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INDIANOLA, TEXAS

1846-1886

Former Calhoun County Seat

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark

Texas Ghost Town
Calhoun County, Texas Gulf Coast

28° 30' 43" N, 96° 29' 15" W (28.511944, -96.4875)

Highway 316 - On the Gulf
10 miles from Port Lavaca
41 miles SE of Victoria
Population: 200 est.

Indianola Area Hotels › Port Lavaca Hotels

Indianola TX - Second Calhoun County courthouse ruins
"Destroyed in the 1886 hurricane, part of the second Calhoun County courthouse's foundation can still be seen at low tide in Indianola." - Terry Jeanson.
See Calhoun County Courthouses

Photo circa 1945 courtsy THC

Indianola, Texas Topics

  • Indianola History
  • Indianola Historical Markers
  • La Salle Monument in Indianola
    More
  • Indianola Stories - Eyewitness Accounts & Aftermath
  • Indianola Related Stories
  • Indianola Today - Photos
  • Indianola Area Destinations

  • Indianola, Texas 1860 town coastal view
    Indianola Texas 1860 lithograph by Helmuth Holtz
    Click on image to enlarge

    Library of Congress

    History in a Watersoaked Pecan Shell

    Started in 1846 as Indian Point, the town almost immediately entered into a rivalry with Port Lavaca. Lavaca had taken the role of leading port south of Galveston after Linnville was burned by Comanches in 1840.

    Indianola is Texas' Queen of ghost towns. While Thurber (west of Ft. Worth) was nearly as colorful, Thurber's history had to do with labor relations, immigrant miners, infrastructure, manufacturing and railroading - while Indianola was a port of debarkation for the thousands of European immigrants (plus a few boatloads of camels).

    Today, they have only one thing in common - hardly any trace of either town exists.

    In 1845, thousands of Germans were stranded at Indianola because their agents had gone broke. Disease claimed many lives on the shore, and when others attempted to walk to their destinations of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg, they infected the established populace, causing hundreds of more deaths. Many who couldn't finish their journey settled in the towns of Victoria, Cuero and Gonzales. (See The Story of our Texas' German Pilgrims: or Death March to Comal County by W. T. Block Jr.)

    A storm hit the Texas coast in 1851. It was referred to as "The Great Storm" until the bigger ones arrived.

    During the Civil War, Indianola was occupied by the Union Army and there were enough skirmishes to keep both sides occupied. After the war "occupation" was peaceful and relations cordial. Discord would stand in the way of business and in Indianola business was everyone's interest.

    As a port to rival New Orleans, Indianolia was well on its way. Ships had started sailing directly from New York and New England. The New England ships brought cargoes of ice - cut in the winter months. A newspaper called the Indianola Bulletin had correspondents as far inland as Wilson County (30 miles east of San Antonio).

    Besides storms, a fire did damage in 1867 and the same year brought a yellow fever epidemic.

    The first major hurricane to hit a fairly populated Indianola was in 1875. Nearly all of the debris was used in rebuilding a stronger and more secure city. The second storm of 1886 totally demoralized Indianolans and forced them to move inland. In some cases the few houses that were left standing were moved inland to places as distant as Victoria, Cuero and even Gonzales. The huge ice warehouse, second in size only to the courthouse, was floated across the bay and converted into a residence. As one of the few remaining buildings - it had proven its strength.


    (See Indianola Remnants by Mike Cox)

    Indianola, Texas street scene, old photo
    Indianola vintage photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com


    Indianola TX Beach Sunset
    Sunset at the beach
    Photo courtesy Sarah Reveley


    Indianola house moved to Victoria Texas
    The Beaumont-Steele house
    at 501 N. De Leon in Victoria
    Indianola Remnants by Mike Cox

    Indianolia could've rebuilt again, but the amount of silt and sand blown in by the storm made the bay too shallow for the ships that mattered.

    Three railroads had Indianola in their name and had varying degrees of success. "Warehouse Row" - was Indianolia's cash cow. Although the warehouses had different owners, they were a select group of businessmen, which made for a near-monopoly.

     Indianola Texas La Salle monument
    La Salle Monument
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006


    La Salle Statue in Indianola
    Remains of the first La Salle monument near the Indianola Cemetery
    Photo Courtesy Ralph Ware, May, 2004


    La Salle Monument, Indianola Texas, old post card
    La Salle's Statue during WWII
    Old Postcard
    More Texas Monuments


    Beef: It's what's for dinner - next year

    Even prior to the Civil War, as early as 1848, companies in Indianola were canning beef. Or shall we say they were experimenting with the process. The initial test market was the shipping industry since they needed food that wouldn't spoil on long voyages.

    After the war, the glut of cattle made beef valueless. Cattle were slaughtered for their hides and tallow and the meat was left to rot. Experiments were conducted, equipment built and Indianola was the first port to ship refrigerated beef to Eastern markets in 1869.

    The reading of Indianola's history is rewarding both for its influence on early Texas and for the drama and tragedy of its brief life.


    © John Troesser



    Indianola Stories -
    Eyewitness Accounts & Aftermath

  • Indianola Remnants by Mike Cox
    Indianola, once the “Queen City of the West,” recovered from a killer hurricane in 1875 but it did not survive a second devastating storm in 1886.
    Modern day visitors find few remnants of the once prosperous Calhoun County seaport, but they’re looking in the wrong place. If you want to see some of Indianola’s stately Victorian houses, just go to Victoria or Cuero... more


  • The Story of Indianola by Maggie Van Ostrand
    On my bookshelf sat a slim volume of poems by one Jeff McLemore.... The name of the book, published in 1904, is "Indianola and Other Poems,"...


  • Indianola A poem by Jeff McLemore published in 1904.


  • Indianola A poem by David Knape


  • Sept. 17, 1875 - Indianola History Cartoon by Roger T. Moore


  • Aug.19, 1886: Indianola History Cartoon by Roger T. Moore



  • Indianola TX Historical Marker
    Indianola Historical Marker
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006

    Indianola Historical Marker:

    INDIANOLA

    Many currents of the mainstream of Texas history flow in this onetime port. Pineda explored the coast in 1519 and La Salle planted a settlement near here in 1685. Once an Indian trading point, it was a major seaport from 1844 to 1875. Texas colonists, including Germans led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, entered through Indianola. "Forty-niners", supplies for frontier forts, and experimental Army camels were landed here landed here.

    During the Civil War Indianola and Fort Esperanza, which controlled the gateway to Indianola through Pass Cavallo, were objectives of Federal blockading vessels. Pass Cavallo, ten miles south, was one of several entrances to the inside waterway created by Matagorda Peninsula and the offshore islands extending to the Rio Grande. To deny Confederate use of this waterway for commerce through Mexico the Federals had to seize control of these entrances.

    Before Confederate defenses at Fort Esperanza were completed, two Federal steamers slipped through Pass Cavallo to Indianola and on October 31, 1862 demanded the surrender of Lavaca (now Port Lavaca) to the northwest. The Confederate command refused, stood off the naval guns with land batteries, and forced the withdrawal of the Federal ships.

    Federal forces attacked Fort Esperanza November 22, 1863. The Confederates withstood the assault of naval and land forces for six days then spiked their guns, destroyed their magazines, and withdrew to the mainland. Indianola then fell December 23. On Christmas Eve, Federal and Confederate forces clashed at Norris Bridge, eight miles north. Two days later Lavaca was occupied and the entire Matagorda-Lavaca Bay area remained in Federal control until the war's end.

    Indianola was partially destroyed by a hurricane in 1875 and completely destroyed by another in 1886.

    A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy.

    Zimmerman Cemetery Marker near Indianola , TX
    Zimmerman Cemetery Marker
    on FM 316 near Indianola

    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006

    Historical Marker:
    Zimmerman Cemetery
    The earliest marked grave in the Zimmerman Cemetery, that of Georchim Wedig, is dated 1852. In 1863, Wedig's daughter Katherine married John Gonzales (1838-1918), who had come to Indianola in 1858 with Joseph Mendez (d. 1904) as a caretaker for a shipload of camels imported by the U.S. Army as part of an experiment in frontier transportation. Native of Spain, both Gonzales and Mendez are buried in the graveyard. The burial ground, which served the communities of Magnolia Beach and Indianola, takes its name from the family of August Zimmerman, a son-in-law of John Gonzalez.


    Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986 Supplemental plate (1989) Correction: The last line of the Zimmerman Cemetery historical marker should read "son-in-law of Joseph Mendez."

    Indianola TX - Neglected Tombstone
    Neglected Tombstone
    Photo courtesy Sarah Reveley


    Indianola TX - Tombstone
    Tombstone
    Photo courtesy Sarah Reveley
    More Texas Cemeteries



    Indianola Related History:
  • The Story of our Texas' German Pilgrims:
    or Death March to Comal County
    by W. T. Block Jr.
    "Of the first German Pilgrims to Texas in 1845... only one in four survived the walk from Indianola to New Braunfels"

  • Fort St. Louis, the Life and Death of La Salle by Archie P. McDonald, PhD ("All Things Historical" column)



  • Mrs. Angelina Bell Peyton Eberly Marker near Indianola Tx
    Mrs. Angelina Bell Peyton Eberly Marker near Indianola
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006


    Indianola TX Beach
    Beach
    Photo courtesy Sarah Reveley


    Indianola TX waterbirds

    White Pelicans
    Photo courtesy Sarah Reveley



    Indianola Texas view today
    An Indianola view today
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2006


    Indianola, TX Calhoun County 1870s town and   post office info
    Indianola, TX Calhoun County 1870s Postmark
    Cover canceled with Indianola, TX1870s postmark
    Courtesy The John J. Germann Collection


    Calhoun  County Texas 1920s map
    Calhoun County 1920s map showing Matagorda Bay
    From Texas state map #10749
    Courtesy Texas General Land Office

    Take a road trip

    Texas Gulf Coast

    Indianola, Texas Nearby Towns:
    Port Lavaca | Victoria | Corpus Christi | Port Aransas

    See Calhoun County

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    Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact us.


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    *The Indianola Railroad Company | Indianola and GuadalupeValley Railway |
    The Indianola, San Antonio and El Paso Railroad

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


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