I did not know Aunt Alice. I heard of her from my paternal grandmother, Hazel Cunningham Butler. Aunt Alice was the sister of my great-grandmother, Mineola Brown Cunningham. Alice and my great-grandmother were two of three daughters of Daniel Robbs Brown and Susan Elizabeth Peterson. The other daughter was Ethel R Brown Brown, she married an unrelated Brown. Their brothers were John Samuel Brown (Sam) and Arthur Brown. Aunt Ethel and family ended up settling in New Mexico. Uncle Sam and his family settled in the East Texas town of Alto. Uncle Arthur and my great-grandmother remained in the Waco, McLennan county area. Aunt Alice and family settled on the Texas coast, in Palacios. Aunt Alice married Cullen H. Chatham September 26, 1915 in Waco, Texas. They were the parents to two children, born in Waco, McLennan county, Texas: Helen born July 7, 1917 and Woodrow born November 29, 1918 and died two days later on December 1. I don't know just when Aunt Alice and Uncle Cullen moved to the coast; however, when he registered for the draft in 1942 his residence was listed as 'Boling, Wharton, Texas'. Their daughter Helen married Jess R. Ryan at First Baptist Church, Galveston, June 3, 1945. Helen and Jess settled in Angleton, Brazoria county, Texas and had four daughters: Jaynith born June 26, 1946; Melanie born August 11, 1954 and died October 9, 1954; Barbara born September 24, 1956 and Rhonda born October 13, 1957.
Just when Aunt Alice and Uncle Cullen moved to Palacios I don't know. Uncle Cullen operated a service station there. In the letter, undated, Aunt Alice references damages due to a storm, though she didn't use that word it's just obvious by her descriptons, and the loss of the Dunn family with the exception of a son. I knew Aunt Alice died March 22, 1963 (about five months before I was born) and they were still in Palacios. By doing research, regarding hurricanes in Texas, I deduced it was Hurricane Carla that wrecked the places Aunt Alice names in her letter. She hit the coast September 11, 1961. The next storm, Hurricane Cindy, hit High Island on September 17, 1963, six months after Aunt Alice died.
The letter, yellowed over time, is written in pencil. Scanning revealed a splotchiness to the yellowing. In addition, the use of a pencil and the lack of lines on the paper, makes the scanned image hard to read, though it can be read fine if you're holding it in your hand.
The letter was sent to my grandmother, the aforementioned Hazel. She is reference by name. Irratic punctuation and capitalization as well as misspellings included, the letter reads:
" Dear all -
Was so glad to get your nice letter it is cool but clear weather sure is fine on Folk who have all there bedding out trying to dry out Hazel this is unbelievable unless you could see it. Salvation army & red cross left out mon. some Solders are still here we are damaged quite a bit our floor & rug dot wet & still stinks Jess & Helen came and he got my rug out & it dried The house is not dryed out good yet but the water didn't get in our houses where we live or out at The place either On East Bay grassy point road all those house gone but 3. Not one thing left at Caraucahua it was 16 ft tidal wave it is a site big machenery came in here & picking & cleaning up & burning it. big old Barge & boats up in peoples yard big oil tanks big ones Cullen has found all his stuff roof on our house torn up & rained in ruined out new paint job, oh I can't begin to tell it. but thank Heaven not live's lost. They picked up a big truck of dead dogs and cattle all over town just ready to burst. You no we didn't get home till on Thursday wouldn't let people come in but I am so glad The water didn't get in our houses Vice president Johnson & Price Daniel was here Mon rode all over town & we will get more Help from government.
well hope you are all fine I no you hate to see Ted go Hazel I saw Ola didn't no we were there from the way she wrote. it is so pitiful She still writes me Hollis lives on Lake.
I didnt tell you we went on to Angleton to see about Helen it was hard hit but they didn't loose a shingle on their house Helen new the Dunn family who was all drown but one boy he is in class with Janyth in Hi school
well guess better get busy & clean up house
Thanks for your nice letter & take care of your selves
Love to all
Cullen _ Alice"
Ted referenced near the end is my father. He was in the Marines and due to the situation in Cuba in 1961 he was called up and going to California. That also dates this letter. Ola is what my great-grandmother Mineola was commonly called. Before this event, she was showing signs of what was then called senility. However, based on what I've heard about the some of the things she done, I believe that today she would be diagnosed as having Alzheimers. As for Hollis, my grandmother's younger brother, I don't know what Aunt Alice meant referencing his living on a lake.
Facts about Hurricane Carla:
- She was the third named storm.
- She was ranked a category 4 upon landfall, the last of 6 that landed on the Texas coast with that ranking. Carla ranks as the 9th most intense hurricane to affect the U. S. since 1851.
- She made landfall in the Port O'Connor and Port Lavaca area.
- Her storm surge rose 10 feet above normal along a 300 mile swath from Port Aransas to Sabine Pass. As the extraordinary storm approached the coast, the storm surge eventually reached 10 - 15 feet around Galveston Bay. Port O'Connor, Indianola, Palacios and Matagorda were inundated by tides of 15 - 17 feet above mean sea level. The highest tide reported was 18.5 feet at Port Lavaca.
- Matagorda was ripped by Carla's strongest sustained winds of 115 mph.. The Air Force Base at Matagorda Island was nearly obliterated.
- Her wind gusted as high as 175 mph. at Port Lavaca. Gusts at Matagorda reach 160 mph and at Aransas Pass, 150 mph.
- The rain, which she produced quite heavily, peaked at 17.48 inches at Bay City.
- She was the cause of the largest hurricane-related tornado outbreak at that time. She spewed out 18 of them- 8 in Texas, 10 in Louisiana. The worst was an F4 in Galveston.
- She was the first live televised hurricane. The person who reported live from the Weather Bureau Office in Galveston, and the seawall, was a not yet widely known reporter by the name of Dan Rather. He had a revolutionary idea that changed forever how hurricanes would be seen. To put the storm in perspective, and thus alerting the public of Carla's size, he asked a meteorologist to draw an outline of the Gulf of Mexico on a transparent sheet of plastic which was held over the black & white radar screen (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=678659n Dan Rather opens up his Reporter's Notebook to an early page, as he remembers where he got his start at CBS: reporting on a hurricane. Since then he's worn it as a badge on his sleeve.)
- Throughout Texas she completely wrecked thousands of homes, farm and other buildings while others experienced some degree of damage. There was $200 million in property damages. Crop damages, mostly unharvested rice and to a lesser degree cotton and citrus, were $100 million.
- In Texas, she claimed 34 souls and left nearly 465 people injured. The causes of death include drowning, tornadoes, electrocutions, and a heart attack.
- In the U. S. Carla's impact, both on approach and her remnants afterwards, was felt far beyond Texas as far east as Florida to as far north as Michigan. She was a bearer of torrential rain, subsequent flooding, high winds and tornadoes. She wrecked homes, businesses, crops, roads, bridges, boats and other vehicles. Carla claimed six souls in Louisiana where 199 were injured, most of those from tornadoes. Two people in Oklahoma were injured by flying debris. In Kansas five souls drowned. Four were from one family as their car was swept off the road and the fifth was the sole occupant of a vehicle swept into a Marmaton River tributary. Missouri reported one death.
- Outside the U. S., before landing on the Texas coast, Carla made her presence felt in Cuba and Honduras. Afterwards, her remnants blew in to Nova Scotia.
- The warnings issued on September 9th prompted an evacuation of a half of million people living on islands and in low lying coastal areas in Texas and southwest Louisiana (which had been devastated by Hurricane Audrey in June of 1957). At the time, it was deemed to be the largest peace time evacuation in U. S. history. Pardon me while I walk in the weeds to say this evacuation certainly impacted the number of fatalities associated with this dangerous hurricane. Carla claimed 46 souls and injured 465. There wasn't such an evacuation ahead of Hurricane Audrey, which claimed 416 souls in Louisiana and extreme southeast Texas.
Sources for information on Hurricane Carla:
National Oceanic and Atomspheric Association/National Weather Service/Weather Forecast Office Corpus Christi, Tx.: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/crp/?n=hurricanecarla
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carla
A blog remembering Hurricane Carla:
Videos regarding Hurricane Carla:
U.S. Weather Bureau Film on Hurricane Carla (c. 1961): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMjueXVV_z0
Hurricane Carla, Securing boat up the San Bernard River prior to land fall, and aftermath near Surfside, TX:
Hurricane Carla September 11, 1961 Sargent, Texas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv8zl6ZbMnw
This footage is believed to have been taken in the Galveston, Kemah, Seabrook area southeast of Houston.:
Galveston's Hurricane Carla - Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6RQFPRpq3Q
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