Galveston’s St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum

Galveston today.

On September 7, 1900, a hurricane quietly entered the Gulf of Mexico. By the next day, this storm brought in winds of 150 mph, which hit the Galveston barrier island destroying the town of the same name.

This hurricane known as The Great Storm is the deadliest * natural disaster to hit American soil. 3,600 homes were destroyed, and more than 10,000 men, women, and children lost their lives.

* Historians consider it worse than Katrina because of the number of fatalities.

At this time, Galveston, a bustling port town was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Texas. The future was bright for its 36,000 residents.

After 9:00 p.m. on September 8^th all this prosperity would be gone.

Among the dead where 10 nuns and 90 of 93 children at St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum located on beachfront property situated outside the town.

St. May's Orphan Asylum--building on right girl's dorm.

These nuns were apart of the Sisters of Charity that had established a Catholic infirmary in Galveston.

The orphans under their charge were mostly children that lost their parents to Yellow Fever—so eventually the orphanage connected to the hospital was moved outside of town to avoid this disease.

Sister Elizabeth Ryan was in Galveston on the morning the hurricane hit collecting supplies. Mother Gabriel tried to convince her to stay at the hospital until the storm passed but she refused for her supplies included food for that day’s supper at the orphanage.

What Sister Elizabeth didn’t know is that there would be no more suppers at St. Mary’s.

During the afternoon the winds and rains increased, the tide rose higher, waves crashed onto the beach sending floodwaters ashore.

St. Mary’s consisted of two large dormitories with balconies that faced the gulf. Both buildings sat behind a row of sand dunes that were supported by Salt Cedar trees.

The tides began to erode these dunes, one orphan who survived stated later he watched as the dunes eroded, “as if they were made of flour.”

When the floodwaters reached the dorms, the nuns gathered all the children into the girl’s dormitory for it was newer and the stronger of the two buildings.

At first, they stayed in the first-floor chapel, the nuns had the boys and girls sing a French hymn Queen of the Waves, which fishermen sang during storms—to keep the group calm.

Nuns and children at St. Mary's.

But as the water rose they moved the group to the second floor where each nun tied clotheslines to their waist and then attached 6 to 8 orphans to them with it.

Several of the older boys went up to the roof. The children terrified now watched as the boy’s dorm was lifted off its foundations and washed away.

A ship that was being tossed in the storm hit their dorm--it lifted their building up, the floor fell out from beneath their feet, and the roof crashed down trapping them in the water.

One survivor,
Will Murner
aged 13.

Only 3 orphan boys survived, William Murney, Frank Madera, and Albert Campbell. Two of these boys were carried away by the water, and both later woke in a tree. They clung to this tree for a day before a small boat from town rescued them.

Several of the nun’s bodies were found later with children still attached via the clotheslines. One of the surviving boys witnessed a nun reassure two small children, “I will never let go.” She was found with both children still firmly grasped within her arms.

The nuns and children were buried where they were found.

Sisters found with children
tied to them.

Some of the damage.

On this terrible day, when the wind and gulf waters met at 6:00 p.m. the town was flooded—whole blocks were washed away within minutes.

At 7:30 p.m., a tidal wave struck the south shore, it reached 15 to 20 feet.

In 1994, on the anniversary of The Great Storm Texas placed a historical marker at the section of the seawall, built after the storm, where St. Mary’s once stood. Descendants of the survivors attended, and an all sang, Queen of the Waves.

Marker for orphanage
above seawall

Today, many believe that the spirits of small orphan victims haunt two structures where St. Mary’s once stood.

Employees at the Seawall Walmart have reported: misplaced toys, missing pallets of toy inventory, phantom children’s laughter and cries for help.

Seawall and Walmart nearby.

One former employee recalls the time she heard a little girl calling for her mother. She went to find the lost child to help. She searched the toy department calling out but received no response.

Other’s hearing this child’s cries, both employees and customers joined in the search but the child was never found, the sobs eventually stopped.

Ten years ago this store was considered the most haunted spot on the island. Several news stories highlighted it.

Hotel Galvez

The Hotel Galvez was built, in 1911 on the beach where St. Mary’s once stood. This hotel known as Queen of the Gulf has hosted U.S. presidents and celebrities as well as the ghosts of several small children.

Over the years many guests have reported poltergeist activity including doors opening and closing and lights turning on and off by themselves. Several witnesses have seen glimpses of the orphans that linger.

Today, Galvestonians often see a figure dressed in an old-fashioned nun’s habit walking along the shore.

Here is a local news report about the anniversary, the storm and St. Mary’s.

Jack Purnell’s Lantern Part ll

I shared the story of Patty Cannon and her gang of slave kidnappers in my previous post entitled, The Wickedest Woman in American, Part l. 

One of her associates was a free black man, named Jack Purnell, who also lived in Reliance, Delaware. Purnell like Cannon kidnapped dozens of free blacks and sold them for profit.

He kept his captives on a small island on the Nanticoke River. This island was in an isolated spot and concealed by brush, so it was ideal for his purpose. Purnell would tie his victims and then row them out to the island. He would shackle them to trees and then leave them there for safekeeping.

Purnell then would round up buyers and take them to this island to seal the deal. One hot summer, he returned after an absence of two days to discover two of his three captives had died from “heat exhaustion.” The third was just barely alive. 

As night descended quickly, Parnell took his lantern and dumped the bodies into the river.

This island which some call “Shackle Island” does not exist today. Like others, it has been lost to time and nature. The river’s changing flow most likely took it at some point. All that remains is a hill with three large Cypress trees.

The following is a first-person account told by a young man from Delaware named Tyler. He recounts an eerie experience he had near Phillip’s Landing on the Nanticoke River.

One November, Tyler and a friend were hunting. It was late on their first day when they decided they best establish a camp. They wanted to build a fire to dry out, so Tyler’s friend dug a fire pit and set up their tent. 

Tyler went in search of some stones to place around the pit as a “draft wall.”

He had walked further than he realized from the camp when darkness overtook him. He looked to see if he could spot the camp’s fire, but he saw nothing. He was lost. 

Staying calm he remembered he had his two-way radio with him. He radioed his friend, and they both used their compasses to determine where he was.

They concluded he must be about thirty yards from the river, so their plan was for him to reach the river and then head south. Tyler’s friend stated that he would use his whistle and flashlight to lead him back to camp. Tyler set out with confidence now he could find his way.

He continued to talk to his friend as he walked. But within minutes a large rotting boat “that was 15 feet long” blocked his path. It was partially buried in mud with a broken paddle near it. 

Tyler wondered why a boat was in the middle of the woods instead of being near the water.

He radioed his friend to tell him about his discovery, but all he heard was quick bursts of static. He tried several more times, but his radio seemed to be malfunctioning. 

He was distracted when he spotted a light. Feeling this must be one of their camp’s Coleman lanterns he concluded he must be closer to camp then they had previously thought.

He shouted as he “raced” toward the light. He became frustrated when his friend didn’t respond, he shouted once more. His radio started to make deafening, strange noises, so he turned the volume down. 

He continued to chase the light but was surprised when he found himself right back near the old boat. The light went out, and he was surrounded by darkness once more.

Tyler turned and saw a hill behind him. He climbed to the top, hoping to spot the camp’s fire. Once there he noticed three very tall Cypress trees nearby but he saw no light. 

He did spot something shiny below him, so he walked over. Under the brush, he saw what appeared to be a chain and a wrist shackle. The light appeared once more near the old boat, so Tyler quickly descended the hill.

He looked again for his friend, convinced he must be holding one of the camp’s lanterns. But when he reached the boat, the light had moved to the river’s edge. 

Following it, he was stunned to see the light go right over the water. Feeling “spooked” for the first time, he heard his friend call his name faintly over his radio. He turned the volume back up.

As he made his way south down the river’s edge, the light stayed over the water but followed him. He finally spotted the fire, he covered the ten yards quickly back to the camp. 

Tyler told his friend what had happened and then insisted they pack up and leave. He didn’t know the history of Shackle Island before their hunting trip, but he read about it afterward. He states he will never return.

Tyler’s story was first shared on www.CastleofSpirits.com

Mexico’s Haunted Doll Island

This island today is known as “La Isla de la Munecas”—The Island of the Dolls. This ghost story has one of the strangest reactions to a haunting I have ever heard. 

In the 1950s a man by the name of Don Julian Santana Barrera came to live on a small island on Teshuilo Lake just 18 miles west of Mexico City. 

This island is located in Mexico’s ancient Xochimilco district. Santana a hermit at, a hermit at heart,e and family and choose this area for its isolation.

Santana was unaware of the island's dark history when he moved to these wetlands accessed via a network of intricate canals.

Local legend states that in the 1920s, three young girls were playing on the island when one of them tragically fell into the murky waters of the canal and drowned. 

After this, the local residents came to believe this young girl’s spirit was trapped on the island. The area soon gained a reputation for being haunted. People refused to go near it at night.

Julian Santana claimed that soon after he came to the island, the spirit of this little girl began to talk to him. 

She told him how she had died and requested he get some dolls for her to play with. She said these dolls would also ward off evil spirits that wandered the wetlands. 

To please her, Santana started to acquire these dolls. He fished old dolls out of the dirty canal that ran past the island, he traveled back to more populated areas to raid garbage dumpsters for dolls and he even traded some of the fruits and vegetables he grew on the island for old dolls.

For many years Sanatana was left to his hermit existence. But then in the 1990s, Mexico invested over a million dollars to be used to clean up the Xochimilco canals. This brought more water traffic past Santana’s island. 

Seeing over a thousand mutilated dolls hanging from every other tree on the island caused most of these outsiders to feel Santana was nutty. 

But as time passed most people realized that he was just a harmless “odd” old man. It was at this point the island was dubbed “The Island of the Dolls.”

As for the multitude of dolls, Santana explained that no amount of these toys seemed to satisfy this young spirit’s thirst. 

In April of 2001, Santana expressed to his nephew; it was becoming more difficult for him to resist the strange voices that beckoned to him. He felt these voices wanted him to join them in their watery grave. 

This same day when his nephew returned from some errands, he found his uncle floating face down in the canal. His body was in the same spot near the small pier where the girl had drowned seventy years before.

Today “The Island of the Dolls” is an eerie tourist destination. Visitors often state that these doll’s soulless eyes glare at them. Others say they hear these dolls whisper to them especially after sundown.