Unlike 108 years later when Hurricane Ike struck, Galveston was in a stark raving fiscal and financial mess when the 1900 Storm hit the island on Sunday, September 9, 1900.  

            That on top of that the 1900 Storm killed at least 6,000 of the island's residents.

            There were many heroes who rose to the challenge when most of the surviving residents decided to rebuild the island rather than to just leave behind ravishes of the storm and to move elsewhere.

            One person you rarely hear of or read about was Edmund R. Cheesborough.  He was the secretary-treasurer of the Texas Portland Cement and Lime Co., and of another company that developed all of what is now known as Galveston's Victorian Silk Stocking District.

            Prior to the 1900 Storm, the city government had gotten so corrupt that the city was both spiritually and financially bankrupt.  It couldn't even pay the city employees on a regular basis.  They got paid in what was known as script.  Script is like an unsecured loan.  The city was the borrower and the employees were its creditors.  Can you imagine? 

            The way it worked was this: When there was money in the city's bank account, an employee could present his script note at the bank's teller window and get paid.  Sometimes it took weeks.

            So everyone seem to know that to rebuild the island would require collecting all of the back property taxes, putting in a responsible city government, and showing that Galveston was able to pay all of its bills.  That way it could earn a bond rating that would allow it to get the millions it would need to raise the land grade of the entire city and build a 4-mile, 16-foot high, 17-foot wide concrete seawall. 

            Leaders decided they should petition the legislature to change the form of government to be set up like a business corporation.  They called it the commission form. 

            Commissioner I.H. Kempner took on the task of collecting the back taxes, and he did it within about a year.  The bills started being paid, the bond rating became excellent. The city was able to raise the money it needed for the grade raising and seawall.  No more script.

            One of the unsung heroes was Mr. Cheeseborough.  He orchestrated and managed the enormous task of getting the dredge material pumped from the gulf's bottom onto the island, but not before each and every remaining house was jacked up no less than about eight feet. 

            Tempers ran short as mosquitoes and snakes and raw sewage were everywhere, and yellow fever struck.   There was no way to rush things.  Galvestonians had to wait for the dredge material to dry out.  During that time, citizens had to walk gangplanks across the mushy quicksand-like fill to get to and from their houses.  Mr. Cheeseborough held firm in the plan.  It took 7 years.

            Now 108 years later, Galveston has experienced another devastating storm.  The storm's name was Ike (ironically Mr. Kempner's nickname) and the mayor of the city who is in charge of trying to get things back on the track for recovery is Mr. Kempner's granddaughter, Lyda Ann Kempner Quinn Thomas, yet another irony.

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry