Indianola, Texas facts for kids
Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1875, the city had a population of 5,000, but on September 15 of that year, a powerful hurricane struck, killing between 150 and 300 and almost destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, only to be wiped out on August 19, 1886, by another intense hurricane followed by a fire. Indianola was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1963, marker number 2642.
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History
German immigration port of entry
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, representing the Adelsverein, selected Indian Point in December 1844 as the port of entry for the Verein colonists from Germany. Prince Solms renamed the port Carlshafen in honor of himself, Count Carl of Castell-Castell and Count Victor August of Leiningen-Westerburg-Alt-Leiningen whom Solms claimed had been christened Carl. Prince Solms' choice of Carlshafen and its inadequate accommodations as a port of entry, as well as the isolated route to New Braunfels, was to keep the Germans from interacting with any Americans. In February 1845 Henry Francis Fisher conspired with Dr. F. Schubbert to coerce incoming immigrants to sign legal documents disassociating themselves from the Verein and to join Schubbert's colony in Milam County.
In May 1846, John O. Meusebach received a letter from Count Castell informing him that 4,304 colonists were on their way to Texas. With no funds and no new settlements, the mass of emigrants was stalled at Carlshafen. Meusebach's requests to the Verein for more money, and his warnings at pending bankruptcy for the Verein, brought no results. As a last resort, Meusebach instructed D.H. Klaener to publish the plight in the German news media. Embarrassed by the publicity, the Verein established an inadequate $60,000 letter of credit. Meusebach had arranged with the Torrey Brothers for transporting the emigrants inland, but the United States hired the Torrey Brothers for use in the Mexican–American War. An epidemic of spinal meningitis broke out at Carlshafen and spread with the emigrants to New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.
Samuel Addition White and William M. Cook founded Indian Point, later Indianola, in August 1846. This settlement developed along a corridor of beachfront for twenty-three blocks. In 1849, the town changed its name from Indian Point to Indianola. In 1852, Calhoun County selected Indianola as its county seat. Some of these immigrants purchased land from Samuel White and established a settlement at Indian Point. The settlement's name was changed to Indianola in 1849 by combining the word Indian with ola, the Spanish word for "wave". The German immigrants continued to refer to the community as Carlshaven (Carl's Harbor) in honor of Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels.
Post-German immigration years
From its founding in 1846, Indianola served as a major port, and before the 1875 storm was second only to Galveston, Texas as Texas' primary port. Charles Morgan established Indianola as a port of call for his gulf coast steamship line in 1849.
The town was incorporated in 1853. In 1856, the port received cargoes of camels, part of the United States Camel Corps experiment to replace horses and mules as the primary pack animal in the southwestern parts of the country.
During the American Civil War, Indianola was twice occupied by Union troops, in October 1862 and November 1863. During the second occupation, part of a Union infantry regiment while moving from Indianola to Matagorda Island drowned in Matagorda Bay.
In 1869, the world's first mechanically-refrigerated shipment of beef left Indianola for New Orleans.
During World War II, the United States Army constructed an anti-aircraft firing range along the Indianola shoreline to train gunners and the facility was used primarily by military personnel from Camp Hulen, located outside of Palacios.
Impact of storms
Having survived severe storms before, Indianola was almost totally destroyed on 16 September 1875. The New York Times reported in detail on the extensive loss of life and property. Even the lighthouses were swept away and the keepers, including Thomas H. Mayne and Edward Flick Jr. of the East Shoal Lighthouse, killed.
The town was rebuilt, but events were repeated in 1886. The destruction served as an abject lesson for many residents of Galveston, 100 miles up the Texas coast. However, their calls for a seawall to protect that city went unheeded, and Galveston nearly shared Indianola's fate when the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 struck the island.
The Indianola Railroad was proposed to connect the port of Indianola to San Antonio. After the two storms, discouraged investors abandoned the venture and made Galveston the port of choice. (After Galveston's hurricane, shipping traffic recentered over time to inland Houston).
After the 1886 storm, the county seat was moved to Port Lavaca. On October 4, 1887, the post office in Indianola was permanently closed and the town was declared "dead". Today, almost nothing remains of the original Indianola, as, due to storm erosion, most of the site of the city is now underwater. A granite marker was placed on the shore at the nearest point to the Indianola courthouse, now 300 feet (about 90 meters) away in Matagorda Bay. It reads, "Calhoun County Courthouse. Edward Beaumont, Architect 1859. During the Storms of 1875 and 1886, precious lives were saved within its walls of shell, concrete, and lime. Abandoned 1886." The site is also home to a statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
Indianola is now the site of a small unincorporated fishing village.
Education
What is now Indianola is served by the Calhoun County Independent School District.
Additional Reading
