September 4, 2000
Buckner rushed to aid Galveston,
took 100 orphans into his care
___By Toby Druin
___Editor Emeritus
___GALVESTON--Millions wrung their hands in despair when they heard of the hurricane that devastated Galveston and the surrounding Texas Gulf Coast Sept. 8, 1900. But 67-year-old R.C. Buckner got on a train in a blinding rainstorm spawned by the storm to go to the coast to help.
___Buckner, founder of Buckner Orphan's Home in Dallas, in three days made his way to and through the devastation of Galveston and brought back to Dallas--some of the way on horse-drawn wagons--more than 100 bereft children, most of them from the shattered Galveston Orphan's Home.
R.C. BUCKNER
___The tireless Buckner was in Durant, Okla.--then called Indian Territory--attending a meeting to establish a joint work between Northern and Southern Baptists when the hurricane struck Galveston.
___In a letter published in the Baptist Standard's Sept. 20 issue, he said the representatives in Durant were able to complete their work by midnight on the night of the storm, and he left early the next morning on the first train, fearful that any delay would prohibit travel.
___They encountered a "great rain storm" at Denison, he wrote, and later the train was so rocked by the wind that it was stopped for repairs. Finally reaching Dallas "in a terrible downpour," he checked to see if he was needed at the orphanage before boarding a train for Houston.
___In Houston, Buckner found First Baptist Church in ruins and was told that no one could leave for Galveston without a pass. "The excitement was wonderful," he wrote.
___He was refused a pass but called the city attorney to explain his mission of mercy, and approval was quickly given by the mayor.
___Hundreds were on the train, he said, including an Army general on his way to enforce martial law and a reporter from the Dallas Morning News. The train was stopped miles from Galveston, however, because the track was covered with silt and debris. Passengers were ordered off the train by a general named Mabry, who was in command, and told to get a spade and help clear the track.
___Buckner, who knew Gen. Mabry, explained what he was doing and with a companion named Saunders was permitted to go on toward Galveston. They hitched a ride on a farm wagon and rode it for six miles through "briny slush," seated on the end of a plank, Buckner said. "It could not be called a comfortable seat," he added.
___Stopping at the edge of Galveston Bay, they encountered a sea captain who was searching for his son, who had been out in a boat when the storm struck. They were taken to his ship in the bay and then on to Galveston.
___Along the way, Buckner wrote, they passed dead cattle, parts of houses, furniture, broken small boats and a large dredge boat that had been swept miles onto a prairie.
___In Galveston, he said, they climbed over fallen wharf sheds and tangled timbers to 23rd Street.
___"Behind us," he wrote, "they were burning human corpses. Before us were ruined business houses and drifted lumber from many others. Stacks of burst sacks of coffee, potatoes, onions, fruit, everything. A stench that called for courageous lungs and stomachs."
___Contacting the mayor and officers of a relief committee, Buckner said, "I am here to help suffering, distressed humanity, and besides to throw the doors of Buckner Orphan's Home open to 100 of your orphans." He later said he would take an additional 26 crippled children into the home's Children's Hospital.
___The same Sept. 20 issue of the Baptist Standard carried a clipping from the Galveston News about Buckner's visit to the city:
___"No man has been busier comforting the grief-stricken people than Dr. R.C. Buckner of the Buckner Orphan's Home in Dallas County. He leaves Thursday morning for his institution with the homeless orphans of the Galveston Orphan's Home, which was wrecked by the storm. ... What a grand old man Dr. Buckner is! I will take off my hat to him any day in the week. I have known him for years, and there is not a nobler character alive.
___"The people of Texas ought to know what he has done," the article continued. "They have always loved the Buckner Home. ... But Texas will have greater cause than ever to love and revere Dr. Buckner and his institution when it is known that he has added to his family a hundred hapless victims of the Galveston storm, making in all 400 in his entire family."
___The quick delivery of the orphans to him cut short his visit to Galveston, Buckner explained, although he participated in many other acts of mercy during the three days he was there. He had planned other relief efforts but had to get the orphans to Dallas.
___They first were placed on a boat, which ran aground. The children were transferred to lifeboats, which "caused no little excitement among some of the children," some of whom had survived being washed away in the floodwaters.
___Buckner's letter to the Standard was written after he had safely gotten the children to Dallas. Later, he went back for others.
___
___
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
