Connie Bares

Galveston – “Ellis Island of Texas”

            I have always been interested in the local history and finding the treasures that lie within our own community.  As I was researching for this assignment, I found an article about Galveston being named the “Ellis Island of Texas.”  This intrigued me because I knew Galveston was a seaport and used for the transportation of cotton, but I never thought about it being associated with immigration.  This began my search for who were the immigrants that came through the port of Galveston. 

            Between the years 1831 and 1836 the population of Texas grew from about seven thousand to nearly fifty thousand with many of the new immigrants coming through the port of Galveston.  One story was about a family who was with a group of Prussian aristocrats from Westphalia. The vessel in which they were traveling sank in the shallow waters near Galveston’s East Beach.  As the ship sank Robert Kleberg and others threw their belongings overboard, including the piano, the first to be brought to Texas.  The passengers with most of their belongings made it to shore including the piano.  The Germans used parts of the ship to create tents with separate apartments for the women and children.  Kleberg wrote “We were enthusiastic lovers of Republican institutions.  Full of romantic notions and ideas, believing to find in Texas, in preference to all other countries, the blessed land of our sanguine hopes.” (Cartwright 64)  This is an illustration of immigrants and their belief of finding the “American Dream.”  What Kleberg found however was a country in turmoil.      

So what was the attraction to Galveston over the years?  In the late 1830s Galveston was nothing more than a low, flat, desolate stretch of sand that would flood with every violent storm and was virtually useless for agriculture (Hardwick 50).  After the Civil War, Galveston recovered faster than any other city in the country.  The developers of Galveston believed that its location as the best natural harbor on the Texas coast would outweigh the lack of natural resources needed to support a dense population. (Hardwick 4)  The war had delayed the building of the railroad, so Galveston became the most prosperous seaport in America.  In the late 1870s, the port of Galveston ranked third in the world in cotton exports and continued to rank in the top five until well after the turn of the century. (Cartwright 117)  Poles, Czechs, Scots, Russian, French and Germans disembarked at Galveston docks searching for a new life. Immigrants poured in at a rate of 4,000 a year.  By 1880 Galveston’s population tripled from what it was before the war.  It grew from 7300 to 22,240.  It population consisted of one-fourth English, one-fourth German, one-sixth French, one-sixth Spanish and the remainder was a mixture of other nations (Cartwright 119).  The ones who came with money enjoyed the many luxuries that Island living had to offer. 

But not all immigrants were as fortunate.  One example was Louisa Rollfing.  Louisa immigrated from Fuhr Island, one of the North Sea islands off the coast of Germany.  Her father had discovered the Hunengrabers, ancient graves of a tribe of giant warriors, while digging for potatoes.  He became the superintendent of these graves and sold tickets to see them.  He used the proceeds to help Louisa pay her way to Galveston.  Once in Galveston she lived in a cramped apartment above a saloon with her husband, her three children, her saloonkeeper brother, and her brother’s bartender.  Not only was she a seamstress but she also cooked and cleaned up after her family as well as the customers of the downstairs saloon.  She often wondered what her life would have been like had she stayed home (Cartwright 148-149).

I discovered that Galveston Island was the Ellis Island of Texas.  It became the doorway to Texas for a diverse population.  The immigrants were attracted by the promise of future prosperity in the West and South.  It attracted people like Nicholas Clayton, an Irishmen who contributed to the architecture of Galveston with his design for the Bishop’s Palace as well as many other buildings.  German immigrants were attracted to Galveston because they came to America looking for the promise of land and economic opportunities inland.  In order to raise money to pay for their travels inland, they used their skills in construction, iron work, masonry, and other mechanics to  help build the new city contributing to the overall character of Galveston.  (Hardwick 37)  Because there was such a mixture of different cultures, I believe the immigrants contributed their own uniqueness to the development of Galveston. 

Works Cited

Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. New York: Atheneum, 1991.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. “Galveston Movement” http://www.tshaonline.org/hadbook/online/articles/GG/umg1.html (assessed June 20, 2008)

Hardwick, Susan W. "Galveston: Ellis Island of Texas." Journal of Cultrual Geography Vol. 20, Issue 2(2003): 69-85.

 Hardwick, Susan Wiley. Mythic Galveston Reinventing America's Third Coast. Baltimore : The John Hopkins University Press, 2002.