Mobile, Alabama Hurricane
October 2, 1893
MOBILE DELUGED.
Water Driven in from the Bay Far Up in the
City.
ONE MAN DROWNED IN THE STREET.
Steamers Wrecked and the Number of Lost Unknown.
THE WIND BLEW 75 MILES AN HOUR.
Warehouses Blown Down, Buildings Unroofed and
the City in Darkness. Miles of Railroad Washed
Away.
Mobile, Ala. October 2. – (Special.) – A
southeast gale broke here this morning about 4
o’clock and the wind increased in velocity until
at 1 o’clock. It was blowing at least fifty
miles an hour. The barometer was still falling.
The wind had blown the water from the gulf until
the river had reached Royal street, which is
four blocks from the river and at an elevation
of about fifteen feet from the main river
height.
There is no possible chance to estimate the
money damage. All the wholesale and a great
portion of the retail district of the city is
some four feet under water and thousands of
dollars worth of goods have been damaged.
The pilot boat, Heorine [sic], was
driven on the Mobile and Ohio wharf and almost
totally wrecked. The Crescent City,
another bay boat, left Point Clear at the same
time the Heroine did this morning and has
not been heard from until tonight. It was
reported that three dredges working on the
channel have been lost. It is also reported here
that some fifty miles of Louisville and
Nashville railroad along the coast are under
water and that the Biloxi bridge has been swept
away by the gale. Nothing has been heard from
the gardeners in the marshes east of the city,
and the worst is feared. Telegraphic
communication is cut off in almost every
direction. All the smokestacks of all the
manufacturing industries have been blown down.
Street car traffic was totally suspended at
midday because of the damage to the electric
wires.
The business thoroughfares of the city were
being navigated in boats and parties wading up
to their armpits all the afternoon in an effort
to save goods. It is conceded by all to be the
worst storm that has ever visited Mobile. The
south part of the city presents a scene of
wreckage as if it had been bombarded. The towers
on the courthouse and Christ church are
tottering. Dredge No. 5 turned over near the
lighthouse and three men were thrown into the
angry waves. At great peril the crew of the tug,
Captain Sam, steamed to the rescue and
saved two of the men, the other being lost. An
unknown white man lost his footing while wading
from Union depot at the foot of Government
street, and was swept under the bridge and
drowned.
The Crew Had to Swim for It.
The bay steamer, Crescent City, dragged
her anchor seven miles and went ashore on the
beach between Arlington and Monroe park, about
three miles below the city on the western shore
of the bay. Captain
Frank Lumsden and his crew and one
passenger, a cotton broker, named
R. A. Lewis,
donned life preservers and swam safely
ashore through the angry waves.
Nearly every bath house along the western
shore was blown down and at Morgan’s an
attendant named Graham
was swept away with five bathhouses and drowned
The Magnolia & Coolly warehouses were blown down
and two unknown negroes were drowned in the
cotton yard.
Houses Unroofed.
Magnificent oaks all over the city were laid low
and the earth is covered with the green leaves
whipped from the trees by the fierce winds.
Houses all over the city have been unroofed and
fences blown down. It is simply impossible to
give details. Nothing had been heard from the
eastern shores not from the market gardeners in
the marshes, where it is expected great damage
to property and possibly loss of life has
occurred. The storm at this writing, 10 o’clock
p.m., had abated and the waters have receded.
All the Wires Down.
There is not a wire in the Western Union office
affording intercourse with the outside world,
and this is written to be sent several miles out
of town where it is hoped communication may be
established. The loss of Crescent City
represents $12,000; Cleveland Brothers, grain
dealers, estimate their loss at between $5,000
and $7,000. One merchant lost a thousand barrels
of cement, another a thousand sacks of salt and
another a quantity of lime. A large quantity of
grain had been lost.
It will be several days before all the details
can possibly be known.
The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta GA 3 Oct
1893
AFTER THE STORM.
Mobile and the Adjacent Country Suffered Great
Damage.
A REPORTER RESCUE LITTLE CHILDREN
Parents Tied Them Up in Trees to Save Them
from Drowning.
TWELVE CHURCHES BLOWN DOWN.
Streams Are Filled with Furniture Floating Away
– Railroad Tracks and Bridges Washed Out.
Mobile, Ala., October 3. – The details of
the storm which broke with such fury over the
gulf coast Monday morning and raged with
increasing fury for five or six hours are just
beginning to come in.
As was feared, the indications are that the
loss of life in the lowlands east of the city
has been very great. There is no doubt that it
will be fully a week or longer before the full
story of the storm with all its attendant tales
of death and destruction can be fully told. The
sun rose clear and bright today. The inundated
portion of the city early presented an animated
appearance and the work of cleaning out the
muddy sediment deposited in the stores by the
receding water was pushed with that energy and
vigor that characterizes the average Mobilian.
The damaged goods were removed from the stores
and warehouses to places where they could be
dried out. Bridge gangs and section hands were
busy along Commerce street repairing the damage
to the culverts, bridges and roadbed of the
Louisville and Nashville railroad, which runs
along this street for nearly a mile.
Among the casualties to shipping the
following are all that are known up to the
present time: Eastern shore steamer Crescent
City beached on the western shore of the
bay, two miles below the city; river steamers
Lee and Lotus, driven in the marshes
high and dry about two miles above the city, and
will probably be a total loss, the tug
Colonel Woodruff, driven in the marsh and
may be saved. The sloop yacht Annie L.,
owned by M. Marshall,
is almost bottom up near the mouth of
Chickasabogue creek and may possibly be saved in
a damaged condition.
Washes in the Shell Road.
In addition to these vessels quite a number of
barges went up on the marshes north of the city.
One of the barges used in the dredging work on
the channel was also blown high and dry on the
eastern shore, a quarter of a mile below the
city.
The beautiful shell road which wound along
the western shore of Mobile bay for a distance
of nine miles is almost a total wreck involving
a loss – if it can be replaced at all, which is
extremely doubtful – that will take an outlay of
between $10,000 to $15,000. It is washed out and
where the road once wound around the bends of
the shore there is nothing but masses of logs
and driftwood piled in the most inextricable
confusion while across that portion of the road
which the storm has left intact trees have been
blown down in a tangled network of foliage that
makes passing on foot even difficult.
Communication direct from Mobile and New
Orleans by rail and wire has been totally cut
off and will probably not be resumed for weeks
to come. Between this city and Scranton, the
Western Union has barely a pole left standing,
thought the Postal fared better. Between Venetia
and Scranton, thirty or forty houses have been
blown down but no lives have been reported lost.
At various towns along the route twelve churches
were wrecked, five of them being located at
Grand Bay.
Heavy Losses Along the Sound
In Scranton and at East Pacsagoula, four miles
distant on the sound, houses were blown down,
stores flooded and stock damaged, while at East
Pascagoula, which is the port of the city, the
entire beach is said to have been wrecked. The
losses at the two points are said to reach
$100,000.
The Louisville and Nashville bridge across
the Pascagoula is slightly damaged, two or three
spans having been loosened and badly washed.
Between Scranton and West Pascagoula, a
distance of about five miles, three miles of
track and roadbed have been washed away.
There is a three-masted schooner across the
track at West Pascagoula.
There are no authentic reports from points
south of Mobile on the Louisville and Nashville
road, except that two spans of the Biloxi bridge
are washed away.
Too Great to Estimate.
The damage to the Louisville and Nashville
railroad is beyond computation at this time.
Reports from Montgomery are to the effect
that the bridge across Three Mile creek is
damaged and that a portion of the Tensas bridge
is washed away. There are 400 trees across the
track between Bay Minette and Dyas creek, a
distance of about ten miles. No trains can get
any further south that Bay Minette and several
washouts are reported.
A row boat trip of the marshes made today by
an experienced newspaper reporter reveals a tale
of desolation and death that will almost equal
those sent out a month ago from Savannah and the
sea islands.
Death and Destruction.
At every point touched houses are completely
gone, while the upper eastern shore was swept as
if by a western cyclone.
From Blakely as far as southeast as reports
could be had the natives report only death and
destruction. For miles inland the trees are laid
low and much loss of life is reported all along
the shore. Rumors place the loss of life at
fifty, but possibly not more than twenty-five
have perished. This side of Blakely in the
marshes whole families have been swept away and
the actual loss of life will possibly never be
known.
The reporter who made the trip rescued
several children and tied up two unknown bodies,
one of a girl aged seventeen, the other of a man
aged about thirty-five, both apparently Germans.
Five of the children, the eldest not over eight
years of age, were found tied together in the
marsh opposite the mouth of the Spanish river.
They said their father and mother had gone in a
boat after the house. They could give no
intelligible account of themselves, evidently
being Germans. A little further up the river two
more children were rescued. Where this children
came from could not be learned, as the only
family known to reside at the point where they
were found was that of
Mr. Deeson, whose wife drowned. There
was a Manilla man and his family who lived a
little distance up the shore who were reported
drowned and the children are probably theirs,
but speaking no English, these children could
not make themselves understood. The children
were taken to the house of a widow on Polecat
bay whose house remained intact.
Houses Floating Off.
In the upper delta of the river debauching into
Mobile bay the streams are reported to be full
of floating bedding, furniture and household
effects, showing that the reports of suffering
and death from this quarter are hardly over
states. Owing to the sparseness of the
settlement of these marshes and their
inaccessibility except by means of sail or row
boats, it is probably that many have perished
whose identity will never be revealed. The spots
inhabited by the marsh gardeners are only a few
feet above mean low water, and the houses are
generally built on pilings as a precaution
against high tides. So far only one family – the
Bangles – is
known to have escaped death. Their continued
absence from the accustomed places in the market
houses will probably be the only way in which
their fate will ever be ascertained.
The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA 4 Oct
1893
All ON BOARD LOST.
A Young Lady School Teacher on a Vessel That
Capsized.
Mobile, Ala., October 5. – The schooner
Alice Graham,
Captain Louis Graham, which left here
Sunday night for Portersville, having on board
Miss Susie Herron,
a young lady school teacher who was
bound for Dauphin island to open the public
school there Monday, has been wrecked and
CAPTAIN GRAHAM, MISS
HERRON and the mate, name unknown,
were lost. These were all the souls on board the
schooner, which is lying bottom up two miles off
J. J. Delchap’s
place. A tug will be sent down tomorrow to
search for bodies.
Charles Graham, brother of Captain
Graham, is satisfied of the identity of his
brother’s vessel and is confident all on board
were drowned.
The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA 6
Oct 1893
Farmer’s Island, in Alabama, Swept Bare.
Mobile, Ala., Special 4th
Reports of damage by the storm are coming in
slowly. Railroads, shipping and mills are the
heaviest losers, the amount aggregating nearly
$1,000,000. The loss of human life cannot be
estimated. Only two farm houses are standing on
Farmer’s Island, opposite the city, out of a
total of twenty-three. Relief expeditions to
this section found a group of little children
clinging to trees, their parents having been
swept away.
The Landmark, Statesville, NC 12 Oct 1893
Articles transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
1893—MOBILE’S SEVEREST STORM
ON OCTOBER 2, 1893, Mobile was swept by the
severest storm ever recorded in her history. A
southeast gale, rising at its height to 72 miles
an hour, drove the bay waters into the
rivers—causing them to overflow into the
city—inundated and destroyed the east end of the
Old Shell Road, wrecked numerous vessels,
leveled innumerable trees and scores of
structures. While only a few lives were lost in
Mobile proper, an estimated 25 persons were
drowned or killed in outlying areas, and the
death toll along the Mississippi coast was
staggering.
Preceded by record-breaking rainfall during
the daylight hours of October 2nd, the storm
rapidly increased in force until at 8 o’clock in
the evening the waters in the rivers backed up
even with the top stringers of the wharves.
Within a short time thereafter Front Street was
under water, and soon the flood covered the
wharves and Commerce Street—rising so rapidly
that merchants had to abandon efforts to save
their goods on lower floors.
At 10 p. m., the high-water line of previous
floods was reached, but still the water
continued to rise, covering all of Water Street
and reaching to Royal Street and beyond at State
Street, and to Royal at St. Louis Street. On St.
Michael Street the water came up to within 50
feet of Royal, and on Dauphin Street it
approached within 100 feet of Royal. In the
southern part of town, the low-lying land was
deeply flooded and houses badly damaged.
By 11 o’clock the storm was said to have
reached its greatest intensity, and trees began
falling everywhere in the city. Some of the most
magnificent trees in Bienviile Square toppled.
Conditions along the river front were
chaotic. Ships, barks, schooners, steamers and
other craft broke loose from the moorings and
were dashed about at the mercy
of the angry waves. Mobile River was filled with
craft of every description, all the way to the
head of Twelve-Mile Island. The tugboat
Louise broke loose from her moorings at
Elmira Street, ran several miles up the river
and knocked a hole in her side. The schooner
Emma B. broke loose from her moorings at the
foot of Government Street, headed for
mid-stream, collided with the schooner Villa y
Hermano and was badly damaged. A flatboat and
oyster sloop were left stranded in Commerce
Street. The Eastern Shore boat Crescent City
was wrecked on the beach between Frascati and
Arlington. The tug Dixie was driven into a
lumber yard on Palmetto Street. The largest
yacht on the bay—M. J.
Marshall’s Annie M.—sank
bottom-up near the mouth of Chickasabogue. Other
vessels reported missing were the Olive,
Siren, Carrie G, and Seadrift.
Extensive wreckage was reported at Daphne,
Montrose, Battles Wharf, Zundeli’s and Point
Clear. The schooner Alice Graham was
wrecked two miles out from Cedar Point and all
aboard her—including
Capt. Louis Graham, Miss Susie Herron,
and the mate—lost their lives. Heavy losses
of life were likewise reported at Grand Isle,
Bayou Andre, Chinese Camp, Grand Lake, Rigolets,
Biloxi, Chandeleur Island, in the Grande Bource,
Chiniere, and on vessels along the Mississippi
and Louisiana coasts.
Street car, telephone and power facilities were
disrupted, shutting Mobile off from
communication with the outside world. Railway
service was discontinued for a long period
because of damage to lines leading into Mobile
and elsewhere along the coast.
Several days were required to reckon the full
extent of the storm’s havoc. Then it was
discovered that the property damage most
generally felt throughout Mobile was the
destruction of the east end of the Old Shell
Road. All that part from Frascati to the
highlands below the bend was ruined.
The bluffs were undermined and extensive
sections of the roadway were completely washed
out.
In those days, the Old Shell Road was a
private thoroughfare, owned and operated by the
Shell Road Company. It had been constructed by
private capital, and although a toll road, it
had never been a paying proposition. For years
it had been a center of social activities in
Mobile, and one of the city’s most prominent
tourist attractions. At the time of the storm it
was said to have been “in as nearly a perfect
condition as can be imagined”.
Within a few days after the storm, The
Register expressed the hope that the
citizens of Mobile would cooperate with the
Shell Road Company in restoring the ruined
portions, or constructing a new road.
Highlights of 75 years in Mobile, Mobile,
Ala.: First National Bank of Mobile, 1940, pages
43-44
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Mobile, Alabama
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