach
these coasts at all, as scarcely n breath
of wind was stirring when the tidal wave
first touched the coast. When its maximum
was reached on Tuesday afternoon, how
ever, fierce northwestern gale sprang up
along the whole coast, and at Sabine this
gale blew the waters out of Lake Sabine
and drove them toward the gulf, where the
lake waters were met by the great swell
caused 10y the hurricane. This resulted in
town, and submerging the country for ten
miles around without moments notice.
This account of the disaster Is confirmed
by our experience here with the same gale,
and all information from Sabine also con-
firms the above theory.
An Orange (Tex.) special says: Two
brothers named Pomeroy wers picked up
10y the schooner Andrew Btdin in Sabine
Lake. They had been in the water thirty
Il, -
Their mother and sister. and Mrs. Capt
Junker, her son, and a little girl Of the
party were lost. The Pomeroys report
that fifty lives were lost at the Porter
House, where the people hld collected as
the best place of safety. Ii went TO pieces
at 3 o'clock. Many persons are missing.
Lake Charles La) special says: The
loss OF property along the Cameron Parish
gulf coast and for some distance west of
Sabine Pass by the storm of Tuesday
night was fearful. The mailboat from
Cameron Parish reports that the water at
Calcasieu Pass was eight feet deep ut the
lighthouse, and that the entire country
east and west was submerged Tuesday
night, drowning thousands of cattle and
running crops. No lives were lost ut Lees
burg or Calcasieu Pass, bu. the following
are reported lost ut Johnson's Bayou. La:
Albert Lambert and family; Marion Lukes
ana family; George Strlever and family,
l.. Charles Blanchet and family; Radford
Grey and family; - Franesware and
family; - Franesware and family. Be-
sides many others whose names have not
been acertalned.
Sabine Pass is situated ut the southeast
corner of Texas, in jefferson County, upo4
a narrow strip of water also called Sabine
Pass. less than two miles in length, through
which the waters of Sabine Lake empty in
to tie Gulf of Mexico. The lake, which
is about fourteen miles long and ten miles
wide, forms n reservoir into which the
rivers Neches and Sabine flow. The town
of Sabine Pass is tie terminal point OF
the Sabine Il East Texas Railway, now
part OF the Southern Pacific system, since
the completion of which two years ago ct
has increased from the three or four hun
dred inhabitants it had in 1880 TO about
three times that number.
Sabine Pass has obtained considerable
notoriety on account of its barber, which
has been frequently recommended by Gov.
eminent engineers as the best in natural
o1vopfooac N.aaf ~ NaU Orlaana ITpOD