Customer Reviews

Indianola: The Mother of Western Texas

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Very few local histories interweave all events in a city's history...both the good and the bad. However, this book does it, and very well. The reader gets to see the city through the inhabitant's eyes, and experience the growth of one of Texas' most influential cities of the 19th century. From the very beginning, you see how this coastal city is a slave to the elements. Several storms are endured, before the town disappears from the landscape. You get to see how it interacted with its arch rival, Galveston, along with its coexistence with many of the smaller towns in its vicinity. And you get to see how this city lived and died by the railroad. If you thought Indianola was always a Texas state park, this book will open your eyes. If you're interested in hurricanes, this book shows how ravaging storms were before current, strict housing codes were inacted, and before seawalls protected all coastal cities. For the Texas historian, this book is a must. It is a complete history of the 43 years of Indianola, and its haunting legacy. For residents of San Antonio and Victoria, it gives them a chance to discover what the city of many of their forefathers was really like.

This book is a must for geneoligist serching for ancestors in Texas. Not only does it give account of the once thriving city of matagorda bay. But the transportation availability to include the Trains and shipping lines. This book gives all references to the texas train lines of the times and can give you an idea of what route early ancestors may have traveled. The book itself is a accurate account of the early days of german imigration, Indianola itself and the people who made it all happen. I found the book to very interesting and attention grabbing.

The Texas town of Indianola was destroyed by two severe hurricanes in the late nineteenth century, but for decades it was a major port and point of entry for the Lone Star State, as well as the start of a trail that led to San Antonio, the Hill Country, and Chihuahua, Mexico. This volume by Brownson Malsch takes a chronological look at the town's history from 1844 to 1886, when it was hit by the second of the two storms.

The author shows how settlers of diverse backgrounds from both America and Europe cooperated in building the school, lighthouse, newspaper, railroad, and other aspects of the town. The book describes in detail anecdotes of small-town life along the Texas coast in the nineteenth century down to how Christmas was celebrated. A fascinating anecdote recalls the arrival at Indianola of camels for use in Texas.

Life on the Texas coast was not easy then--settlers had to face shipwrecks, yellow fever and other diseases, extreme weather, and other hardships. Northern troops occupied the town during the Civil War, and the Mexican War and Panic of 1873 affected Indianola as well. Malsch interviewed many former Indianola residents, and these interviews were instrumental in the author's outstanding description of the hurricane of 1875.

Had no major hurricanes hit, Indianola might have survived, but it was not to be. This book is a vivid portrait of life in early Texas as well as a reminder of the role that fate and chance play in history.

Good Texas history reading. I read it just after hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast. That made it more interesting.