Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season

 Galveston's Devastating 1900 Hurricane and the Shreveport Connection

The Tragic Death of Annie Christian

Greenwood Cemetery; Shreveport, Louisiana

Annie Christian was one of the daughters of Charles Massengale Christian and his wife, Nancy "Nannie" Antoinette Hendricks. She was described as being beautiful and accomplished. Annie's father, Charles. was a prominent businessman and civic leader, descended from a pioneer Shreveport family.  In fact, he was born downtown in a log cabin on June 21, 1852.  His family endured a lot, yellow fever epidemics, boons and busts financially, but one of the hardest losses the Christian family had to face was the tragic death of Annie.

In late summer of 1900, Annie took an excursion to Galveston, Texas to visit her cousins, the Dorians.  Like most well to do young women of the times, Annie would be gone for weeks to enjoy the sunshine and beach.  Unfortunately, without much warning, as hurricane predictions were in their infancy...the populace of Galveston was unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the ferocity of the beast that roared through the mini-paradise on September 8.  The Dorians, with their guest Annie, decided to move further inland to their neighbors, assuming that house would be a much safer shelter.  It was not.  The home was destroyed in seconds and all inside were killed, most trapped, crushed and drowned by falling lumber and furniture.  Tragically, the Dorian house stood firm...but empty.  Annie's father left Shreveport immediately and made the trip by train and carriage, to get as close to Galveston as he possibly could.  The citizens of Shreveport could do nothing but wait and worry, they had very little communication from the area.  

A sad telegram arrived from Charles to his wife and was published in local papers: 

"...Houston, Tex., September 12, 1900.

Mrs. C. M. Christian, 1052 Reynolds Street:

Poor Annie is dead and buried. Will be home tomorrow."

C. M. Christian

According to SPAR burial records for Greenwood Cemetery, Annie was interred at Greenwood (or at least her headstone set) on the 8th anniversary of her death, Sept. 8, 1908.  Charles and his wife are buried in Oakland Cemetery, not far from where he was born.  The Christian children bought and resubbed a plot in Section 2 of Greenwood Cemetery for their burials and that is where Annie's life and death are chronicled in granite. (Above photo, Annie is to the left in the family lot.)  

The book "Isaac's Storm: A Man, A Time and The Deadliest Hurricane in History" by Erik Larson, gives a fascinating account of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and it's horrific force.  Isaac Cline was the National Weather Bureau's chief meteorologist who scoffed at the idea that the Texas coast would ever be vulnerable to such a dramatic weather event.  Isaac's brother, Joseph, was fairly certain Isaac was wrong and he was. The island was overtaken, killing an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people, including nuns and children at the coastal St. Mary's orphanage.  Their bodies would be found buried in the sand, nuns and children tied together with rope in an effort to save themselves.  Isaac Cline's wife, Cora, also drowned also a victim of the hurricane, which haunted Isaac for the rest of his life.

The blog title comes from a Jimmy Buffet song, "Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season."

A Family's Sacrifice

The Dr. Gerald Orken Family

Jewish Cemetery, aka Rosena Chapel or B'Nai Israel; Monroe, Louisiana

There is probably nothing more unsettling in a cemetery than discovering a family plot with several graves marked with identical or near identical death dates.  The questions come: fire? Car accident?  Murder (heaven forbid)? Jewish Cemetery is located in downtown Monroe, Louisiana.  We visited it in my last blog.  The plots are orderly and neat and is probably one of the best maintained cemeteries I've ever been in.  No fire ants!  I talked to the groundskeeper not too long ago about that and praised his attention.  That's the day as I was photographing headstones when I took the above photo.  It's a chest grabber...two adult graves with two little graves beside them.  Death dates are one day apart. Dec. 17 and 18, 1953.  Here's the story I found on the internet and help from a friend after running scenarios through my head. It is one of unusual and unfathomable sacrifice in service to one's country.

Dr. Maj. Gerald M. Orken was Major Gerald Arnold Orken, M. D., he and his family were asleep on December 17, 1953 in the officer's housing section of Andersen Air Force Base on the Marina Islands in Guam when a disabled Boeing B-29 crashed into their home and several others. Major Orken and daughter Vivian lived until the next day, but wife Shirley and son Stephen were instantly killed. The crash occurred at 6:45 in the morning during a storm, the B-29 was on a search for a missing weatherplane, the VJ-1/VW3. It had gone out on Dec. 16th on a low level typhoon penetration to get readings on the storm, Typhoon Doris. The weather plane was never found, however, the B-29 search plane made an emergency landing. The plane missed the runway and crashed into the housing area killing three crewmen, six military passengers on the plane and two officers, two wives and six children on the ground. [Thanks to Lee C. for this information].

Shirley Kaplan was a darling of Monroe society, 25 years old at the time of her death, she was the daughter of Monroe utilities commissioner David Kaplan, a Russian native, whose family settled in north Louisiana.

Shirley Kaplan Orken

Dr. Gerald Arnold Orken

Dr. Maj. Gerald Arnold Orken was an only child of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Orken of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  He was a graduate of Vanderbilt University Medical School and married Shirley Kaplan in July of 1947.  Vivian was born first and was five years old, Stephen was three at the time of their deaths. They are buried in the Kaplan lot at Jewish Cemetery.

On Memorial Day we celebrate the soldiers who gave their lives for our country and acknowledge the sacrifice they made and try to reconcile their absence from our world as poignant and important.  And it is. I believe the Orken family were fallen soldiers too: Dr. Orken was a promising surgeon, Shirley was no doubt a wonderful mother and the hope and dreams of Vivian and Stephen laid to rest by surviving grandparents who buried their own futures beneath the river rich soil of Ouachita Parish.

Ignorance of No Experience

The Death of 

Young Dorothy Levi

Jewish Cemetery, aka Rosena Chapel or B'Nai Israel; Monroe, Louisiana

This headstone is one I can only imagine was once a pristine white monument to the memory of a much loved little girl, Dorothy Levi, the daughter of Monroe stationary shop owner, Ferd Levi.  Her obituary ran in the Monroe New-Star the day after she died (April 12, 1911).  Cause of death was blamed on pneumonia as a result of measles.  Measles.  A disease that has just about been eradicated until, well, celebrities started complaining and blaming about how vaccinations "caused" autism and other disturbances.  I don't know about you, but I do not get valuable guidance on health matters from Playboy centerfolds or B-list actors and actresses.  Trusting my doctor, who has children of his own, I believe in the power of inoculation.  Just last year, an outbreak of measles wrecked havoc at Disneyland, of all places.  My youngest did her sophomore English research paper on the pros of vaccinating all children as a requirement.  She used this as an example of just how insidious measles can be.  Apparently patient zero in this disaster was an out-of-country non-inoculated  person who came in contact with children whose parents had either chosen not to vaccinate and those too young to have received the full dosage of the MMR series. Fortunately, no one lost their lives.  But this brings the subject up of those who have no understanding of science and viruses.  Someone can sneeze out measles molecules in an area and it will "hang" there for hours...no direct contact needed.  Research done says the aversion to vaccines has to do with the ages of parents now...they have no experience or recall of just how horrible childhood diseases can be so therefore, to opt out is done so with ignorance of consequences.  There are other graves of children who died of diseases we can now prevent here at Jewish Cemetery, across the street at Old City Cemetery, down the street at Magnolia and St. Matthew's cemeteries and if I know anything, it's what their parents would have given to have had access to a serum that could have saved their beloveds' lives.  No doubt, Mr. and Mrs. Ferd Levi would agree.

The Story of Madge

It doesn't end well...

Greenwood Town Cemetery; Greenwood, Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Almost two years ago I went to the Greenwood Town Cemetery in Greenwood, Louisiana on small town near the border of Louisiana and Texas.  This is a pioneer town and this particular cemetery has some of the who's who of north Louisiana interred there.  It still has active burials, which is a tad unusual, but very neat to me that forefathers had insight to bury their antecedents over a century later with the purchases of family lots.    There are many Irish immigrants that came to the farming community and thrived there.  Some of the names are  prominent in Caddo Parish and recognizable by anyone who lives there: Flournoy, Hoss, Dunn, Scott, Vaughn to name a few.  It was at the Flournoy lots that on the very edge, near a huge oak tree I spotted this grave of Madge O. Suratt's.  I was struck because Madge is my middle daughter's nickname.  Who was this Madge?  My first thought was she might have been a domestic worker for the Flournoy family given her place of honor on the outskirts of the lot.  I know everyone's story ends in cemeteries, but I always wonder what their lives were like.  Who cried over their loss?  Who thought enough to have a marker carved and in Madge's case, an urn set at the head of her grave?  It never fails to surprise me when I google a name of someone long gone and get a hit and I did with Madge.  Madge's life...and her death, shocked me to my core.  Madge was a modern woman in old times.  After seeing her death articles, I dove into finding out about her in the times when she was alive.  She is enumerated in the census for Manhattan as a single woman working as a vice-president of Carlton Illustrators.  Other articles in Shreveport newspapers had her wintering in Denver, Colorado and directories for Denver had her living there in 1911-1912 working for the Chamber of Commerce.  She was clearly an independent woman of means, but her death tells of her vulnerability and incurable heartache.  On the afternoon of March 25, 1916 in the Ebbit House Hotel in downtown Washington D. C. , a maid discovers the body of a woman.  The police get in a tizzy because the only clues found to her identity was an aka of "Selma Thomas" and a drinking paper cup with Denver, Col. stamped on the side.  Days later, after much investigation, the police release the name of Madge O. Suratt with cause of death: suicide by drinking prussic acid.  Apparently Madge had been in love with an attorney from Houston, he'd broken up with her, love letters are found written to her in Spanish and letters to her sister, Mrs. W. B. Cantrell of Little Rock, Arkansas.  Mrs. Cantrell denied claiming her sister for burial for reasons we don't know.  She had instructed detectives to send the body to John B. Hutchinson, a planter and businessman of great notoriety in Caddo and Bossier parishes.  His wife, Nina Flournoy Hutchinson, was close to Madge, according to Shreveport newspapers that detailed Madge's visits to Nina in it's society columns and spoke of them as cousins.  Although Madge is not interred with the Hutchinsons, she is with the Flournoys, her extended kin. As much as I know of her death, there are still unanswered questions about her life I would love to know. 

The Star of Star Cemetery

Star Cemetery, the grave of Mattie Reed Bradford.
Star Cemetery in Shreveport, is visible from I-20 and nestled along the Catholic cemetery, St. Joseph's at 2100 Texas Street. It was the first African American cemetery when it was established in 1883, in Shreveport. The Star Cemetery Association was formed with 14 men who purchased the 10 acres formerly home to Shreveport University, a Baptist college. Many of the people buried here were former slaves, also many in benevolent fraternities like Odd Fellows and Masons. There are few family plots, the cemetery is now owned by the city of Shreveport and maintained by SPAR. Star is a challenge to transcribe since most of the markers are homemade or concrete and have eroded or deteriorated. Fortunately, there is a new Star Cemetery association being formed by descendants. I was photographing monuments and ran across one of the most interesting graves I've ever seen. I've encountered many root covered markers, but this one is fantastic! This is the headstone of Mattie Reed Bradford (born January 29, 1879 and passed away at the age of 32 on February 3, 1911). Doing a little digging, I found that Mattie was the daughter of George and Patsy Reed. On the 1880 US Federal Census, the Reeds lived in an integrated section of Shreveport near prominent attorney, Alfred Land and Broadway playwright, Guido Marburg. Both George and Patsy are listed as black, however, Mattie and her sister are enumerated as mulatto. On April 26, 1899 in Caddo Parish, Mattie and Calvin Bradford married. The next census, 1900, Mattie is married to Calvin Bradford. They had two sons: Clyde (who became a medical doctor), born in 1899 and Lisbon, born in 1902. The 1910 census lists the Bradfords living at 1200 Howard Street in Shreveport. That is the scant info on Mattie Reed Bradford, however Nature seemed to have taken a gentle liking to her memory and that may be the tenderest testimony to her.

The Fella Who Started It All

Sidney W. Saunders Tomb

Monroe City (aka Old City) Cemetery

Monroe, Louisiana

I discovered Sidney and grave walking when I went to Monroe City Cemetery as a college student in the early 1980's. I was working on my black and white photography portfolio when a friend suggested I go "see" Sidney and use him as a subject.  The best part...he had a sordid tale behind his final repose...Victorian soap opera played out tragically in my hometown! Here's what we know about Sidney with kudos and credit to Ouachita Parish historian/librarian Lora Peppers:

A native of Mississippi and raised in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, Sidney went on to become a private in the Confederate Army and was wounded during the Battle of Vicksburg. After the war, he became a businessman in the river boom town of Monroe owning saloons as well as a grocery store. It was, however, the saloon business with a suspected sideline of gambling and prostitution that made Sidney a pariah of Monroe society. He just wasn't ever going to hold a respectable position as far as the upper echelon of Monroe folks were concerned. Making matters worse, he shows up with a bride named Annie Livingston who came with a child believed to by Sidney's named Willie St. John. The rumor was that Annie was a prostitute and not officially married to Sidney. 

It only gets worse.

In 1886, young Willie passes away at the age of 12. Then came the fire that ravaged Sidney's empire. More rumors surfaced about Sidney being an arsonist in order to make a monetary gain from insurance claims. Such indignations only made Annie more defiant to overcome them. Unfortunately, the same indignations only broke Sidney's spirit. He purchased a plot at the Monroe City Cemetery in late January of 1889 and he killed himself with gunshot to the head on February 1. Annie took the proceeds of Sidney's estate after wrangling with Sidney's siblings over the proper inheritance dispersement. She commissioned the Muldoon Monument Company to build a grand tomb...and societele statement...for Sidney. Sidney's statue holds the marriage license so hotly contested in his hand and faces the "high society" section of Monroe in a stance that is permanant and unforgettable. The carved license is an exact replica of their real marriage license in wording. There are basement style doors in the ground to the antechamber that holds the caskets of Sidney and Willie. Also Sidney's writing desk and chair are inside and it is said Annie spent many hours sitting at it between her husband and child. Annie's sewing machine and Willie's bicycle are purported to be inside the tomb as well as Annie's casket after her death by fire in 1926.

The Saunders monument is inventoried and cataloged by the Smithsonian (url: http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!335352!0#focus). As if the backstory and the impressive nature of the monument itself wasn't enough, the gut-wrenching "stream of consciousness" speeches of Annie's words engraved into the monument are forever heartbreaking:

SIDNEY W. SAUNDERS

1846-1889

IS IT IN HEAVEN

A CRIME TO LOVE TOO WELL?

TO BEAR TOO TENDER

OR TOO FIRM A HEART?

(Side panel:)

WILLIE ST. JOHN

SON OF/W S & A SAUNDERS, DIED MAY 13 1886

WILLIE, MY BELOVED TREASURE

MY BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL LOVING JEWEL

MAMA'S WEARY HEAVY HEART

IS YEARNING TO BE AT REST WITH THEE

OH! ART THOU MY PRECIOUS ANGEL

LONGING TO BE WITH ME YOUR LONELY

UNHAPPY MOTHER

(Left panel on rear of monument:)

SIDNEY I COULD HAVE WELL FORGIVEN

THAT LAST SEEMINGLY CRUEL ACT OF THINE

FOR YOU WANTED ME WITH YOU IN HEAVEN

HAD YOU WITH YOUR LIFE TAKEN MINE

TREMBLING AND ALONE I TREAD

LIFE'S DREARY STRAND

BESET ENVY, STRIFE, AND JEALOUSLY

BUT 'MID IT ALL, GOD AND LOVE OF THEE

HAS STAID MY HAND

TO RAISE THIS MARBLE TO THY MEMORY

(Right panel on rear of monument:)

MY HUSBAND, MY GOD IN MERCY PARDON ME

IF WHEN HERE I COME TO WEEP AND PRAY

ALL MY SOUL AND THOUGHT SHALL BE OF THEE

AND WRAPT IN THEE IDOL FROM THE MAKER STRAY

FAREWELL, THIS MONUMENT IS NOW MY LAST ADIEU

TILL IS HEAVEN WE MEET NO MORE TO SEPARATE

I SAY IN HEAVEN

FOR WHERE'RE YOU ARE, OUR BOY AND YOU

THERE IS MY HEAVEN

FOR THAT ALONE YOUR FAITHFUL, LOVING WIFE

PRAYS, WATCHES AND WAITS

To find Sidney head east on DeSiard from the river, turn into the west entrance of the cemetery. The tomb is not far into the cemetery on the left near the fence, you can't miss him.

UPDATE:I posted this photo on a facebook page about Monroe, Louisiana. Here is a firsthand account from Herbert Otwell who posted about actually peering into the antechamber of the Saunders graves: " I was a supervisor on nights several years ago and we found the lock on the doors missing. We opened then but couldn't go inside because there was about 15'feet of water in the crypt. There are two caskets in the tomb but they are under water." I replied " Thanks for the post, Herbert! How sad it's underwater...I'd heard there were possibly three caskets: Sidney, son Willie St. John and Sidney's wife. His wife, Annie E. Livingston Saunders Hardin, was rumoured to have been interred there after she died from severe burns in 1926. It's also been reported that Sidney's writing desk, chair, her sewing machine and Willie's bicycle were in the tomb as well. " His response: The water was very clear and we could see the contents. There was only two caskets, one had pretty much disenegrated, the other looked to be in good shape. There was nothing else such as chairs, sewing machines, etc in there. There is a space for a third casket but it was vacant. The area down at he bottom is not real big and there was a There was a casket in the space directly in front of the steps and one to the left, which would be north. There was nothing in the space to the south."

The Burning Candle of Forest Park

Simmons-Eason Family Plot

Forest Park East Cemetery

Shreveport, Louisiana

This is a unique idea for a monument and it's placement within the plot. It's centered between two families plots, Simmons on one side and the Easons on the other. The monument itself is beautifully made: red granite flame, white marble candle/holder and a rough cut black granite base. The detail is amazing: a flowery vine twines around the candle and there is even a wax drip sculpted down the side. This is located right by the huge viaduct that runs through the older section (turn left as you enter the main gait and it's in front of the duct on the right).