Remembering the Terrell family, 1900 Storm Victims

E.D. Aiken, Galveston, Texas, took this photograph of wreckage at 15th Street and Avenue M 1/2, one block north of the Terrell's family residential address, after the 1900 Storm.  The location was along the south edge of the region of partial destruction.  The image was captioned  "the debris where hundreds of bodies were recovered.

Hundreds of African Americans, mostly in Galveston, died in the 1900 Storm. The cataclysm wiped out entire families; as well, it claimed members of other families.

Reverend Morris E. Terrell lost his wife and their four children. The Terrells resided in Galveston’s Ward 11 at 1510 15^th Street (at the edge of the region of total destruction). Reverend Terrell served as pastor of St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church, which stood at 1425 Avenue N. He was born in Georgia in March 1857. In 1890, he married his wife Queen, a Texas native born in July 1867. The Terrells had four children, all Texas natives: Beatrice (8 years of age), Walter (6), George (3), and another daughter, “Cd” (age 3).

The Galveston and Texas History Center has undertaken a multiyear project to identify 1900 Storm victims by using the census, Galveston city directories, and other archival sources. Victim profiles will be eventually uploaded and made available for research through the Galveston and Texas History Center’s website.