TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION NOVEMBER 2005, VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 ARCHEOLOGY IN TEXAS IN THIS ISSUE IS SHIPWRECK AT INDIANOLA THE PERSEVERANCE? 1 CURRENT RESEARCH 6 THE QUAKERTOWN WELL: HISTORICAL ARCHEOLOGY OF A DISPLACED AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN DENTON, TEXAS 6 ARCHEOLOGICAL STUDY OF A DISAPPEARING PORT SETTLEMENT AT COPANO BAY 12 Bird’s-eye view of Indianola by Helmuth Holtz, 1860. The possible position of the Perseverance is circled. Courtesy San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston. CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT NEWS 14 WHAT ARE 106 REVIEWS? 14 RECENT AWARDS OF MERIT 15 Is Shipwreck at Indianola CURRENT NEWS AND EVENTS 16 the Perseverance? INTERPRETING CONFLICT AND DISPLACEMENT ON by Steve Hoyt THE PANHANDLE PLAINS 16 State Marine Archeologist THC TO STUDY BATTLE OF SABINE PASS 17 We have to announce another heavy loss to Our New Orleans Steamship Company. The JAMES E. CORBIN th HONORED POSTHUMOUSLY 17 Perseverance took fire while lying at her wharf in Indianola on Friday, the 5 inst., about TAM 2005 18 4 p.m. She had discharged her New Orleans freight, and had commenced taking in a return cargo, having on board 134 bales of cotton, and 279 hides in all, none of which REGIONAL AND was saved. The first alarm was given by the boat’s bell (Galveston Weekly News, STEWARD NEWS 20 October 14, 1856. Note: Friday was actually October 3, 1856). SKIP KENNEDY REMEMBERED 20 TASN 2005 So ended the career of another of the magnificent steamers so important to the WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS 21 economic viability of Texas in the 1800s. Unlike many other shipwrecks, however, this PANHANDLE-PLAINSMAN one did not take any lives: ROLLA SHALLER 22 REGIONAL ARCHEOLOGISTS’ Captain Sheppard and his crew, aided by a number of our citizens, used every means to REPORTS 23 arrest the progress of the fire, but without effect. She was dropped off from the wharf, and about five o’clock the flames broke through the upper deck and cabin, when the Captain and all who were on board had to abandon her and leave her to her fate. Almost immediately afterwards she was enveloped in one sheet of fire and, continued burning till she was consumed to the water’s edge. Fortunately no lives have been lost. She had a con- siderable quantity of cotton on board, and how the fire originated is not known (from the Indianola Bulletin as reported in the Galveston Weekly News, October 14, 1856). www.thc.state.tx.us Continues on page 2 2 • TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION • CURRENT ARCHEOLOGY IN TEXAS Queen City of the West ping magnates of his day. He left home at the age of Much has been written about Indianola and its role in Texas 14, typical of many young history (e.g., Malsch 1988). Anyone familiar with the story men of the era, to seek his will realize that the loss of a single ship, particularly with- fortune in New York. out deaths, was a small event in the short history of this Beginning as a grocery thriving port town. Indianola, first known as Indian Point clerk, he gradually moved or Karlshafen, rose out of the sand on the western edge of into ship chandlery and Matagorda Bay in the 1840s as a point of debarkation for Figure 1. Flag of the Morgan Line. then commercial shipping. German immigrants headed inland for New Braunfels. Under the various compa- Plagued by a continual shortage of water and ravaged by nies generally referred to as the Morgan Steamship Company, yellow fever and cholera, the little port finally took hold in Morgan and his companies owned 109 steamships between the 1850s and started to grow rapidly. By this time, the 1833 and 1885 (Baughman 1968:239–241). At least five of Morgan Steamship Line ran a regular schedule between New these wrecked in Texas: Perseverance, Louisiana, Palmetto, Orleans, Galveston, and Indianola, with several ships arriving Mary, and Portland. Perseverance and Portland now rest at in Indianola each week, in addition to the numerous sailing Indianola. vessels that served the port. It has been said that Indianola Morgan lived his entire adult life in New York, never once rivaled Galveston as a port city. By late 1860, the South- moving to the Gulf Coast where he made his fortune. Instead, ern Steamship Company (also known as the Morgan Line) he operated his shipping concerns through agents in New reportedly had nine steamships serving Indianola (Charles Orleans. He was unusual for a northerner in that he owned Morgan, Texas, Mexico, Matagorda, Orizaba, Austin, Arizona, at least 31 slaves who worked for his companies in the Gulf Atlantic, and Suwanee), plus one independent vessel, the trade routes, both on board his ships and on the docks, and Fashion, providing the booming town with seven arrivals each week (Indianola Courier, November 3, 1860). The prosperity of Indianola ended suddenly on September 12, 1875, when a hurricane came roaring across the Gulf with little warning. Although the town was almost completely wiped out, the citizens of Indianola were reluctant to leave. Many of them remained and gradually began to rebuild the town. They constructed new edifices, stocked stores with supplies, opened churches, and reopened school. The dream of rebuilding shattered on August 18, 1886, how- ever, when a second hurricane, easily as strong as the first, raced over Indianola. When the Signal Station office (weather bureau) collapsed at the height of the storm, several people were killed and the lantern fell over and ignited the wooden structure. The fire, feeding on the dry timbers of the sur- rounding buildings and encouraged by fierce winds, engulfed much of the city. When it was over, an estimated 600 people were dead and most of the town lay in ruins. This time, no one attempted to rebuild. Survivors moved away, and build- ings that could be salvaged were moved to Victoria, Cuero, and other points inland. The county seat, which had been relocated from Lavaca (now Port Lavaca) to Indianola in 1852, was returned to Lavaca. Indianola ceased to exist. The Shipping Magnate, the Captain, and the Ship Charles Morgan Born in 1795 to a prosperous Connecticut farming and merchant family, Charles Morgan — future owner of the Perseverance — rose to become one of the preeminent ship- Figure 2. Advertisement from the Lavaca Herald, September 13, 1856. SHIPWRECK AT INDIANOLA • 3 he condoned the ownership of slaves by his New Orleans agents; this is surely the one blight on an extraordinarily successful career (Baughman 1968:113, 246–247). An advertisement in the Texian Advocate of January 3, 1852, promotes three steamships of the U.S. Mail Line (also known as the Southern Steamship Company, the Harris and Morgan Line, or the Morgan Line) sailing from Indianola to New Orleans via Galveston (see Morgan flag in Figure 1). A vessel left New Orleans every Sunday and Indianola every Saturday. On March 19, 1853, a Texian Advocate advertise- ment boasted of four ships on the route, Texas, Louisiana, Mexico, and Perseverance, with a ship leaving Indianola every Thursday morning and Saturday evening. By the time of the Perseverance disaster in 1856, the four ships on the route were the Perseverance, Charles Morgan, Louisiana, and Mexico, with a ship leaving Indianola every Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m. (Figure 2, Lavaca Herald, September 13, 1856.) Figure 4. The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, June 2, 1857. Captain Henry Sheppard ceased to function and communications from one end of the The last to leave his vessel to the other were cut. Some passengers and crew suc- burning ship and in ceeded in launching lifeboats and reaching shore, some drifted the sea gave up his on flotsam and were rescued by other vessels. Nevertheless, supporting plank to more than 30 people died in the disaster. The Daily Picayune save a drowning of June 2, 1857, reported: passenger — Sheppard’s epitaph Captain Sheppard Safe! The revenue cutter is just in. She brings Capt. Sheppard alive! He was picked up, clinging to It might be supposed, some life preserving chairs, nearly exhausted. Great joy is manifested at the news of his safety. The efforts of judging from historical Capt. Sheppard to do all that could be done to save the records, that Henry lives of his passengers are spoken of by all as deserving of Sheppard was born to be the highest praise. He was the very last to leave his vessel, a man of the sea. At the and could scarcely have survived ten minutes longer when age of 21, he commanded picked up. The last words he was heard to utter when he a ship sailing between threw himself into the water with only a chair to support New York and Liverpool himself, were inquiries for the safety of the passengers. (The History of DeWitt Figure 3. Captain Henry Sheppard. County, 1991, pp. Sheppard became a prominent figure in the booming Courtesy Dewitt County Historical Commission. 730–731), and by the city of Indianola. When federal forces entered Matagorda Bay summer of 1855 the in 1862 and demanded surrender of the city, Sheppard was 28-year-old captain was operating the Perseverance between part of the small delegation that went aboard the Union flag- New Orleans and Indianola. ship Westfield to discuss terms. Captain William B. Renshaw In 1857, Sheppard, pictured in Figure 3, moved his of the Westfield offered a peaceful takeover of the town. Ren- young family to Indianola to become wharfmaster for Charles shaw clearly stated that the city and necessary provisions Morgan, a decision that may have been influenced by two would be taken by force if the delegation refused his offer.