DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it plain, and I'll tell it true — this one comes straight from the official record, and it deserves every word. Somewhere between the gulf and Green's Bayou, there's a stretch of Texas coast that holds a story so heavy it could anchor a ship. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with hardship arriving before the helping hands could.
In 1867, a yellow fever epidemic swept through and left children without families. The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word stepped in, housing those orphaned children temporarily in Galveston's St. Mary's Infirmary.
Temporary, they said. But you know how it goes when good people see a need that doesn't go away. By 1874, Galveston Bishop Claude Dubuis had bought a thirty-five-acre plantation — the home of Farnifala and Laura Green, sitting right between the gulf front and Green's Bayou.
He bought it for a purpose. The Sisters of St. Mary's Infirmary took that former Green residence and turned it into something permanent: St.
Mary's Orphan Asylum, opening its doors to twenty-eight children in early 1874. They didn't stop there. By October of that same year, a two-story facility for orphan girls was built nearby.
They were building something that was meant to last. Then 1875 brought a storm. When it passed, only the girls' dormitory was left standing.
Just that one building, out of everything they'd made. Now — a lesser institution might have taken the hint. These folks built a new residence for boys by 1879.
By 1896, St. Mary's was caring for orphans from throughout Texas when it was granted a Texas charter. They had grown into something the whole state leaned on.
And then came 1900. The catastrophic storm of 1900 completely destroyed the orphanage. Ten nuns and at least ninety children were killed.
What the marker says next — and it needs to be said out loud — is that those nuns spent their last moments trying to save the children, securing them to their own bodies with clothesline. That is the kind of courage that doesn't fit neatly into any sentence, but there it is. Three orphan boys, rescued at sea, were the only survivors.
I'll give you a moment with that. St. Mary's Orphan Asylum reopened in 1901 — at 40th and Q streets, in Galveston City.
They came back. They kept those doors open until 1967, more than sixty years after the storm tried to erase them entirely. The gulf is still right there.
Green's Bayou is still right there. And the story of what happened on that thirty-five-acre plot of Texas ground — that's still right here.
What the marker says
Children orphaned by a yellow fever epidemic in 1867 were cared for temporarily in Galveston's St. Mary's Infirmary by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. In 1874 Galveston Bishop Claude Dubuis bought the 35-acre plantation and home of Farnifala and Laura Green located between this gulf front and Green's Bayou for use as a permanent orphanage. In early 1874 the Sisters of St. Mary's Infirmary founded St. Mary's Orphan Asylum by housing 28 children here at the site of the Greens' former residence. A 2-story facility for orphan girls was built nearby in October 1874. The girl's dormitory was all that remained of the orphanage after the storm of 1875. A new residence for boys was built by 1879. St. Mary's was caring for orphans from throughout Texas at the time it was granted a Texas charter in 1896. The catastrophic storm of 1900 completely destroyed the orphanage. Ten nuns and at least 90 children were tragically killed despite the nuns' valiant efforts to save the children by securing them to their own bodies with clothesline. Three orphan boys rescued at sea were the only survivors. St. Mary's Orphan Asylum reopened at 40th and Q streets in Galveston City in 1901 and remained there until closing in 1967. (1994)