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51-542: The river rises from springs in northeastern Kerr County , approximately 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Junction . It flows north into southeast Kimble County and then east into Gillespie County , passing south of Fredericksburg , and into Blanco County , passing north of Johnson City . It joins the Colorado from the southwest in Lake Travis , approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of Austin. The river has

102-474: A close association with the Texas Hill Country, tied to the history of the region and emblematic of its geography. Along its route it flows over numerous rugged limestone escarpments as it winds eastward, passing along the south side of the ranch of President Lyndon B. Johnson , who grew up in nearby Stonewall , south of the river. In 1750, Fray Benito Fernández de Santa Ana proposed a plan to

153-652: A group of thirty prominent Galveston residents calling themselves the Progressive Association met and resolved to build a seawall", and "The city's Evening Tribune endorsed the plan". However, although "The state eventually did authorize a bond to pay for the work," the city's engineer E.M. Hartwick observed, "this was some months after the flood, and by then the attitude was, Oh, we'll never get another one--and they didn't build." Larson criticizes meteorologist Isaac Cline (among others) for this failure. For example, Larson cites statements Cline published in

204-596: A guide for 61 conscientious objectors attempting to flee to Mexico. Scottish -born Confederate irregular James Duff and his Duff's Partisan Rangers pursued and overtook them at the Nueces River; 34 were killed, some executed after being taken prisoner. Jacob Kuechler survived the battle. The cruelty shocked the people of Gillespie County. About 2,000 took to the hills to escape Duff's reign of terror. Spring Creek Cemetery near Harper in Gillespie County has

255-417: A hedge of enormous prickly pear. The native oysters are large and abundant. Game of all kinds is cheap. (pp. 253-254) " Jefferson McLemore published Indianola and Other Poems in 1904. In Elizabeth Hand 's novel Aestival Tide , a reconstructed Indianola is featured as the lowermost level of the central ziggurat in the dome city of Araboth. In the novel Matagorda by the author Louis L'Amour , much of

306-400: A household in the county was $ 34,283, and the median income for a family was $ 40,713. Males had a median income of $ 27,425 versus $ 21,149 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 19,767. About 10.30% of families and 14.50% of the population were below the poverty line , including 21.60% of those under age 18 and 8.40% of those age 65 or over. School districts include: All of

357-502: A major port, and before the 1875 storm was second only to Galveston, Texas as Texas' primary port. Charles Morgan established Indianola as a port of call for his gulf coast steamship line in 1849. The town was incorporated in 1853. In 1856, the port received cargoes of camels , part of the United States Camel Corps experiment to replace horses and mules as the primary pack animal in the southwestern parts of

408-560: A narrow margin despite the 1964 election being a national landslide victory . 30°04′N 99°21′W  /  30.06°N 99.35°W  / 30.06; -99.35 Indianola, Texas Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas , United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas , Metropolitan Statistical Area . In 1875,

459-584: A political, social, and religious platform, including: 1) Equal pay for equal work, 2) Direct election of the President of the United States, 3) Abolition of capital punishment, 4) “Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles..”, 5) Free schools – including universities – supported by the state, without religious influence, and 6) Total separation of church and state. The next year, United States Army post Camp Verde

510-459: A quiet Sunday at Indianola. The beach beyond the town forms a pleasant promenade, and we enjoyed to the full the calm sunny sea, which seemed like a return to an old friend, after our months of inland journeying. Our hotel was a great improvement on that of the day before. The Germans, who compose half the population, have the enterprise to cultivate vegetable gardens, which furnish, at least, salads at all seasons. Around one of these gardens we noticed

561-787: A singular grave with the names Sebird Henderson, Hiram Nelson, Gus Tegener, and Frank Scott. The inscription reads, “Hanged and thrown in Spring Creek by Col. James Duff’s Confederate Regiment.” The Treue der Union Monument ("Loyalty to the Union") in Comfort was dedicated to the Texans slain at the Nueces massacre August 10, 1866. It is the only monument to the Union outside of the National Cemeteries on Confederate territory, and

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612-478: Is brief in regards to words and time, it denotes a subtle and increasing disaffection in the American/Texan experience, adversely affected by seemingly non-relevant incidences. The storyline then progresses to World War II, introducing an internal struggle between the call of duty of the United States and its armed conflict with Germany, the ancestral point of origin of many Americans. The overall sentiment of

663-494: Is extreme and amusing. At Lavacca we heard of Indianola as 'a little village down the bay (they call it Indianola), where our vessels land goods on their way up.' Each consider the other to be sickly. Indianola has the advantage of the best water, and of the New Orleans steamers, which land at Powderhorn, a sort of hotel suburb, four miles below, by a hard beach-road, where nine to ten feet of water can be carried. [...] We spent

714-510: Is one of only six such sites allowed to fly the United States flag at half-mast in perpetuity. The Y O Ranch was founded in 1880 by Charles Armand Schreiner, who had opened a store in the area in 1869. On October 5, 1878, the last Indian raid in the county occurred at the present day community of Mountain Home , when four children of the Dowdy family were murdered by Indian raiders. In 1887,

765-676: The Adelsverein Fisher–Miller Land Grant set aside 3,000,000 acres (1,200,000 ha) to settle 600 families and single men of German , Dutch , Swiss , Danish , Swedish , and Norwegian ancestry in Texas. Henry Francis Fisher sold his interest in the land grant to the Adelsverein in 1844. In 1845, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels secured the title to 1,265 acres (512 ha) of the Veramendi grant, including

816-588: The Adelsverein , selected Indian Point in December 1844 as the port of entry for the Verein colonists from Germany . Prince Solms renamed the port Carlshafen in honor of himself, Count Carl of Castell-Castell and Count Victor August of Leiningen-Westerburg-Alt-Leiningen whom Solms claimed had been christened Carl. Prince Solms' choice of Carlshafen and its inadequate accommodations as a port of entry, as well as

867-497: The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 struck the island. The Indianola Railroad was proposed to connect the port of Indianola to San Antonio . After the two storms, discouraged investors abandoned the venture and made Galveston the port of choice. (After Galveston's hurricane, shipping traffic recentered over time to inland Houston ). After the 1886 storm, the county seat was moved to Port Lavaca . On October 4, 1887,

918-589: The Galveston storm of 1900 . He notes: "At first, Galveston's leading men seemed to grasp the significance of the Indianola storms. Anyone who looked at a map could see that Galveston was even more vulnerable to destruction than Indianola. It had no picket of barrier islands to shelter it, no buffer of mainland prairie. The city faced the Gulf head-on." He further observes: "Six weeks after the second Indianola storm,

969-486: The Johann Dethardt , the first ship to bring settlers into the area, or Johann Swartz, the owner/builder of the first home erected in what would become Indianola. Alternative country singer/songwriter Scott Stutzman included a song titled "The Indianola Sway" on his 2016 single Halloween Sixteen (released under the alias Kasko Lunsford). The song likely takes place between the 1875 and 1886 hurricane. What

1020-678: The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was built through Kerrville. The American Legion of Texas established what eventually was called the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kerrville, in 1919. The Schreiner Institute was established in Kerrville from 1917 to 1923. In 1926, Ora Johnson established Camp Waldemar Christian girls camp in Hunt . Mooney Aircraft was established in 1929 in Kerrville. Kerrville

1071-550: The Spanish government that a mission be established among the Lipan Apache who lived along the river. In 1789, the river was the site of a skirmish between Colonel Francisco Xavier Ugalde and a group of Lipan and Mescalero Indians. The first permanent white settlement along the river was in 1846, when the town of Fredericksburg was established by German immigrants. The threat of raids from Apaches restricted settlement in

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1122-481: The United States Army constructed an anti-aircraft firing range along the Indianola shoreline to train gunners and the facility was used primarily by military personnel from Camp Hulen , located outside of Palacios . Having survived severe storms before, Indianola was almost totally destroyed on 16 September 1875 . The New York Times reported in detail on the extensive loss of life and property. Even

1173-534: The Comal Springs and River, for the Adelsverein. Thousands of German immigrants were stranded at port of disembarkation, Indianaola on Matagorda Bay . With no food or shelter, living in holes dug into the ground, an estimated 50% died from disease or starvation. Joshua Brown , in 1846, became the first settler. The Texas State Convention of Germans met in San Antonio on May 14–15, 1854, and adopted

1224-466: The Galveston Storm of 1900 reminded her of the second Indianola hurricane: 'We had a storm like this in '86,' Mollie said, referring to the winds and rain that had reached Galveston from the last of the big Indianola hurricanes. 'My father's store on Market Street was flooded,' she said, casually. Singer/songwriter Charlie Robison included a song titled "Indianola" on the 1998 album Life of

1275-465: The July 1891 Galveston News article, "West India Hurricanes": If Galveston had any lingering anxiety about its failure to erect a seawall Isaac's 1891 article would have eased them. It was here that he belittled hurricane fears as the artifacts of 'an absurd delusion.' He was especially confident about storm surges. Galveston would escape harm, he argued, because the incoming water would spread first over

1326-841: The Party . The song begins from the perspective of a German immigrant approaching Indianola by sea and chronicling details of the narrator's family. The narrator and his cousin attempt to traverse the South to join the Union Army in the American Civil War , though they encounter Rebel resistance in Indianola. The next scene of the folk song briefly addresses the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in an indirect fashion, noting that little change occurred in their respective lives other than rust accumulating on wagon wheels. While this verse

1377-480: The Storms of 1875 and 1886, precious lives were saved within its walls of shell, concrete, and lime. Abandoned 1886." The site is also home to a statue of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle . Indianola is now the site of a small unincorporated fishing village. Frederick Olmsted describes Indianola in his 1860 memoir "Journey through Texas" with the following: "At the entrance are some prominent gables, and it

1428-424: The action took place in Indianola, Texas on the day it was destroyed by the 1875 hurricane. The courthouse, the site of which is now underwater out in the bay, was featured as the last refuge of the townspeople. In Part I of Isaac's Storm , in the chapter "Galveston: An Absurd Delusion," Erik Larson describes the two storms that ravaged Indianola and the significance of these storms for Galveston, leading up to

1479-534: The area until the 1880s. Pedernales Falls State Park is located along the river in Blanco County east of Johnson City. Like many rivers in central Texas, it is prone to variable water levels. A sign at the state park shows a relatively tranquil river in one picture and a raging wall of muddy water in the next picture, said to be taken only five minutes after the first. The speed at which flash floods can arise along this river has resulted in several deaths at

1530-416: The city had a population of 5,000, but on September 15 of that year, a powerful hurricane struck , killing between 150 and 300 and almost destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, only to be wiped out on August 19, 1886, by another intense hurricane followed by a fire. Indianola was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1963, marker number 2642. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels , representing

1581-521: The country. During the American Civil War , Indianola was twice occupied by Union troops, in October 1862 and November 1863. During the second occupation, part of a Union infantry regiment while moving from Indianola to Matagorda Island drowned in Matagorda Bay . In 1869, the world's first mechanically-refrigerated shipment of beef left Indianola for New Orleans . During World War II ,

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1632-413: The county is in the service area of Alamo Community College District . Kerr County has given the majority of its votes to Republican candidates in the majority of presidential elections since 1924. The only Democratic Party candidates to carry the county since then have been Franklin D. Roosevelt , with diminishing margins in each of his four electoral victories, and Texan Lyndon B. Johnson , winning by

1683-483: The county population was 634, including 49 slaves. The Sons of Hermann lodge, for descendants of German heritage, was established in the county. The lodge is named for German chieftain folk hero Hermann the Cherusker . A bitterly divided Kerr County voted 76–57 in 1861 for secession from the Union, with most German residents being against it. Unionists from Kerr, Gillespie , and Kendall Counties participated in

1734-416: The county. The population density was 40 inhabitants per square mile (15/km ). There were 20,228 housing units at an average density of eighteen units per square mile (6.9 units/km ). The racial makeup of the county was 88.89% White , 1.78% Black or African American , 0.56% Native American , 0.51% Asian , 0.05% Pacific Islander , 6.60% from other races , and 1.62% from two or more races. 19.13% of

1785-675: The emigrants inland, but the United States hired the Torrey Brothers for use in the Mexican–American War . An epidemic of spinal meningitis broke out at Carlshafen and spread with the emigrants to New Braunfels and Fredericksburg . Samuel Addition White and William M. Cook founded Indian Point, later Indianola, in August 1846. This settlement developed along a corridor of beachfront for twenty-three blocks. In 1849,

1836-582: The formation of the Union League , an organization which supported President Lincoln's policies. The Union League formed companies to protect the frontier against Indians and their families against local Confederate forces. Conscientious objectors to the military draft were primarily among Tejanos and Germans. Confederate authorities imposed martial law on Central Texas. The Nueces massacre occurred in Kinney County . Jacob Kuechler served as

1887-664: The isolated route to New Braunfels, was to keep the Germans from interacting with any Americans. In February 1845 Henry Francis Fisher conspired with Dr. F. Schubbert to coerce incoming immigrants to sign legal documents disassociating themselves from the Verein and to join Schubbert's colony in Milam County . In May 1846, John O. Meusebach received a letter from Count Castell informing him that 4,304 colonists were on their way to Texas. With no funds and no new settlements,

1938-496: The lighthouses were swept away and the keepers , including Thomas H. Mayne and Edward Flick Jr. of the East Shoal Lighthouse, killed. The town was rebuilt, but events were repeated in 1886. The destruction served as an abject lesson for many residents of Galveston, 100 miles up the Texas coast. However, their calls for a seawall to protect that city went unheeded, and Galveston nearly shared Indianola's fate when

1989-486: The mass of emigrants was stalled at Carlshafen. Meusebach's requests to the Verein for more money, and his warnings at pending bankruptcy for the Verein, brought no results. As a last resort, Meusebach instructed D.H. Klaener to publish the plight in the German news media. Embarrassed by the publicity, the Verein established an inadequate $ 60,000 letter of credit. Meusebach had arranged with the Torrey Brothers for transporting

2040-477: The park, and warning sirens have been installed in the park and elsewhere along the river. The lower river is a popular destination for whitewater rafting during the high-water season. Kerr County, Texas Kerr County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas . As of the 2020 census , its population was 52,598. Its county seat is Kerrville . The county

2091-442: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 17,813 households, out of which 25.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.80% were married couples living together, 9.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.90% were non-families. 27.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

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2142-445: The post office in Indianola was permanently closed and the town was declared "dead". Today, almost nothing remains of the original Indianola, as, due to storm erosion , most of the site of the city is now underwater. A granite marker was placed on the shore at the nearest point to the Indianola courthouse, now 300 feet (about 90 meters) away in Matagorda Bay. It reads, "Calhoun County Courthouse. Edward Beaumont, Architect 1859. During

2193-439: The song "Indianola" on his 2004 album Heavy Weather . The lyrics chronicle the full life cycle of Indianola, with verses from the points of view of a personified Matagorda Bay, an immigrant who helped build the city (Johann), a worker who came to help "bury the lost souls who perished that day" (Isaac), and finally the songwriter himself visiting the site (Brian). It is unclear whether the "Johann" mentioned in verse three refers to

2244-407: The song begins as a story of new promises followed by a series of fictional, though personally carved facts, that illustrate a common experience for the individualist. Texas exemplifies a spirit that is not only uniquely a Texan story but an American one, thrusting the individual against the external influence that would assume its right to assert its own values. Singer/songwriter Brian Burns included

2295-592: The town changed its name from Indian Point to Indianola. In 1852, Calhoun County selected Indianola as its county seat. Some of these immigrants purchased land from Samuel White and established a settlement at Indian Point. The settlement's name was changed to Indianola in 1849 by combining the word Indian with ola , the Spanish word for "wave". The German immigrants continued to refer to the community as Carlshaven (Carl's Harbor) in honor of Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels. From its founding in 1846, Indianola served as

2346-471: The vast lowlands behind Galveston, on the Texas mainland north of the bay where the land was even closer to sea level. 'It would be impossible,' he wrote, 'for any cyclone to create a storm wave which could materially injure the city.' Further, in Part III of Isaac's Storm , in a chapter titled "Ritter's Cafe: You Can't Frighten Me ", Larson publishes the recollections of Mollie Cohen, whose impressions of

2397-400: Was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.84. In the county, the population was spread out, with 22.70% under the age of 18, 6.70% from 18 to 24, 22.20% from 25 to 44, 23.50% from 45 to 64, and 24.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 92.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.80 males. The median income for

2448-544: Was begun to be called the "Mohair Capital of the World" in 1930. The Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital was completed in 1949. Kerrville State Hospital opened in 1951. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 1,107 square miles (2,870 km ), of which 1,103 square miles (2,860 km ) is land and 4.0 square miles (10 km ) (0.4%) is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 43,653 people, 17,813 households, and 12,308 families residing in

2499-412: Was established. Kerr County was formed in 1856 from Bexar Land District Number 2. Joshua Brown donated the land that became Kerrville, and had it named for his friend James Kerr . Kerrville was named the county seat. The U.S. Camel Corps , headquartered at Verde, was the brainchild of United States Secretary of War (1853–57) Jefferson Davis . Center Point was established in 1859. In 1860–1861,

2550-553: Was named by Joshua D. Brown for his fellow Kentucky native, James Kerr , a congressman of the Republic of Texas . The Kerrville, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Kerr County. Around 8000 BC, early Native American inhabitants arrived in the area, with numerous successive cultures following in prehistoric times. Historic tribes encountered by Europeans included the Kiowa , Comanche , and Lipan Apache . In 1842,

2601-416: Was so like the approach to a European seaport that we thought of our passports and the octroi officers. The beach on which the town is built is some three hundred yards in width, and extends about a mile in length, having but two parallel streets, front and back. It has a more busy and prosperous appearance than Lavacca, and is much larger, but is said to have less heavy business, and less capital. The rivalry

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