DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to do it justice. Now settle in, because this is a house with something to prove. Emil Reiffert was born in 1839, came to this country as an immigrant at fifteen years old, fought as a Confederate veteran, and then went on to become a merchant, a rancher, and eventually President of H.
Runge and Company — an outfit the marker calls the First Real Bank in Texas. The man had range, no question about it. And in 1868, he built himself a house in Indianola.
That alone tells you something about Emil Reiffert's disposition toward a challenge, because Indianola, sitting right there on the Texas Gulf Coast, was not exactly what you'd call a gentle address. So he built it right, anchored the thing to pillars sunk seven feet into the ground. Seven feet.
That's not construction — that's a declaration of intent. Then came the storms. The house weathered one hurricane.
Stood right through it. And then 1886 rolled around, and the second hurricane came calling. Now here is where the story earns its keep.
With a hundred refugees sheltering upstairs, and with the downstairs windows and doors left open — open, mind you — the house withstood it. The theory being, let the storm pass through rather than fight it head on. A hundred people upstairs, the Gulf of Mexico raging outside, and that house just held.
But Indianola itself did not hold. The town was done. So what do you do with a house like that?
You don't abandon it. You dismantle it — carefully, methodically — and you number every single plank. Every one.
Then you move it to Cuero, and in 1887 you rebuild it, board by numbered board. And inside that rebuilt house you'll find storm pillars, a front storm door built for exactly the weather it had already survived, a handcarved staircase, and parquet floors. Emil Reiffert lived from 1839 to 1910, and the house he built is still standing.
A man numbered his planks and moved his house rather than let the Gulf win. That's not stubbornness — that's a philosophy.
What the marker says
Built in 1868 at Indianola by Emil Reiffert (1839-1910), immigrant at age 15; Confederate veteran; merchant, rancher, President H. Runge & Co., known as First Real Bank in Texas. Anchored to 7-feet. pillars. With 100 refugees upstairs, downstairs windows and doors open, house withstood its second hurricane, 1886. Was dismantled, its planks numbered, moved to Cuero, rebuilt 1887. Has storm pillars, front storm door, handcarved staircase, parquet floors. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965